T1 and Paper Rex live on in VCT Pacific Stage 1 playoffs

T1 and Paper Rex squeaked past the knockout rounds in the VCT Pacific 2024 Stage 1 playoffs, eliminating Team Secret and TALON from Masters Shanghai contention.

Both T1 and Paper Rex move on to fight in a double elimination bracket against Gen.G and KIWOOM DRX respectively, with only one team out of the four missing out on Masters Shanghai.

T1 sends Team Secret home

T1 picked Lotus, Team Secret picked Sunset, leaving Breeze as the potential decider.

Lotus had four mirror picks, with the only difference being Chamber for T1 and Killjoy for Team Secret. Starting on the defense side, T1 took an early lead despite losing the first pistol round. A second half eco win almost turned the tides for Team Secret, but Ham "iZu" Woo-ju (함우주) took T1 to a 13-7 map win.

For Sunset, Team Secret decided to run Breach and Sova, while T1 ran Gekko and KAY/O. Breach has his uses on the thin hallways of Sunset, while Gekko allows for some quick B takes and easy plants. It began with Team Secret taking the lead on defense, looking confident on their map pick. The pressure they would apply just before enemy executes or just after plants seemed impossible for T1 to counter.

Team Secret headed into the half up 9-3, but T1's attack side brought the map back. The map ended 13-11 for T1, winning the series 2-0. Ha "Sayaplayer" Jeong-woo (하정우) proved crucial on defense, but Kevin "xccurate" Susanto was the MVP for map two and the series as a whole. Playing both Chamber and Cypher, xccurate ended with 41 kills and a 163 ADR, second in the lobby behind Team Secret duelist Jeremy "Jremy" Cabrera.

With this loss, Team Secret are eliminated from the tournament and Masters Shanghai contention. T1 will face Gen.G in the upper semifinals on May 4.

Paper Rex keep themselves alive with win over Talon Esports

For the second elimination map of the day, Talon picked Lotus, Paper Rex picked Bind, leaving Sunset as the potential decider. Paper Rex ran their traditional double duelist, while Talon went with a double smoke composition. Paper Rex got off to a hot start and never slowed down, winning Lotus in a perfect 13-0. Due to this win, stats were outstanding from Paper Rex, including two players with a 100% KAST and Ilya "something" Petrov dropping both 248 ADR and seven first kills to only one first death.

Credit to Talon, they somehow turned a 13-0 loss on their map pick into a strong Bind performance. It wasn't 13-0, but a 9-3 half turned into a 13-7 map win. Unlike the previous map, something wasn't the star, it was Joseph "ban" Seungmin Oh from Talon Esports, who headed into the half with a 13/6/6 stat line. After losing the pistol round in the second half, they closed out the map and took the series to Sunset.

Similarly to Lotus, Paper Rex started off hot with a 10-2 first half. Their defense with both Breach and Gekko stifled everything Talon tried to throw at them, preventing Peter "Governor" No on the Neon from doing much. Thanks to Neon getting more value on their defense, Talon did bring the map back to a respectful scoreline. Yet, the lead proved too significant, and Paper Rex won 13-9 and eliminated Talon Esports from Masters Shanghai.

Paper Rex will face off against DRX in the upper semifinals on May 4.