By: Paolo R. Trinidad
South Built Esports suffered a deflating 0-2 loss against Paper Rex to open the VALORANT Champions Tour Asia-Pacific Stage 1: Challengers Playoffs, Thursday night.
The Filipinos were relegated down to the lower bracket where they will fight four tournament life against Indonesian squad BOOM Esports.
After leading by 8-4 entering the first half of Game One, South Built Esports collapsed as Benedict “Benkai” Tan’s (Cypher) second-half heroics helped turn things around for Paper Rex, kick-starting a 9-1 blast to secure the comeback the 13-9 victory in the South Built-picked Haven.
Then, the Singaporeans demolished the Filipinos with a 13-7 Game Two assault at Spit.
Paper Rex put up a commanding 9-3 advantage at the half before halting South Built’s 4-1 rally through Jason “f0rsakeN” Susanto (Jett) took over in the 20th round, securing a four-kill which sealed the win for his side.
f0rsakeN finished with a game-high 25 kills and a 338 Average Combat Score while Azis “azys” Nandang (Raze) had 16 for the side of South Built.
South Built Esports will fight for their VCT life in the first round of the lower bracket against BOOM Esports on Friday at 8:30 PM.
