Paper Rex is an esports organization based in Singapore. The organization was co-founded in January 2020 by Harley "dsn" Örwall, Nikhil "nikH" Hathiramani, Matthew Djojonegoro and Gad Tan. The organisation is mainly known for their Valorant division, being announced as one of the pioneer franchises in Valorant's premier competition, VCT 2023.[1]
History
Paper Rex was founded in January 2020 by Harley "dsn" Örwall, an ex-professional Counter-Strike player and Nikhil "nikH" Hathiramani, the founder and chief editor of CSGO2ASIA, Matthew Djojonegoro, a video game designer and team manager, and Gad Tan, a creative director who graduated from the University of New South Wales.[2][3] The team uses the Dreamcore Dream Centre, a 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) esports, entertainment hub, and retail store located in Singapore, to house their training centre and management staff.[4]
Valorant
History
Paper Rex moved into Valorant with their first roster on 19 July 2120, acquiring members of the Singaporean team Vindicta. The team would undergo multiple roster changes before letting go of every player, with the last two players being benched on 5 February.
On 8 February, Paper Rex started their 2021 season by announcing the move of their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster into Valorant, a team consisting of Kumaresan "Tommy" Ramani, Aaron "mindfreak" Leonhart, Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto, Benedict "Benkai" Tan, Jorell "Retla" Teo and Khalish "d4v41" Rusyaidee and Alex "alecks" Salle as their coach.[5]
On 20 May 2021, Paper Rex announced the departure of Tommy. On 21 May 2021, just a day later, Paper Rex announced the signing of Zhan Teng "shiba" Toh. Paper Rex would go on to place 2nd in the Southeast Asia Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs, qualifying for VCT Masters 2 Berlin and placing 13th – 15th.[6]
On 28 September 2021, Paper Rex announced the signing of Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie, moving shiba to a substitute position due to his compulsory military service.[7]
They started the 2022 season by placing 1st in MY/SG Stage 1 Challengers and the APAC Stage 1 Challengers, qualifying for Masters Reykjavík as the top seeded team for the APAC region, where they placed 4th, their then-record high placing in an international event.[8][9] Paper Rex would go on to repeat their domestic record in the next stage, placing 1st for MY/SG Stage 2 Challengers and APAC Stage 2 Challengers. This qualified them for Masters Copenhagen, where they placed 2nd behind FunPlus Phoenix, and were the first Asian (and APAC) team to reach the Grand Finals, surpassing their previous achievement and recording their highest placing in an international event thus far.[10][11] Paper Rex qualified for Valorant Champions 2022[12] in Istanbul, Turkey but would fail to get out of group stage and placed 9th – 12th.[13] On 21 September 2022, Riot Games announced that Paper Rex were selected to be one of the 30 franchise teams for VCT 2023.[14][15] PRX won the Valorant India Invitational 2022.[16]
On 22 March 2023, midway through the VCT Pacific season in Seoul, Paper Rex signed Ilya "something" Petrov, a Russian player who previously played for Sengoku Gaming.[17]
Paper Rex qualified for Masters Tokyo and Champions Los Angeles after taking down T1 on 20 May 2023 in the upper semi-finals. The team then went on to win VCT Pacific on 28 May 2023, beating DRX 3-2 with a reverse sweep.[18] Shortly after finishing first in the VCT Pacific League championship, Paper Rex announced their decision to make newly signed player Iylia "something" Petrov permanent by moving their In-Game Leader, Benedict "Benkai" Tan, to an inactive position on the roster.[19]
During VCT Masters Tokyo 2023, the team had to call upon their substitute player Patiphan "CGRS" Posri as Ilya "Something" Petrov was unable to secure a visa to participate in the tournament. The team achieved third place despite not having their usual roster, falling to Evil Geniuses in the lower finals (3-2). [20][21]
The team attended 2023 Valorant Champions with their full roster, and managed to attain 2nd place, after falling to Evil Geniuses in the grand finals (3-1).
During the aforementioned Champions event, after Paper Rex's 2-1 victory over LOUD, Round Up Gamers interviewed Coach Alex "alecks" Salle, who revealed that Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie would be departing the roster for the 2024 season due to his compulsory military service.[22] He was subsequently moved to the substitute position following the conclusion of Champions.
On 11 September 2023, Paper Rex announced via social media that Patiphan "CGRS" Posri did not renew his contract and would be 'departing Paper Rex to pursue new endeavors'.[23] On 16 September, just 5 days after the announcement of CGRS' departure, Paper Rex announced the addition of Cahya "monyet" Nugraha to the Valorant team to replace Jinggg,[24] who will not be able to compete in 2024 to serve National service in Singapore.[25][26] On the same day, Paper Rex also announced the departure of Benkai.[27]
Paper Rex qualified to Masters Madrid after taking down T1 in the VCT 2024: Pacific Kickoffs Semifinals with a 2-0 score. However, they would lose to Gen.G with a 1-3 score in the Grand Final.[28] In Masters Madrid, Paper Rex came in third after losing 1-3 to Sentinels in the Lower Grand Finals.
Paper Rex announced on 29 March 2024 that Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie will be able to participate in further tournaments due to him being medically unfit for military service. As a result, Cahya "Monyet" Nugraha has been moved to the substitute role. [29]
During VCT Pacific Stage 1, Paper Rex placed second in their group and qualified for the playoffs. They managed to come in victorious during the VCT Pacific Stage 1 Grand Finals against Gen.G, representing the Pacific Region as the first seed for Masters Shanghai. They finished 5th-6th in Masters Shanghai, after losing 1-2 to 100 Thieves in the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals.
In VCT Pacific Stage 2, Paper Rex finished with a 9-1 record in the Group Omega, placing them first in the standings and earning a bye in the playoffs. They qualified for VCT Champions 2024 after beating out Talon Esports 2-0 in the playoffs. They finished 3rd place in VCT Pacific, following a shocking 2-3 reverse sweep by DRX in the lower bracket final.[citation needed]
In the VCT Champions 2024 group stage, Paper Rex were met with an early loss to G2, an opponent they previously lost to in Masters Shanghai. In the lower bracket, they defeated FUT Esports, but were then sent home by EDward Gaming, making this the first international event since LOCK//IN 2023 in which Paper Rex did not qualify to playoffs.
