Paper Rex vs. Evil Geniuses vs. Fnatic – Who gets to reign at VCT Masters Tokyo?

The VALORANT Champions Tour 2023: Masters Tokyo has been highly competitive.

The final three teams all represent different regions; Fnatic representing Europe, Paper Rex representing the Pacific, and Evil Geniuses representing the Americas.

Let’s set our expectations going into the last two series of the event.

Paper Rex vs. Evil Geniuses – Lower Bracket Final Preview

Both Paper Rex and Evil Geniuses fell to the hands of Fnatic leading the two teams to fall to the lower bracket.

Paper Rex started playoffs strong with a strong 2-0 victory against DRX, once again solidifying their stance as the top Pacific team. Unfortunately, due to seeding, this victory immediately placed them up against Fnatic in the second round, which led them straight to the lower bracket through their 2-0 loss. The team then brought home two very narrow 2-1 series victories against Edward Gaming and NRG.

Evil Geniuses were the absolute underdogs going into the 2023 VCT Tokyo Masters. The team had a terrible start to the Americas League, written off by many from their near failure to even qualify for playoffs. Astounding even their own fans, EG managed to pull back to back wins against two top contenders in the Americas scene, NRG and Cloud 9, even taking a map off LOUD.

Since qualifying for the current Tokyo Masters, Evil Geniuses went undefeated against all teams except Fnatic. EG also stand as the only team to take a single map win against Fnatic in the event.

In contrast to Paper Rex’s recent close calls with half their victories on match point or extending into overtime, Evil Geniuses have proved themselves as a top force capable of demolishing even the best, taking one of Fnatic’s strongest contenders LOUD 2-0. The match should be a decisive victory in favor of EG.

VCT Masters Tokyo – Grand Final Prediction

It comes with little surprise that Fnatic are one of the teams in the grand finals given their strong performance throughout 2023.

Fnatic stand as the reigning champions of the preceding global Valorant event, the 2023 VCT LOCK//IN Sao Paolo, where they managed to triumph over the 2022 Valorant Champions, LOUD, 3-2 in the finals. Fnatic also remained undefeated through the 2023 VCT EMEA League Group stage with a perfect 9-0 record, continuing their winning streak right up until the finals.

Unfortunately, the team stumbled at the final stage of Playoffs, ending with a close 1-3 series loss against rivals Team Liquid. This positioned Fnatic in an odd position, on one hand the team had been extremely dominant through the entirely of 2023, but on the other hand failed to close a highly favored match up. This meant their first loss of their year not only costed them the title, but a mental burden also weighted over them right before the Tokyo Masters.

However, Fnatic have not dissapointed in Masters Tokyo, picking up right where they left off with no signs of slowing down. Fnatic started playoffs with two back to back clean 2-0 wins against NRG and Paper Rex. While they did have a narrow series against Evil Geniuses, their exceptional 13-3 map win in Lotus only serves to highlight how strong Fnatic are. While the EG as the underdogs do have a decent chance, the match up remains favored towards Fnatic who have repeatedly proved themselves as a top tier team.