Evil Geniuses and Paper Rex will clash on Saturday, June 24, in the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2023 Masters Tokyo lower-bracket final. Two underdogs who defied all the odds, these teams are now just one series away from facing Fnatic in the final.

Paper Rex entered the tournament as the VCT Pacific League champions but were billed as one of the outsiders with their star player, Ilya “something” Petrov, not able to travel to Tokyo. Still, the Singaporean outfit proved all the doubters wrong by eliminating NRG Esports (2-1), EDward Gaming (2-1), and DRX (2-0) from the event.

Evil Geniuses weren’t expected to achieve much in Tokyo either, but they didn’t need long to prove the sceptics wrong. After finishing Group B with a perfect 2-0 record, the North American team kept the momentum going and defeated LOUD (2-0) and Team Liquid (2-1). Their only loss so far happened on Wednesday, when Evil Geniuses had to admit defeat to Fnatic (1-2), but they performed admirably and came just two rounds short of winning the series.

Paper Rex have looked incredible so far, but beating Evil Geniuses might be too much to ask from them. Addison “zecK” Gorzeck’s charges have shown immense improvement throughout the tournament, and if their close series against Fnatic is any indication, EG should be able to close out this series in two maps.

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