Evil Geniuses Evil Geniuses North America Unranked Derrek Derrek Ha NaturE Nicholas Garrison supamen Phat Le have eliminated Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Unranked mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov from Masters: Tokyo after five maps of play. Both teams have made Cinderella runs with Evil Geniuses propelled beyond expectations for the event while Paper Rex has been forced to play with substitute cgrs in Tokyo.

While Paper Rex's journey is the first to end, the Pacific champions can certainly be proud of their third-place finish.

“I tried my best,” said cgrs .

The substitute had several highlights throughout the series, despite the little time he had to practice with the team.

On the final map of the series, Ascent, cgrs made an incredible play in the pistol to steal the round for his team.

Alone in the backsite of B, cgrs was faced with three opponents at once. Ethan , jawgemo , and Demon1 made an effort to swarm the Thai player, however, they were quickly gunned down by cgrs' Ghost.

cgrs can be proud of his performance at Masters: Tokyo

While the individuals excelled for Paper Rex over the course of the tournament, the team struggled with a small map pool due to their limited practice with cgrs.

“We didn't have practice on Ascent… people playing too safe… it showed,” said Paper Rex coach alecks .

With EG's perma-ban of Bind being one of Paper Rex's stronger maps, the Pacific champions were destined to struggle in the best-of-five format.

Ascent, the decider, forced PRX to play an older composition that the team had used in the past. It was the first time they had played the map in Tokyo.

“It was plug and play,” said coach alecks.

Throughout the tournament, Paper Rex's individuals shined bright and this remained present for their series against EG. Jinggg and d4v41 both recorded greater than 1.30 ratings on their team's two map wins, with the former's performance being vital to closing out Lotus in overtime.

Jinggg in overtime won the map for his team

Evil Geniuses continued to impress on Fracture as the team remains undefeated on the map with a 5-0 record at Tokyo.

Demon1's performance so far in Tokyo has been relatively quiet as the Americas league superstar began to cool down at the international event. However, his performance on the first map of the series was red hot. With a 1.37 rating and a 68% headshot percentage, the American rolled over his competition.

With a minimum rating differential of +0.25 on EG's wins of Fracture, Pearl, and Ascent, Demon1 helped write history for his team.

Demon1 on stage with EG Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

EG's methodical and calculated team play continued to impress across the series as the in-game leading from Boostio seemed sharp. Even on the maps lost it was unlikely to see major fumbles from the Americans as they worked as a well-oiled machine.

Throughout their dominant wins on both Pearl and Ascent EG controlled the flow and pace of the match against a team that had become famous for their in-your-face style of play.

EG continued on a trend of winning pistols throughout the entirety of Masters: Tokyo. With a 6-4 pistol record in the series, EG's advantages early in games has been one of their most defining strengths.

Evil Geniuses preparing to enter the arena Photo by Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games

Evil Geniuses will rematch in the grand finals against FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder on Sunday, June 25. Their opponents will possess a two-map ban advantage in the best-of-five map veto as the upper-bracket victors.

Paper Rex has been eliminated in third place and will be seen next at Champions 2023.