Paper Rex defeats Fnatic to claim VALORANT Masters Toronto trophy

VCT Pacific’s Paper Rex (PRX) has become the VALORANT Masters Toronto champion with an impressive 3-1 victory over EMEA’s Fnatic.

Track by track, the roster navigated throughout the Playoffs and Grand Final to break the PRX second-place curse and win its first international trophy.

Hailing from the upper Playoffs bracket, PRX had map veto advantage coming into the Grand Final. The team banned Haven and Ascent and instead took Fnatic to one of its best maps, Sunset. Given Fnatic’s previous struggles on this map, the EMAE roster gave fans a surprisingly competent performance today, starting with a pistol-round win on defence.

Still, Fnatic’s lack of practice and comfort became evident when PRX adjusted to its opponent’s fast flanks to win eight consecutive rounds on attack. The second half saw Fnatic secure the second pistol and find success with its slow prodding across the map. However, PRX denied its rival from reaching overtime with an aggressive Sage wall strategy (13-11).

Throughout both halves on Sunset, f0rsaken contributed massively to his team’s success. He was at the top of PRX’s leaderboard in terms of numbers but also consistently achieved high-impact hero plays.

On Icebox, it was Kajetan ‘kaajak’ Haremski’s turn to step up after a quiet first map. His 11 opening picks helped Fnatic recover from a challenged first half on attack (6-6), where PRX won the first four rounds. On top of that, the Pacific team looked well-prepared for Fnatic’s Sage shenanigans.

In the second half, this was not enough to deny Fnatic’s repeated post-plant retakes. In addition to the Sage wall, PRX had to deal with kaajak’s deadly Operator sightlines. Brought to map point, the train decided to play into its strengths – explosive and fast site hits. For five consecutive rounds, Fnatic failed to adapt to the change of pace and was forced into overtime.

The map then came down to micro-decisions, with both teams delivering hero plays and questionable moves. After a few whiffs and misclicks under increasing pressure, kaajak once again bailed out his team to even out the match score (17-15).

The series continued in a back-and-forth fashion when Fnatic had an unexpectedly solid performance on its perma-ban, Pearl. Confident plays from Emir ‘Alfajer’ Beder on Neon were PRX’s kryptonite in the first half. Despite smart utility usage from the Pacific roster, Fnatic concluded its attack half with a 7-5 lead.

Backed by two successful pistol rounds, it seemed like an EMEA team could actually take Pearl in an international match-up. However, PRX showcased superior macro plays to overwhelm Fnatic’s defences round after round. While Alfajer had a quieter second half, Wang ‘Jinggg’ Jing Jie dominated his opponents with creative Judge plays. PRX crushed the hopes of EMEA fans by stealing Pearl 13-10.

Historically a strong map for both teams, Lotus began chaotically with PRX winning the initial pistol, followed by a thrifty win from Fnatic. Afterwards, PRX gained back control through a proactive defence and a firm C-mount. Uncanny for the slowest attacking team in the tournament, Fnatic was most successful when borrowing fast-paced site hits from its opponent’s strat book.

After an underwhelming 5-7 half, Fnatic had to take another pistol round to even out the map score. But that was not enough to stop the PRX train from accelerating to full speed on its course towards its first international trophy. Fearless yet never undisciplined, PRX claimed match point on attack. In Fnatic’s final hour, its players came to life with hero plays and outrageous aim duels to force another overtime.

This time, the PRX train did not run out of steam and, instead, swiftly dealt with the additional detour. In classic PRX fashion, the Pacific team won a 2-versus-four round in the post-plant to conclude Lotus (14-12).

Recording a combined kill-death ratio of 81/75 and a 223 average combat score (ACS), f0rsaken was awarded the Masters Toronto MVP title and bracelet.

With Masters Toronto concluded, the VALORANT Champions Tour is heading towards its final regional tournaments of the 2025 season. Beginning next month, VCT Stage 2 will offer teams across the globe a final entryway into the season-ending international competition, VALORANT Champions.