"We will see what happens game by game" - VIT Chronicle on loss to Paper Rex

EMEA's superteam have done well for themselves at VALORANT Champions Tour 2026 - Masters London 2026, cruising through the Swiss Stage to get to the Upper Semifinals against a formidable Paper Rex. A tightly anticipated match between two favourites of the tournament ended up going Paper Rex's way in 2-1 fashion, sending Team Vitality to the lower bracket.

After the loss, we had a chance to catch up with Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov, a man who needs no introduction, to get his thoughts on the Paper Rex playstyle, dealing with losses and carrying on in tournaments, and reuniting with Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev.

Another match against Paper Rex

THESPIKE: Paper Rex are obviously a very familiar opponent. You played them multiple times on Fnatic, and the last time you faced them you won in Champs. With all that experience against such a formidable team, what kind of angle did you bring to the team this time?

Chronicle: Honestly, it is really hard to bring that experience across to the team. It is something you have to experience yourself. You could tell people how it was when you faced them, but why would I lean on something from basically a year ago? They could have changed everything ten thousand times since then.

VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions

Fnatic

2

X

1

Paper Rex

Upper Bracket Semi Final, Best of 3 - September 28, 2025 - 1:00PM

10

Bind

13

13

Haven

4

13

Lotus

9

Fnatic

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

kaajak

1.60

315

69/44/19

+25

1.57

86.1%

195.3

26%

71%

17

7

Chronicle

1.33

266

59/41/14

+18

1.44

73.6%

175.4

34%

47%

7

8

Boaster

0.83

154

31/37/24

-6

0.84

73.4%

105.2

18%

40%

2

3

crashies

0.82

149

35/37/14

-2

0.95

77.3%

99.4

28%

33%

3

6

Doma

0.81

167

36/40/13

-4

0.90

71.7%

119.8

29%

56%

5

4

Paper Rex

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

f0rsakeN

0.99

215

44/49/18

-5

0.90

68.0%

140.1

29%

50%

6

6

d4v41

0.95

185

46/41/9

+5

1.12

72.6%

120.4

27%

33%

3

6

Jinggg

0.89

189

41/48/16

-7

0.85

71.0%

135.5

23%

42%

5

7

something

0.71

162

35/47/9

-12

0.74

58.1%

113.6

20%

48%

11

12

PatMen

0.71

154

33/45/12

-12

0.73

67.6%

108.4

30%

50%

3

3

Above is Fnatic's 2-1 win over Paper Rex in the upper bracket of VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions, the last time Chronicle shared a server with them.

THESPIKE: Do you think they [PRX] have changed anything?

Chronicle: I would say yes. They are still playing in their style, but they changed a decent chunk of stuff. They play in a more mixed way now. You can say they have some structure, but at the same time it still feels like they are doing the things they always did. It is hard to explain, but they have a pretty good balance right now.

Vitality's first loss in London

THESPIKE: Would you say the loss was more about them just running you over?

Chronicle: I think the loss was again about experience, like you said. It is something the guys had not been through, so they could not really find themselves out there, how to make their roles work, how they would perform. Because of that they could not do their roles properly. But it is okay. Sometimes it happens. The only hope now is that we fully reset, stop thinking about it too much, and actually focus on the match tomorrow.

THESPIKE: This is your first loss at London. In the press room just now, Ștefan "Sayonara" Mîtcu seemed pretty upset, and I was talking to Derke earlier about how he is one of the big brothers of the team. As a veteran yourself, what do you bring to the younger players like Sayonara?

Chronicle: For them it is more about calmness. You have to show that you are relaxed and fully stable so they can feed off that. You cannot really teach someone how to react, or how to be mentally stable, without showing it through your own example. It is one thing to say it, but another to actually believe it and do it. If a person trusts you and wants to improve in that direction, they will take that example and work on it. You also cannot force a player to learn it. I want to focus on doing my own role, because that is just as important. Helping newcomers perform is one thing, but it is also my responsibility to do my own job.

Game by game

THESPIKE: Speaking of your previous teams, you were with Gambit for a while, then Fnatic for a long time, and now Vitality. What would winning for Vitality mean to you?

Chronicle: Obviously for the org it would be perfect to have their team winning. But I do not even want to think about winning. I could still get knocked out, which would mean we are not literally the best. So I am not thinking about it. I have a match against FUT Esports tomorrow, and that is it. There is nothing else to think about. The win is somewhere down the line, but right now it is only that.

THESPIKE: Have you always approached tournaments with that game by game mentality?

Chronicle: Always. Every single tournament has been like that, going all the way back to Masters Berlin. I remember my mindset back when we also qualified for Champions by points. I was just thinking, we will see what happens game by game. I do not really think about lifting the trophy, but it is fun to get the most experience out of it and put on a great performance. I think we did pretty well there.

THESPIKE: Your next game against FUT is a rematch. How are you feeling about it?

Chronicle: I always try to make the boys feel like losses happen all the time. You cannot always win. There are basically zero teams in VALORANT that stay consistent, it is impossibly hard. One day you feel great, the next day something happens and you might lose. But it is okay. Most of the time you will not care about it within the span of a month. I do not even care about Champs 2025 anymore, and that was a final we lost. After about a week I had basically moved on. If I win this tournament, no one will remember that I lost this game.

Reuniting with Derke

THESPIKE: Derke, on map two especially, was key to clawing the team back and looking competitive against Paper Rex. Now that you have spent months together again, what has that been like, and is there anything new you have learned?

Chronicle: Having another experienced guy, especially in such an important role that is favoured in the current meta, is great. Derke himself does a lot in terms of consistency, and he has matured a lot since our days on Fnatic. I think he is doing super well.

THESPIKE: Thank you so much for the interview, and good luck against FUT.

Chronicle: Thank you so much.

Catch Chronicle and the Vitality squad as they battle for their tournament lives. For all things London tune into THESPIKE.GG