Nongshim’s streak snapped

Nongshim RedForce looked untouchable on April 4, took the first map from Paper Rex 15-13 in overtime, and still walked off with a 1-2 loss after Paper Rex won the next two maps 13-10 and 13-6. That one series ended Nongshim’s 14-match official winning streak in the opening week of Valorant Champions Tour Pacific Stage 1. (invenglobal.com) The twist is that these were the same two teams from the Masters Santiago grand final in March, where Nongshim beat Paper Rex 3-0 for the trophy. Less than three weeks later, Paper Rex flipped the matchup and got its revenge in the regional league. (vlr.gg, invenglobal.com) Nongshim’s streak was not built on one hot weekend. Inven Global says the 14 straight official wins stretched across Valorant Champions Tour Ascension Pacific, the Pacific Kickoff event, and Masters Santiago, which is why the loss landed like a snapped cable instead of a routine early-season upset. (invenglobal.com) Paper Rex did not steal the series with one lucky round. Jason Susanto, who plays under the name f0rsakeN, helped swing map two after a 6-6 half, and Wang Jing Jie, who plays under the name Jinggg, finished the three-map series with 76 kills. (invenglobal.com) Stage 1 is where the Pacific league stops talking about international trophies and starts counting league wins. Riot’s official event page says all 12 teams are split into two groups of six, each group plays a single round robin, and every regular-season match win is worth 1 Championship Point. (valorantesports.com) That scoring system makes one opening-week loss heavier than it looks. Riot says only the top three Pacific teams reach Masters Toronto, while playoff placement adds as many as 5 more Championship Points for first place, 3 for second, 2 for third, and 1 for fourth. (valorantesports.com) The standings changed immediately after the reverse sweep. VLR listed Paper Rex at 1-0 in Group Alpha after week one, while Nongshim dropped to 0-1 in the same group with DRX, Global Esports, Gen.G, and Team Secret all part of the same race. (vlr.gg) The calendar leaves very little room to recover slowly. VLR lists the Pacific Stage 1 group stage from April 2 to May 3 and the playoffs from May 7 to May 17, which means teams have about five weeks to turn one bad result into a top-three finish. (vlr.gg) Nongshim’s next test comes almost immediately. VLR shows Nongshim scheduled to play DRX on April 10, then Gen.G on April 19, so the team that looked like the region’s safest bet now has to prove the Paper Rex loss was one stumble and not the end of the run. (vlr.gg)