Insane T1 comeback sends Paper Rex into extinction for 2026

Two Pacific powers entered, and now, one remains.

In a meeting between two of the region's four international trophy holders, Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #2 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov fell to T1 T1 Korea Rank #2 stax Kim Gu-taek (김구택) Meteor Kim Tae-oh (김태오) BuZz Yu Byeong-cheol (유병철) DH Kang Dong-ho (강동호) iZu Ham Woo-ju (함우주) Munchkin Byeon Sang-beom (변상범) , 2-1, sending the dinos home from Champions Shanghai . In the last seven meetings between the two teams, the series has been relatively evenly split, with PRX holding a 4-3 advantage. While that scoreline is now level, Paper Rex will have to wait until next year to get its revenge after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

The series was played on T1's Lotus, PRX's Ascent, and the decider map of Summit, a map that was long awaited between the two teams for two very different reasons. T1 won Lotus 13-7, PRX won Ascent 13-6, and T1 won Summit 13-11.

The series kicked off on T1's Lotus, a map that was a bit fractured after a loss in the previous round to NRG NRG North America Rank #2 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold , but still T1's strongest map by far. T1 stayed with its Omen-Viper comp with BuZz on Neon and Meteor on Chamber, while PRX stayed with its Yoru-Raze double-Duelist comp with veteran player d4v41 on Vyse.

Zooming out, Paper Rex did what it needed to do. The dinos claimed both pistols on the map, and ended its defense side facing a manageable deficit. Where the map went wrong seemed to be the heroics. T1 seemed to thrive in the heated moments more than PRX, going on extended runs throughout the map and also using a full eco round win in the second half to derail what would have been an opportunity to chip away at the T1 lead.

Munchkin finds four to close out Lotus for T1.

In the end, it was a dominant victory for T1, one which highlighted its strong defense side on Lotus thanks in no small part to Meteor's sharp shooting.

Throughout Pacific Stage 2 , Ascent has been PRX's most experimented map. Different looks, including a Miks to help complete f0rsakeN 's Valorant agent bingo card, Killjoy, and Harbor have all been a part of PRX's Ascent in recent months, but the consistent pieces have been something 's and invy 's Sova.

invy began Ascent as the runaway star of the map, picking up an ace on the opening pistol, PRX's third of the map, as part of a 7/0 start to the map. On the attacker side, PRX got out to a 4-1 lead out of the gates. While T1 did manage a run of three straight rounds, it struggled to contain PRX on the map. While the team's usage of Sage drew some criticism earlier in the event, it looked much more polished on this map, though the result was unchanged. PRX began its defender side with another 3-0 run, and closed out the map four rounds later to bring both teams to Summit after a 13-6 win. In the end, something had a map-high 24 kills, pacing Paper Rex as the lone Duelist.

Paper Rex entered this match with no losses on Summit, while T1 entered with no wins. PRX had experimented on the map too, but fielded a solo Sage, double-Controller comp that had something on Neon, an agent the team has struggled to figure out all year. Meanwhile, T1 continued with its Chamber-Sage comp, which looked disappointing against FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 s0pp Efe Tur xeus Doğan Gözgen yetujey Eray Budak KROSTALY Okan Alaçam sociablEE Volkan Yonal in the group stage.

PRX looked unstoppable to start Summit. With something leading the charge, PRX won its fifth and then its sixth pistol rounds in the series to sweep pistols in the entire series. While T1 prevented a bonus round conversion on Summit, a thrifty round win for PRX snowballed into a dominant attack half, which ended with a 9-3 lead.

T1, as it did on Lotus, won the eco round thanks to a force-buy, and even went on a bit of a run to threaten a comeback of sorts, but it was heroics from PRX that told the story on Summit, as T1's heroics did on Lotus.

d4v41 with a 1v3, featuring NoMan 's signature celly.

From down 10-3 and even 11-6 though, T1 did not go out with a whimper. Round by round, a slow, disciplined breaking down of the Paper Rex defense saw T1 take round by round. And the rounds weren't narrow. Several flawless rounds or impenetrable post-plant setups forced PRX to save or risk a save in the following round. In no time at all, T1 was a round behind PRX, tied with PRX, and then one round away from victory. While the rounds over T1's comeback run were rather dominant for the Korean side, the final round was as close as it could be.

Paper Rex left it late, and in the end, it was not enough.

IGL-turned-Sentinel player Munchkin finished with the highest rating among T1 players with 1.20, while iZu 52-kill showing was the highest for the Korean squad. Meteor tallied an additional 50, while BuZz took on the duties of the opener, taking part in 21 first interactions and winning 10 of them. In the losing effort, something had series-high marks with a 1.24 rating and 54 kills, while invy's 1.22 would have been a team-high mark on T1, too.

After reaching two international grand finals this year, Paper Rex's season ends at 7th-8th at Champions. Meanwhile, T1 will stay alive, awaiting the losing team between G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #3 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf and Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #1 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Niko Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu .

T1 in-game leader stax : "I'm telling you, even my own dad, my real father, told me that he only watched the first half and stopped the second (half). I think a lot of players, including myself and my teammates, when it hits 11 to 8, that feels really winnable."

T1 head coach KDG : "It's a paradox... We went 3-1 in pistols when we played against NRG, but we lost that series. But if you ask me if I have the confidence that we can win the game again even if we go 0-6 in pistols like today, the answer is actually no. It is something that we definitely need to work on, and it's a part that we need to improve. We will come back with improvements in the next match."

PRX head coach alecks on his team struggling while playing with the lead: "I mean, it's a byproduct of losing so many finals, you know what I mean? Like, I think that as much as we try not to push it away, we go to offseason, there needs to be some deep mental, like multiple sport psychologists to fix this. If not, it will never [be fixed]."

Champions Shanghai will continue with the following matches: