NEWS

Paper Rex Bench IGL Benkai for Roster Stability

June 4, 2023

After being replaced by the Russian substitute in the Pacific League, Benkai will not make a return to Paper Rex’s active roster

Paper Rex have announced the move of Benedict “Benkai” Tan from the team’s active starting roster to the benched status. Therefore, the former in-game leader for the team will not be present in Masters Tokyo and even this year’s Champions event.

🇰🇷 SEOUL, South Korea — In its continued effort to stabilize its VALORANT roster, Paper Rex has made the difficult decision to move Benedict ‘Benkai’ Tan from the starting roster to bench status.

Benedict has been with the team throughout the VCT Pacific season and contributed… pic.twitter.com/1V8gHk8og6

— Paper Rex (@pprxteam) June 4, 2023

The 26-year-old has been part of the active roster with his Singaporean teammates for almost two years and has helped to cement the name of Paper Rex in the international scene with a runner ups title in Masters Copenhagen last year. However, his squad has mostly remained in the shadows of DRX when it comes to the Pacific region until now, as they are currently holding the trophy of the first VCT Pacific event.

This announcement does not come as a major surprise as the IGL was not present in PRX’s recent journey in the Pacific League after getting replaced by the excellent Russian player Ilya “something” Petrov. The rookie player entered as a substitute in the roster before the Pacific tournament and showed incredible results for the team after joining them mid-Regular Season. Benkai last played for PRX in Week 4 of the Regular Season.

Credit: Riot Games

“Over the course of the VCT Pacific league, the Paper Rex team decided that roster stability was more crucial to successful outcomes, a thought echoed by our Coach, Alecks, in recent interviews.” – Paper Rex explained in a Tweet while mentioning their coach Alexandre “alecks” Sallé.

In the same Tweet, the Singaporean organization announced Patiphan “cgrs” Porsi as their official substitute, with Benkai stepping away. cgrs is a Thai player who was a part of ZIGMA.