Paper Rex complete the reverse sweep to beat ZIGMA 2-1 in the grand final of eXTREMESLAND 2020 Southeast Asia (Mirage 14-16, Vertigo 16-11, Train 16-10) and collect the top prize of US$1,000 and their first-ever trophy.
eXTREMESLAND 2020 Southeast Asia featured the top eight Southeast Asian teams over the weekend of January 8-10. The event used a single-elimination best-of-three (BO3) system for all the matches. The tournament’s open portion took place in December last year, with approximately 80 teams taking part. US$1,500 was up for grabs, with the prize pool distributed amongst the top two finishers.
Included were the likes of HuatZai, TeamLZ, ORG LESS, and nomoney4haircut who came from the top four finishers at the open qualifier. They were matched by four invited teams who were the highest-ranked teams among S.E.A, namely Bren Esports, ZIGMA, Paper Rex, and Beyond Esports.
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The playoff results went as predicted, following defeats of all open qualifier teams in the quarterfinals, leaving the four invited teams to fight for the grand final match. The multi-national team Paper Rex was the first to reach the grand final after crucial wins against HuatZai (2-0) and Beyond Esports (2-1) in the playoffs. Meanwhile, ZIGMA came out strong after defeating Indonesia’s ORG LESS and the Philippines Bren Esports on very comfortable series.
The Grand Final – Paper Rex vs ZIGMA
The best-of-three grand final kicked off on the Thai side’s map pick, Mirage. A successful pistol on the T side set the stone rolling for Paper Rex. However, their efforts would be in vain as ZIGMA were in control in the middle rounds of the first half, and ended the first half with ZIGMA barely etching out an 8-7 advantage. Following a similar pattern where Kumaresan “Tommy” Ramani‘s side took the lead in the first two rounds of the first half but got stomped with five rounds in a row. As Paper Rex failed to push the map to overtime, the Thai’s edged out a 16-14 map victory.
Vertigo began as an almost exact mirror image of Mirage, with ZIGMA securing the first two rounds. Paper Rex hit back in the third round and trailed 5-2 before finishing the half on a close 8-7 lead. After the switch, Warittorn “RoLEX” Kalanukarn and friends could not get the momentum going, allowing Paper Rex to lock down the map at 16-11, proving their map veto strategy.
The final map was Train, where Paper Rex grabbed a strong lead, this time going 6-0 up. The Asian mix was confident after a victory against Beyond in the semi-finals. Another similar pattern went on as the first and the second map as ZIGMA managed to recover in the middle game, finishing the first half 7-8. Paper Rex extended the streak after taking the second pistol round and eventually wrap up Train 16-10, crowing themselves as eXTREMESLAND CS:GO Festival Asia 2020 – SEA Champions!
The final standings of eXTREMESLAND CS:GO Festival Asia 2020 – Southeast Asia are:
| Place | Team | Prize |
| 1st | 🌏 Paper Rex | US$1,000 |
| 2nd | 🇹🇭 ZIGMA | US$500 |
| 3rd-4th | 🇹🇭 Beyond Esports | – |
| 3rd-4th | 🇵🇭 Bren Esports | – |
| 5th-8th | 🇸🇬 nomoney4haircut | – |
| 5th-8th | 🇸🇬 HuatZai | – |
| 5th-8th | 🇮🇩 ORG LESS | – |
| 5th-8th | 🇲🇾 TeamLZ | – |
CSGO2ASIA is an official Global Media Partner for the ZOWIE eXTREMESLAND CS:GO Festival 2020.
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Cover photo courtesy of HLTV.org
