This Sunday, North America’s reign over Valorant came to an end. European representative FunPlus Phoenix entered the grand final as an underdog to take on defending Asia-Pacific champion Paper Rex on the Forum Copenhagen (Denmark) stage with an audience of 10,000.
Tricky start for Paper Rex
It was Valorant’s first major final to be played in front of an audience since the game’s creation in 2020. For the event, the public was treated to an extremely hooked final, full of twists and spectacular strategies. Arriving as the favorite in the match, Paper Rex was slow to find their rhythm, playing in front of a European audience largely in favor of their opponent (FPX opening the scoring on 11 rounds won in a row).
But once launched on the second map, the Indonesian team regained confidence. She applied creative, often aggressive strategies that caught FPX off guard. The Europeans thus conceded two points to their opponents, struggling to find effective answers. Everything was played out in a high-tension round on Breeze, where both teams spent all their resources to take the advantage, sometimes to excess. But Ukrainian Kyrylo “ANGE1” Karasov’s team was able to adjust to the frenetic pace of the Asians and regain control of the game, to finally triumph with the score of 13 to 9.
Participation in the Mondial confirmed
For FPX, this first international trophy is like a revenge. After missing the first Major of the year in Reykjavik (Iceland) because of visa problems for its two Russian players Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky and Dmitry “SUYGETSU” Ilyushin, doubt still hung over their participation in this Major there. a few weeks. It was at the last moment that the latter were authorized to fly to Copenhagen to play in the international tournament.
As a consolation, Paper Rex earned its place at the Worlds thanks to the circuit points allocated by its performance. A ticket that FPX also obtained by its victory. The world championship, called Valorant Champions, will start on September 2 in Istanbul (Turkey).
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