VALORANT - Champions 2025: Paper Rex, Aiming for Another International Title (13/16)

This year's Champions — VALORANT’s annual world championship — will be held in Paris from Sep 12 to Oct 5. To build up to the event, Sheep Esports is presenting one of the 16 qualified teams every day ahead of the tournament. This Monday, the countdown continues with the introduction of Paper Rex, VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Pacific’s 1st seed.

After a strong 2024 on the domestic stage (including a title), but shakier performances internationally, Paper Rex entered 2025 without making a single roster move, keeping faith in their historic lineup. At the start of the season, PRX were still chasing their first international trophy after several close calls: Champions 2023 (2nd), Masters Copenhagen 2022 (2nd), and Masters Tokyo and Madrid (3rd).

The year didn’t begin as planned. PRX finished 7th–8th at Kickoff, a disappointing result given their pedigree. In response, the team added Patrick “PatMen” Mendoza to create a six-man roster, giving them flexibility to rotate with Aaron “mindfreak” Leonhart.

The move paid off. Paper Rex finished 3rd in Stage 1, securing a ticket to Masters Toronto. There, PatMen was a full-time starter. After a 2–1 run in the Swiss Stage, the Grand (Paper) Rex went on a tear in playoffs, sweeping G2 Esports, Sentinels, and Wolves Esports 2–0 to reach yet another international final. Facing Fnatic, PRX finally broke their curse — and won their first-ever international title with a 3–1 victory.

The momentum carried into Stage 2. The team coached by Alexandre “alecks” Sallé topped their group at 4–1, then bulldozed through playoffs: T1 (2–0), Talon Esports (2–0), and Rex Regum Qeon (3–1) in the grand final. After those results, Paper Rex head into Champions as one of the clear favorites to lift the trophy.

Paper Rex’s title chances are further boosted by the Champions’ map pool. It includes four maps on which the Masters' champions have a positive win rate over the year: Bind (83% win rate over 6 games), Sunset (80% over 10 games), Lotus (78% over 23 games), and Haven (67% over 6 games).

However, there are still some questions for PRX, as the team has not played a single competitive game on the new map, Corrode, and has only played one game on Abyss, which they lost.

Although the map pool already favors them, the VCT Pacific champions are missing two of their best maps from the pool with the absence of Icebox (77% win rate over 13 games) and Fracture (71% win rate over 7 games).

Picking one player to spotlight on PRX is a challenge — the entire roster has been on fire in 2025. Some of them were really hitting their heights during Stage 2 such as Ilia “something” Petrov, who was just named MVP of the VCT Pacific. But if there’s one standout story, it’s the remarkable consistency of the team’s In-Game Leader, Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto, despite a major role swap.

Formerly a Duelist and famous as one of the world’s deadliest Jett, f0rsakeN transitioned into a new role and took on the task of IGL following roster changes at PRX. He recently became a Controller, and his performances have not disappointed, particularly on Omen. The Indonesian player has been very consistent throughout the season, ranking in the top 10 in several stats in each stage.

For example, in terms of Kill Assist Survive Trade% (KAST), he was fifth best at Kickoff with 78%. In Stage 1, he had the seventh-best Average Combat Score (ACS) with 226.1 and was tied for eighth place in the best K:D Ratio with 1.18. In Stage 2, he still had a good K:D with 1.12 (9th) and a KAST of 75% (4th). Even in other metrics where he didn’t crack the top 10, f0rsakeN consistently hovered between 11th and 15th, a proof of his reliability.

As PRX’s iconic leader, f0rsakeN will undoubtedly be one of the players to watch in Paris. But the truth is, the entire Paper Rex roster has been outstanding in 2025 — and they’ll be hungry to claim a second international title this year.