'I didn't plan to cry, but the tears just came out'
KUALA LUMPUR: The Kelantan-born Ahmad Khalish Rusyaidee "d4v41" Nordin and his Paper Rex (PRX) teammates emotionally won the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) Masters Toronto title on Sunday.
There were tears after PRX defeated European giants Fnatic 3-1 in the Grand Finals at the Enercare Centre in Toronto, Canada to claim their maiden international crown.
Khalish's team also comprised Indonesian Jason "f0rsakeN" Susanto, Singaporean Wang "Jinggg" Jing Jie, Russian Ilia "something" Petrov and Filipino Patrick "PatMen" Mendoza.
The 26-year-old Khalish and his teammates took home US$350,000 (RM1.49 million) in prize money.
Khalish ranked as the Singapore-based PRX team's second best performer with a 1.12 KDA.
PRX, who had lost two Grand Finals previously — in the Masters Copenhagen in 2022 and Champions Los Angeles in 2023, went into the Toronto finals after a dominant upper bracket run in the playoffs.
Fnatic, the Masters Tokyo 2023 champions and top seeds, however, posed a formidable challenge.
PRX began with a 13-11 win on the map pick of Sunset, but Fnatic hit back with a narrow 17-15 win on their pick of Icebox.
PRX then pulled ahead 2-1 with a 13-10 victory on their pick of Pearl before confirming the title with a 14-12 win in overtime on Fnatic's pick of Lotus.
The PRX team became emotional after finally breaking their title drought.
"This victory feels unreal, we've been working very hard for this," said Khalish in a post-match interview before breaking into tears.
"This means everything. Winning an international trophy has always been the goal. We want to be champions, and this is just the beginning," he added after regaining his composure.
"I'm really happy... I didn't plan to cry, but the tears just came out."
PRX will next compete in the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from July 8-13 which offers US$1.25 million in prize money.
Meanwhile, there will be no Malaysian representation in PUBG Mobile at the EWC after Alliance (seventh) and SEM9 (12th) failed to finish in the top three at the Southeast Asia Summer PUBG Mobile Super League in Jakarta on Sunday.
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