Paper Rex bench Benkai for Masters Tokyo, CGRS to step in for something

A week from now, on June 11, VCT 2023 - Masters Tokyo will commence featuring the best teams from each regional league. Given the intense competition anticipated at the event, teams are finalizing their roster combinations before they touchdown in Tokyo. For instance, Paper Rex announced that Benedict "Benkai" Tan will no longer be on the starting lineup for the event.

Benkai benched after two years with PRX

Benkai has been an instrumental part of Paper Rex’s roster since February 2021 contributing to the team’s success through the first two seasons of VALORANT Champions Tour and eliciting a smile from the audience every LAN with his infamous walkouts. During his time, Paper Rex qualified for Masters Berlin in VCT 2021, and both Reykjavik and Copenhagen in 2022, placing second in the latter one. Paper Rex’s consistency earned them a spot at Champions Istanbul, but they couldn’t capitalize and left with a 9th-12th place.

Despite earning a franchising spot, they proceeded into the 2023 season with the same roster, an uncommon choice in the scene given the significantly active transfer market. At the first event of the year, VCT 2023 - LOCK//IN, they faced elimination in the first matchup of the event. This loss combined with other factors resulted in the signing of Ilya "something" Petrov.

For the first 4 matchups of the event, the team kept rotating the roster bringing either him or Benkai off the bench. Following their initial matchup against DRX, Benkai did not see playing time and the announcement today virtually leaves his future with the team undecided. As the tweet suggests, this move was done to promote efforts of introducing more players into the rotation and improve the overall stability of their performance. Following the inactivity Benkai saw during the league, the team improved its record and went to win the entire event in a Grand Finals against DRX.

Apart from Benkai’s status transfer, the team also suggested the promotion of Patiphan "cgrs" Porsi due to visa issues something’s been facing. If the issues are to be resolved for the event, Paper Rex’s roster will be as follows:

• Aaron "mindfreak" Leonhart
• Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto
• Khalish "d4v41" Rusyaidee
• Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie
• Ilya "something" Petrov
• Patiphan "cgrs" Porsi (Substitute)
• Benedict "Benkai" Tan (Bench)
• Alex "alecks" Salle (Head Coach)