IT WAS sweet revenge for Pinoy Squad Bren Esports, as they swept Singaporean rivals Paper Rex, 3-0, to cap their Cinderella run at the VCT SEA Stage 3 Challengers.
The squad, composed of Jessie “JessieVash” Cuyco, Jayvee “DubsteP” Paguirigan, Jim “BORKUM” Timbreza, Kevin “Dispenser” Te, and Riley “witz” Go, will take home $25,000 (more than P1.2 million) and as well as a spot in the upcoming Valorant Masters in Berlin.
“We really respect these guys, they play their tactics really well, their utilities. They could be the meta for Southeast Asia if you ask me. Huge respect to Paper Rex, and I hope we can continue to show our performance coming into berlin since both SEA teams would be in the same group,” said Paguirigan in the postgame panel.
Bren Esports Valorant comes back from first Paper Rex defeat
The sweep was also the Pinoy’s first win against Paper Rex, who eliminated them in Stage 2 playoffs, and sent them to the playoffs lower bracket the night before.
Bren won hard-fought overtimes in their map pick Bind and Paper Rex’s Split.
The momentum was with the Pinoys going into Ice Box, winning the first four rounds. But a fifth and sixth-round Paper Rex win evened out the economy. Bren would prevent a total collapse by taking the seventh round before closing out the half at 9-3.
After the switch, the Singaporean squad seemed poised to take the first three rounds, but a clutch from JessieVash and Dispenser in Site A ensured the game wouldn’t go out of hand for the Pinoys.
Paper Rex would take revenge in the following round, but Bren’s eco-win immediately after crashed the Singaporean squad’s economy, propelling Bren to a 13-6 finish.
“Yesterday’s game on Ice Box we made our own little mistakes. We reviewed the demos last night and we talked about what happened in the game, why did they come back. So after talking to the team I just feel we fixed it as a team,” DubsteP added.
Prior to winning the finals, Bren secured their Berlin ticket earlier in the day after sweeping (2-0) Indonesian squad Alter Ego in the lower bracket finals.
Being part of the upcoming Masters, both Bren and Paper Rex are guaranteed 175 circuit points. Both squads are tied for second in the SEA leaderboards, and a good result in Berlin can secure one of the two teams a spot for the world championship in November.
Fellow Pinoy teams Galaxy Racer and Oasis Gaming failed to make it past the group stage in Challengers 3 after suffering tough losses in their groups. The two teams are now out of the running in the battle for a championship slot.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
