The second week of Champions Paris groups is upon us. The first two days will be dedicated to the winner's matches, with the next four moving on to the lower bracket to decide the second-best teams from each group.

The first teams fighting for a playoffs spot were Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 PatMen Patrick Mendoza Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov and GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #9 Cloud Kirill Nehozhin grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George . On one hand, the Pacific's golden boys who looked hot in a 2-0 victory over China's Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #2 Viva Lifan Ran (冉立凡) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) . On the other, EMEA's “Cinderella”, the second regional seed which — after a rough two and a half years in the VCT — made a deep run in Stage 2 earlier this year and showed up in a convincing 2-1 over Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #5 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid just a few days ago.

The day was Paper Rex's to seize. GIANTX came back from a 9-7 deficit to take their Ascent pick 13-11, but that only spurred their opponents on. PRX shifted into a different gear on Lotus and Sunset, maps they won 13-10 and 13-6 to seal their place in the playoffs.

PatMen celebrates on stage (Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games)

It should come as no surprise to see Paper Rex on top of their group. Ever since Masters Copenhagen back in 2022, with a few minor exceptions along the way, the team has been a consistent title contender and regional titan.

But even so — funnily enough — this is only the second time in their history that Paper Rex have made it out of the group stage with the top seed. The only other time was Champions two years ago; not even at Masters Toronto, their first and only LAN win so far, did the team place first.

Even still, PRX's tranquil 2-1 over GIANTX may be a sign that the tides have changed. They have been a different team since PatMen was picked up back in March, but it was something who led the charge today with a 1.26 rating and a blistering +26 kill differential overall.

Not only did he lead in many stats, he brilliantly set up one of the most stunning rounds of the match. It's also a contender for one of the fastest rounds at Champions and, perhaps, all of the VCT.

As soon as round 12 of Lotus began, something threw a flash to C Main. It blinded three of GIANTX's players just in time for Jinggg to show up over the wall and gun them down. The remaining members of the EMEA side swung from B in reaction, but were equally killed and the round was over in about eight seconds.

This is pure Paper Rex gameplay right here.

That round symbolizes perfectly not only how PRX plays, but how easily they seemed to adapt throughout the game to make up for their loss on Ascent in the beginning of the match.

GIANTX's victory on that map was a rough hit for the Pacific champions and a reminder that Ascent maybe isn't their map. It was the eighth time PRX lost on the map this year, and one of their worst performances statistically since the semifinals of the EWC in July, where they lost 13-3 to FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder also on Ascent.

In contrast, it was one of GIANTX's and specifically ara 's best performances. With Jett, the Romanian player pieced together a sweltering 25 kills, which also gave him a +12 differential and 189 ADR. something later topped that rating on Sunset, where he picked up Sova for a 1.59 rating.

He was equally consistent on Lotus, paving the way for him to finish at the top of the board. Meanwhile, ara's lackluster performances on the maps his team lost humbled him from his 1.54 Ascent rating to a 1.03 rating across the match.

Paper Rex were up by two rounds, by the way.

Paper Rex isn't a team known for its group stages, as mentioned above. But the one time they did make it out of a group in first place — that Champions run two years ago — was one of their best performances internationally.

After beating KRÜ Esports KRÜ Esports Latin America South Rank #2 keznit Angelo Mori Dantedeu5 Jesús Federico Larrosa Mazino Roberto Rivas and EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #3 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Jieni7 Zhang Juntai (张君泰) in groups, they went on to smash FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #22 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak qRaxs Doğukan Balaban , LOUD LOUD Brazil Rank #8 lukxo Lucca Travaioli Virtyy Leandro Moreno RobbieBk Robbie Boerkamp pANcada Bryan Luna cauanzin Cauan Pereira , and Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Rank #18 Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le icy Jacob Lange yay Jaccob Whiteaker on the way to the Champions grand final. Unfortunately, the stars aligned just right for the American squad and EG ended up snatching that trophy.

Now, two years down the line, one question beckons: is there a “2025 Evil Geniuses”? With Paper Rex looking atop their form as they did in 2023, can any team do what EG in 2025 and defeat the odds?

Can anyone go against the grain and take down the best team of the Pacific, maybe the world?