Note: This article is a text summary of the Paper Rex vs. FUT Esports post-match press conference. The full video press conference can be found here.

From your point of view, what do you think were the biggest obstacles that this team faced against Paper Rex?

MrFaliN: "I think the main part was that we were unable to close out Sunset. If we had been able to close out the first map, we might have gone into the second map with a different attitude. We lost a critical round when it was 11-9 in our favor in the first map. We made some questionable calls, and after that, the voices of the team kind of shut off. Everybody felt a bit silent, and starting off Bind in an unfavorable way also built up that frustration, which is why I think we lost the match."

How does yetujey reflect upon his first year in the VCT, and what are your main takeaways?

yetujey: "First of all, no matter the result, I believe that we've come quite a few ways as a team. Both personally and as a team, I can say that I am satisfied. I would have hoped to have won Champions and advance even further, but I hope that it'll be an even stronger year personally and as a team in 2025."

What was the main cause behind the team kind of falling off, especially at the very end of map one? Additionally, what was your reasoning behind choosing Sunset, knowing that PRX is a strong team on the map?

Gais: "Our reason behind Sunset was that before we came to Champions, we decided on a map pool of three maps: Lotus, Sunset, and Ascent. For Lotus, we selected it and lost the map in our first match while playing Lotus, which led to a loss of confidence for us on the map, so we went into Sunset. We knew that they were going to ban Ascent, which is the reason for our map pool. The reason we fell off towards the end of Sunset happened previously in our previous matches as well, such as against Heretics. We have been searching for the reason behind this late-game drop, but we haven't found it yet. Sometimes towards the end of matches, we tend to lose our grip on the game. We don't really have a chill player who can lead the rest, which causes us to fall apart towards the end of maps. cal moments. We as a team don't exactly have a high game sense compared to some of the other teams. We are in a sense behind because of that, so we have to offset that. We have to make up for that by studying and practicing really hard. As for another reason, we ended Shanghai in the top eight. Had we finished with a worse result, we would have maybe found some of the reasons why we were falling apart as a team, and then we could have practiced harder and more efficiently. Since we had a favorable result in Shanghai, it played against us for Champions."

What are your thoughts on the season overall? You made it to Shanghai, reached the playoffs there, and reached Champions off of a pretty decent EMEA season. What are some of the biggest takeaways, both good and bad, that you've had within the team? How has the team has progressed throughout 2024?

cNed: "To be honest, I think we deserved to compete at Madrid. We lost to both Madrid teams in the group stage in pretty close games. I think not making Madrid was a good thing because it made us realize how much we needed to work on. When we missed out on Madrid, we understood that we had to work a lot harder. When EMEA Stage 1 started, we realized that we are not actually that deep. Maybe it was better for us not to advance out of the group stage in Shanghai because if we didn't manage to make it out, we would just work a lot and fix our main issues and it would be a lesson for us. Then, Stage 2 started and everyone was expecting us to possibly be EMEA champions. After the group stage, we lost both games in Playoffs and came to Champions and lost both games again. These four games were really close. The biggest takeaway for me is that we need to perform better in stressful and crucial situations."