The road to the Grand Finals of VCT Champions Paris 2025 is fierce, with NRG taking the first spot, FNATIC awaiting the winner between DRX and Paper Rex.
Both have faced each other many times before, especially in VCT Pacific, but this match is the final time we will see these two Pacific teams battle this season.
Paper Rex and DRX have reached the top of the Pacific mountain and internationally, but now with only one spot left in the losers' and grand finals, only one of them will enter the top three.
DRX would start the match with he first map pick and choose Ascent, a map they’ve found a lot of success in this season with a 9-2 record and an 82 per cent win rate, making it one of their strongest maps.
DRX would choose to start on the attacking side, leaving Paper Rex on the defensive side, which proved to work well for Paper Rex.
They would get a 9-3 lead in the first half, not allowing any spikes to be planted and spent the entire half playing for picks.
Paper Rex’s Jinggg was leading at the half with 21 kills, 7 deaths and 2 assists.
In the second half, DRX would pick up the pace and start to quickly build momentum to build a comeback after switching to the defensive side.
DRX would go on a 9-3 run and tie up map one, pushing it to overtime.
In overtime, it wasn’t a fight for map control or for spike, it was just a battle, war, no objective other than to win by elimination.
Ultimately, DRX would be the one to wipe out Paper Rex and would win 15-13 with HYUNMIN taking map MVP with 36 kills, 19 deaths and a single assist.
With Paper Rex, unable to capitalize in overtime, they would move to map two, where they would get to choose which map they would get to play on.
Paper Rex would choose Lotus as map two, historically their favourite map to play on.
Paper Rex would start on the defensive side, but that soon would end up being a mistake, as DRX would start on the offensive side and would beat Paper Rex in the first half with a score of 7-5.
DRX’s BeYN would lead in the half with 11 kills, 6 deaths and a single assist.
Both teams would switch sides in the second half, but the switch wouldn’t do anything as DRX's lead kept growing and expanding, eventually leading them to secure the win with 13-8.
DRX In-Game Lead (IGL) MaKo would take map MVP with 17 kills, 8 deaths and 14 assists, but HYUNMIN would take match MVP with 55 kills, 32 deaths and 4 assists.
With that win, DRX would meet FNATIC in the losers’ final to determine the team to face NRG in the Grand Finals, but with Paper Rex’s loss, the VCT Masters of Toronto ended their season in fourth place.