Paper Rex’s something claims international LAN debut was “shaky” despite 2-0 opening match

Paper Rex’s star player Ilya “something” Petrov claimed his international LAN debut at Valorant Champions was “shaky” despite a dominant 2-0 sweep in his opening game.

When Paper Rex qualified for the 2023 Masters Tokyo earlier in the year with a revamped roster with the addition of a star player something, many were excited to see one of the top duelist mains debut on the international stage. 

However, shortly after Paper Rex won the Pacific split, it was revealed that something was facing Visa issues and might not be able to attend. Paper Rex would go on to place top three in Tokyo without something, instead having CGRS sub in. Thus, fans were still holding their breath on his international debut. 

It was confirmed by something that he would be attending Valorant Champions. And in his debut match on August 9, against a KRÜ lineup fresh off an unthinkable run, it resulted in a 2-0 sweep by Paper Rex.

When asked in the post-game press conference if there was pressure put on him due to the hype surrounding his debut, he said, “It’s not about pressure, I just missed how to play on stage, the first five, six on Split I was a bit shaky but after that, I calmed down and just started to play Valorant.” 

Something continued to explain his performance for their next match, adding, “I was a bit shaky for the first match, but I don’t think I’ll be as nervous in the next match.”

Despite admitting to being nervous and shaky for his long-awaited debut match of this nature, something dropped 34 kills throughout both maps in the series, with multiple highlights throughout the matchup as well. 

In fact, all of Paper Rex performed well in the series, as they were always favorites to not only win this match and get out of groups as the number one seed, but are even predicted by bookies to have the second-best odds of winning the whole tournament. 

Paper Rex’s next match will be against EDG on August 10 for a spot in the playoffs.