LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - North American squad Evil Geniuses bested APAC side Paper Rex 3-1 in an enthralling final at VALORANT Champions 2023.
Christine ‘Potter’ Chi became the first female coach in a mixed esports team to lead her team to a world title. Behind the monstrous performances of Alexander ‘jawgemo’ Mor and Max ‘Demon1’ Mazanov, Evil Geniuses were on a rampage against Paper Rex.
Evil Geniuses managed to best Paper Rex despite their two-map ban advantage taking out Haven and Fracture after the APAC team secured the Grand Final slot via the Upper Bracket.
The first game of the series went to Paper Rex’s map pick of Split. Known to be a good Raze map for star player Wang Jing ‘Jinggg’ Jie, Paper Rex wanted to take control early with an 8-4 first half.
But Evil Geniuses continued their villain arc in VALORANT as they played spoilers with a stellar second half. Demon1 and jawgemo took control of the map with 10 first bloods among them to put Paper Rex on the back foot. Evil Geniuses took Split 13-10.
Ascent was Evil Geniuses’ map pick in the second game of the series. Ilya ‘something’ Petrov’s Reyna finally came alive in the series with an ACS of 275 and a whopping 37% headshot percentage in the series while Jinggg’s Raze had a crazy 10 first bloods. It was a wild map that went back and forth but Paper Rex closed it out at 13-11 to tie the series up.
With Paper Rex’s map pick of Bind, they were hoping to throw a curveball at Evil Geniuses with a Breach for something and Jason ‘f0rsaken’ Susanto’s Yoru. The picks backfired greatly for Paper Rex as Evil Geniuses were more than prepared for it. Jawgemo was up to his usual Raze antics and Corbin ‘C0M’ Lee’s was just absolutely cold blooded in his clutches. Evil Geniuses took a 2-1 lead in the series after a dominating 13-5 map.
Closing the series
Evil Geniuses were looking to close things out with their map pick of Lotus. Jawgemo and Demon1 (this time on an Astra) once again dictated the tempo of the map for Evil Geniuses. Jawgemo easily outdueled Jinggg in their Raze matchup and Paper Rex were hard pressed to make anything happen.
Something’s consistency on the Jett was also lacking in Lotus which Paper Rex sorely missed. While Paper Rex fought back in the end, Evil Geniuses earned a well-earned 13-10 map to secure their first ever world title in VALORANT.
Evil Geniuses will be a staple in North American VALORANT for many years to come with this victory with their young core. Unfortunately for Paper Rex fans, this will be Jingg’s last tournament in the foreseeable future after committing to his two years of military service for Singapore. He will surely be missed for his entertaining playstyle.
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