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Paper Rex became the first APAC Valorant team to reach the Grand Finals of a VCT LAN tournament at the Masters Copenhagen. Benedict "Benkai" Tan, the team's IGL, has supported the team with his brilliant gameplay so far.
Benkai has been a part of the team since February 2, 2021 and has led the team in all LAN tournaments. He is mostly seen playing Initiator agents like Breach and Fade. He also occasionally plays other agents like Cypher, Sova, Viper, and Sage, making him a flexible player.
Paper Rex recently created history by becoming the first APAC Grand Finalist at the Valorant Masters in Copenhagen in front of a live crowd.
Paper Rex's Benkai talks about having a live audience at VCT 2022 Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen
Paper Rex played in front of a live audience for the first time at VCT 2022 in Copenhagen. This was a whole new experience for fans, as it has never happened before in a VCT tournament.
For the first time in Valorant esports history, fans got to witness their favorite team play live on stage in an international LAN tournament. On Day 10 of the VCT 2022 Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen, the APAC squad took down the Masters Reykavik winners, OpTic Gaming, with a 2-1 scoreline in the best-of-three map series. It pushed OpTic into the lower bracket and Paper Rex became the first team to make it to the finals of the tournament.
In a post-match press conference, Sportskeeda Esports' Pratiti Dhang asked the team how they felt about playing in front of a live crowd with fans cheering for them. Paper Rex's Benkai responded:
"Some of us already had experience playing in front of a crowd, so it was something that we were accustomed to. For the rest of us, I'm not sure how they feel about it, but obviously, we did a pretty good job of just shutting up the crowd and just focusing on ourselves, having fun and playing the game. And it was mainly like after the match that the crowd really just started to get to us. We are feeding off that energy, really feeding off the atmosphere. I think having a crowd is better for us."
Paper Rex will face FunPlus Phoenix in the Grand Finals. Both teams have reached the Finals for the first time. The APAC squad has successfully taken down some of the top teams from EMEA and NA with their dominating performances. The team has been consistent with their performances since the last VCT 2022 Stage 1 Masters in Reykavik. The team ended up in fourth position last time and has come a long way since, making it to the Grand Finals.
Now in the Grand Finals of the Stage 2 Masters Copenhagen, Benkai and his team will compete to become the first APAC Masters winners.
