Paper Rex and the Rest of Group A Join the Action

It’s finally arrived, Valorant Champions. The 16 best Valorant teams in the world are all in Los Angeles, practiced and primed to compete for the biggest title in the 2023 season in competitive Valorant.

The final group to start their opening matches will be Group A, consisting of Edward Gaming, Giants Gaming, Krü Esports, and Paper Rex. It’s going to be a hard time for the Western teams in this group when they have to face two of the best teams from the East.

If you have paid any attention to the Chinese Esports scene, then the name Edward Gaming is familiar to you. The organization is a major player in the Chinese Scene, fielding some of the top squads in multiple games, including Valorant.

Edward Gaming’s run through the Chinese Qualifier is one to remember, as they dropped only a single game the whole tournament en route to a 1st place finish.

Edward Gaming showed that they were playing on a different level from their opening match when they took down Team Weibo in a dominant 2-0 match. Team Weibo was unable to score more than 7 points in either game. Edward Gaming continued their brutal run, decimating TYLOO, winning all three maps with 13-6, 13-2, and 13-4 score lines.

In the Upper Bracket Final, Bilibili showed their potential to be dangerous to Edward Gaming, getting the closest anyone had gotten to take a map off of them in Game 2, which ended 13-10. Despite Bilibili’s best efforts, Edward Gaming would win 3-0.

Edward Gaming would meet Bilibili Gaming again in the Grand Final, and despite Bilibili Gaming being able to take a game off Edward Gaming, it still was an easy win for Edward Gaming.

They would take the momentum from the domestic success to a decent showing at Masters Tokyo, making it to the Playoffs Stage. They ultimately were eliminated by Paper Rex in that tournament, so you can expect them to want a little revenge headed into this tournament.

Paper Rex is the fan favorite from the Pacific League that can constantly show up in big moments.

They finished the regular season 7-2, which gave them the 2nd seed in the Pacific League playoffs, where they took full advantage of their seeding and made a crazy run through the Upper Bracket. In the Grand Final, they’d find themselves locked horns with DRX.

Ultimately, Paper Rex would sneak out the victory 3-2. At Masters, Tokyo Paper Rex would suffer an early loss to Fnatic before making an impressive run through the lower bracket taking down Edward Gaming and NRG en route to a 3rd place finish.

Krü Esports is just happy for the chance to get to play in the world’s biggest Valorant tournament after having one of the weirdest years of any team at Champions. Krü finished the regular season with a 0-9 record, the worst in the Americas League.

In the Last Chance Qualifier, they took down MIBR, FURIA Esports, Leviatan, Cloud9, and Leviatan again to get the shot to represent the Americas League in Los Angeles. They’ll be overlooked coming into this tournament, but history has proven that Krü Esports won’t be bothered by that.

Giants Gaming ended the EMEA Regular Season in 4th place however suffered a quick exit from the Playoffs after back-to-back 0-2 matches. In the Last Chance, Qualifier Giants Gaming didn’t drop a single map beating Karmin Corp 2-0, KOI 2-0, and Natus Vincere 3-0.

Look for them to carry that momentum with them into the Champions.