Last night saw the highly anticipated showdown between Paper Rex and EDward Gaming as part of the Valorant Champions 2023 group stage winners' match. Despite all the attention this meeting garnered, the match itself turned out to be not very spectacular and ended with a clean win for Paper Rex.

Recall that the two teams previously faced off at this year's Masters Tokyo in the lower bracket quarterfinals. It was Paper Rex who knocked EDward Gaming out of the tournament with a 2-1 score. Many fans saw this match as a rematch and were confident that this time the Chinese squad would put on a great show that would captivate viewers. But it wasn’t just fans paying attention to this match; professional player and Paper Rex member d4v41 stated the match would be a "bloodbath". And Riot Games, in their Day 5 game announcement, emphasized this very showdown.

As it turned out, the "bloodbath" didn’t happen, with Paper Rex confidently taking the opponents' pick, Fracture, with a score of 13-7. The second map, Pearl, was more akin to a worthy showdown. The Chinese players dominated the first half, ending it with a 7-5 score. Unfortunately for all the team's fans, EDward Gaming couldn't maintain the lead after the side switch, leading Paper Rex to win in overtime with a score of 16-14.

Following their victory, Paper Rex secured the 4th spot in the playoff stage, joining DRX, Fnatic, and Evil Geniuses. Meanwhile, EDward Gaming awaits their decisive match on August 13th, where they will face off against the winner of the KRU Esports vs Giants matchup. So, there's still a chance we might see a worthy rematch from the Chinese team if they can make it to the playoffs.

Also read: Issues arising from updating Valorant to patch 7.03.