The decider game of Group A saw two of the most storied Pacific rosters - Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov and DRX DRX Korea Rank #7 Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) Athan Na Ha-jun (나하준) freeing No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) - face off against each other for the fifth time this year. While DRX won the first encounter of 2023, PRX were able to defeat them the next three times, and have maintained their streak with their 2-0 victory today.

For Paper Rex, this was the first series they played without Jinggg , as the player will cease competing for the next two years due to Singaporean military obligations. Today was the first time the team's 2023 core - f0rsakeN , d4v41 , mindfreak , and something - along with their newest signed player Monyet , took the stage without Jinggg. DRX on the other hand has not made any roster changes during the off-season, although Foxy9 has not played a game in the event yet.

The map veto saw Paper Rex choose Lotus to be the first map of play. Starting on defense, Paper Rex would win the pistol and anti-eco, followed by f0rsakeN taking down all five players of DRX during their full-buy round, making it a costly victory for the Korean squad. Despite the early advantage, the first half went back and forth, eventually culminating in a 7-5 in PRX's favor.

Despite DRX being able to tie things up 7-7, Paper Rex demonstrated why they have not lost on the map till date to another Pacific team. They won six rounds in a row to take the map 13-7. Every player on the team had a positive kill differential, with the double-duelist combination of something on Jett and Monyet on Raze netting nine first kills together, more than all of DRX had put together. Mindfreak was the MVP of the map, with 20 kills and a ACS of 262 on the Omen.

Map two, DRX's pick brought Breeze to the table. Despite this being their opponent's pick, however, Paper Rex, starting on attack, dominated from the get-go. DRX were only able to win one round throughout the first half, as they had no answer to the double-duelist combination Paper Rex were running, with f0rsakeN on Yoru and something on Jett.

After swapping to attack, DRX were able to start stringing rounds together, but the 11-1 scoreline from the previous half was too much of a lead to surmount. Paper Rex eventually found the two remaining rounds necessary and closed out the map 13-7 and took the series 2-0, eliminating DRX.

For Paper Rex, it was once again the duelists on top, with f0rsakeN on the Yoru and something on Jett having a ACS of 315 and 300 respectively. They had a +21 kill differential put together and dominated the attacking side. Overall, something was the star for the Paper Rex side, with 41 kills over the two maps, eight first kills, and a ACS of 275.

The matches of group A have concluded, with Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #4 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid and Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #3 mindfreak Aaron Leonhart Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov being the two teams to qualify for the playoffs. Paper Rex will face off against the winners of T1 T1 Korea Rank #3 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-O (김태오) Sylvan Ko Young-sub (고영섭) BuZz Yu Byung-chul (유병철) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) vs Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak on December 9.