This match saw Pearl being played for the first time in an international VALORANT tournament.
Champions Istanbul 2022 started with a bang as two teams from the APAC region went head-to-head in the tournament's opening rounds. Paper Rex, acknowledged as one of the if not the best team in the APAC region, met up with EDward Gaming, the surprise contender hailing from China. The two teams met in a Bo3 match to see who the first winner of the tournament in Istanbul will be.
The match started off with Pearl, the newest map in the VALORANT library. It is the first time that Pearl is being played on an international stage. The map started with a strong performance from the Chinese lads as they grabbed five back-to-back wins within the first half of the map. Paper Rex, famous for their style of dishing back to their opponents, immediately returns the volley with their own five back-to-back wins by round 10. At the end of the half, both teams were par with 6 wins each. Paper Rex then shifted gear in the second half they push on hard on EDward Gaming. While EDward tried to maintain parity, PRX managed to hold on to the last second, giving them the first win.
Icebox is where EDG truly went into high gear. The match was so one-sided that PRX had no time to take a breather, trailing EDG by a whopping 10 wins at the end of the first half. Try as they could, PRX just could not overcome the points gap, and EDG easily won the second map by round 18.
Haven is where the pedal met the metal as both teams tried their hardest to maintain the lead and win the first match of the tournament. PRX easily dominated EDG, as, by the first half, they led the Chinese team by two points. As the second half begins PRX continues their dominance over EDG by again grabbing back-to-back wins. Mindfreak was the player who clinched the win for PRX in round 21, with the team being Thrifty over EDG.
With this win, Paper Rex currently tops the Group A standing – but there is still the Winners’ Match to see who will head into the Playoffs, where their opponent will be determined by the winner of the match between Leviatán and Team Liquid.
VCT Champions Istanbul is happening from 31 August until 18 September in Istanbul, with the Playoffs set to be played in front of a live audience at Volkswagen Arena from 9 September 2022.
