VALORANT Pacific Kickoff: Paper Rex and Gen.G to face off in Grand Finals with victories over T1, DRX

Only two teams remain standing at the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) 2024 Pacific Kickoff after the action-packed Playoff semifinals on Saturday (24 February).

Singaporean juggernauts and VCT Champions 2023 runners-up Paper Rex and South Korean powerhouse Gen.G will be facing off in the tournament's Grand Finals after they scored sweeps over T1 and DRX, respectively. Both finalists have also automatically qualified for VCT Masters Madrid in March.

Paper Rex and Gen.G were in Group C at the Group Stage, where the Singaporean team came out on top after defeating Gen.G at the Winner’s Match. This automatically qualified Paper Rex for the Playoffs, while Gen.G was relegated to the Play-ins.

Meanwhile, T1 and DRX also automatically qualified for the Playoffs after earning the top seeds of Group A and B, respectively.

At the Play-ins, Gen.G defeated the Philippines' Team Secret in a close 2-1 match then swept Japan's ZETA DIVISION 2-0 to earn their spot in the Playoffs.

The first Playoff semifinals match saw Paper Rex take on T1 with the series opening on Split. While Paper Rex boldly pulled out a triple duelist composition, it was T1 that got off to a great start with an 8-4 lead by halftime.

However, the Singaporean team were able to quickly adjust and catch up to T1 in the second half, even taking the lead 9-8 after 17 rounds. From here, both teams fought tooth-and-nail to outplay each other, resulting in a 12-12 tie that forced the game into overtime.

But after a second overtime period, Paper Rex outlasted their opponents to claim the first map of the series with a 16-14 scoreline.

In the second game on Ascent, Paper Rex kept their momentum going and dominated T1 in the first half 8-4. T1 couldn't respond in the second half, only winning two more rounds and eventually allowing Paper Rex to close out the series with a 13-6 score.

Jason “f0rsaken” Susanto was notably named the match MVP with 21 kills and an ACS of 286 on 11 deaths.

In the second match of the day, Gen.G faced a fellow South Korean squad in DRX. Both teams came out swinging to start the series at Bind, where DRX held a 7-5 lead after the first half.

The second half was also quite close, with Gen.G catching up to DRX and eventually forcing the game to overtime. Gen.G pushed the momentum toward their favour and eventually won the first game 14-12.

In game two on Lotus, Gen.G took advantage of the momentum and the confidence they built from their first game win and swiftly took a 9-3 lead in the first half. While DRX kept fighting back after the side switch and won five rounds, they couldn't stop Gen.G from claiming the map win at 13-8 and securing the series sweep.

Kim "t3xture" Na-ra was named as the match MVP for his 28 kills and an ACS of 297 on 18 deaths.

DRX and T1 end their VCT Pacific Kickoff run in 3rd-4th place.

While both Paper Rex and Gen.G have already qualified for VCT Masters Madrid as the top two teams of VCT Pacific Kickoff, they will face each other at the Grand Finals on Sunday (25 February) at 3:00 PM Singapore Time.

Anna is a freelance writer and photographer. She is a gamer who loves RPGs and platformers, and is a League of Legends geek. She's also a food enthusiast who loves a good cup of black coffee.

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