Paper Rex could have to do without Valorant star Ilya ‘something’ Petrov at VCT Masters Tokyo on account of visa issues, it has been revealed.
In a Twitter post, the Singaporean organization revealed “there is a chance” that something will miss “the early part” of the VCT Masters Tokyo playoffs as his visa application process is still being reviewed.
Paper Rex stressed that they are “working tirelessly to expedite his travel documents” and are in constant communication with Riot Games in Korea and Japan to find a solution to this impasse.
“Paper Rex is hopeful that Ilia will join the team for the later part of the tournament, should the team make it deep into the playoffs,” the organization added.
Hello everyone, unfortunately there is a chance I might miss the Masters Tokyo, but we with PRX are doing everything we can to get me to play.
— something (@smthlikeyou11) June 4, 2023
The news comes as a blow for Paper Rex, who won the VCT Pacific League by beating DRX 3-2 in the final. With this victory, the team will go straight to the VCT Masters Tokyo playoffs, skipping the group stage.
This means that Paper Rex will not play in Tokyo until at least June 16, the day the playoff stage is scheduled to start.
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A rising star
something played a key role in Paper Rex’s championship run after joining the team in March from Sengoku Gaming, a Japanese Challengers side. He averaged a tournament-high 1.22 VLR rating and 1.37 K/D in the Pacific League, playing mostly on Jett but also on Breach and Reyna.
With the Russian star in doubt, Paper Rex have announced that Patiphan ‘CigaretteS’ Posri will be the team’s backup player in Tokyo. Benedict ‘Benkai’ Tan, who has been part of the team since February 2021, has been moved to the bench and will not be part of the team for VCT Masters Tokyo or Valorant Champions.
“Paper Rex’s initial idea was to have rotating roles and agent compositions for different maps—an exercise to experiment and promote creativity,” Paper Rex explained
“Over the course of the VCT Pacific league, the Paper Rex team decided that roster stability was more crucial to successful outcomes, a thought echoed by our Coach, Alecks, in recent interviews.”
CigaretteS, who joined Paper Rex in October 2022 as a backup option, has played only two matches with the team. He faced Detonation FocusMe in the ONE Pro Invitational in December and played one map in the team’s VCT Pacific Week 5 match against Global Esports.
Paper Rex’s roster for VCT Masters Tokyo:
- Aaron ‘mindfreak’ Leonhart
- Khalish ‘d4v41’ Rusyaidee
- Jing Jie ‘Jinggg’ Wang
- Jason ‘f0rsakeN’ Susanto
- Ilya ‘something’ Petrov
- Patiphan ‘CigaretteS’ Posri (backup)