Paper Rex are one of the four High Seed teams at the tournament. Can something make it to Tokyo in time?
Paper Rex Benkai will not be competing at VCT Masters Tokyo having been benched days before the tournament. Replacing him on the team is Ilya "something" Petrov, who has been playing with the squad for nearly a month in the Regional League. In the pre-event press conference, Paper Rex coach, Alexandre "alecks" Sallé shared his thoughts on the reason for benching Benkai.
On Benkai’s benching
Paper Rex benched Benkai earlier this month but it wasn't something completely unexpected. Ilya "something" Petrov has been playing with the team in the VCT Pacific League and Paper Rex were the Pacific Regional League champions. The team's coach, alecks, shed some light on the team’s decision to bench Benkai.
"It wasn’t really about the improvement. When something joined the team and we were running a six-man, seven-man roster it was really hard to get the synergy going. Even in practice, we saw a dropoff in performance. And eventually, we had to decide on the playing five. And since we had to play with something, someone had to go. It’s more like a role clash kind of issue. Right now, Benkai is a Sentinels-kind of role for Paper Rex, and D4v14 and Forsaken have both been playing very very well. So it was kind of a no-brainer that we had to put him in the backseat. If someone else plays a little bit worse, then maybe we will consider it."
When something joined the team and we were running a six-man, seven-man roster it was really hard to get the synergy going. Even in practice, we saw a dropoff in performance. And eventually, we had to decide on the playing five.
Something was initially brought on to be a part of a rotating roster that would foster Paper Rex's creativity and strategies. However, as they got closer to Tokyo Masters, the team decided to prioritize stability with a core group of five.
"Paper Rex’s initial idea was to have rotating roles and agent compositions for different maps—an exercise to experiment and promote creativity. Over the course of the VCT Pacific league, the Paper Rex team decided that roster stability was more crucial to successful outcomes," read the Paper Rex announcement on June 4.
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Something or Cigarettes - Paper Rex is prepared for any eventuality
In their statement announcing Benkai’s benching, Paper Rex acknowledged the fact that something’s visa processing might make him unable to compete at Tokyo. They are still hopeful that with Riot’s help, something might still make it in time for the first match. But in case something fails to make it to Tokyo in time, Paper Rex will use Patiphan ‘CGRS’ Posri as a substitute.
With a shadow of doubt over something’s availability for VCT Masters Tokyo, Paper Rex will also need to role changes while bringing in Cigarettes to replace something. Forsaken said he might go back to the Duelist role on the team in such a case.
Mostly I think if something is not here, I will be taking his role back as the Duelist (on the team).
Paper Rex come into VCT Masters Tokyo as one of the four High Seed teams. This means they will compete directly in the playoffs starting on June 16. While we won’t see any Benkai stage walkout, fans can still expect the explosive Paper Rex style gameplay in Japan
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