We got the opportunity to ask f0rsaken about the Benkai situation, and here is what he had to say
Amidst the anticipation surrounding the upcoming VCT 2023 Masters Tokyo, several players and coaches from different teams arrived at the pre-event press conference. f0rsaken, coming as the representative from the roster of Paper Rex, shed light on why the former IGL of the team, Benkai, was benched in favor of ‘something’.
ESTNN: Can you give us some background on your decision to bench Benkai? Especially considering something may be late to arrive in Tokyo.
f0rsaken: To be honest, benching Benkai was a team and coach decision. It is because of role clash as well. I don’t know much details. If you want to know the details, you can ask our coach, Alecks, at the next conference. So yeah, that’s why we decided to bench Benkai.
Credit: Riot Games
Later in the coaches’ press conference, PRX Alecks delved deeper into the circumstances surrounding the decision. In response to a question regarding the reasons behind the benching, the coach clarified that maintaining a 6-man roster proved ineffective. Consequently, a decision had to be made to accommodate the inclusion of ‘something’. It was in the team’s best interest to bench the 26-year-old Singaporean to avoid any role clash.
“When something joined the team, we were running a six/seven-man roster, and it was hard to get the synergy going. When we were switching players and stuff, I tended to see a drop in performance. Eventually, we had to set on the playing 5. Since we had to play with ‘something’, someone had to go. It was more like a role clash issue,” said Alecks.
Paper Rex are coming into the event riding on a massive momentum. The Singaporean team has just crowned themselves as the Champions of the Pacific League, winning a thrilling grand final against DRX. While they are still among the favorites to win the Masters Tokyo, how the team will fare with the unresolved matter of ‘something’s’ visa remains to be seen.
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