Paper Rex vs Team Liquid at VALORANT Champions 2026: Malaysia Time
Published: 2026-09-11
Paper Rex face Team Liquid at 5:00 pm MYT on 24 September 2026, opening VALORANT Champions 2026 in Shanghai. The Singapore side arrive with 22 Pacific championship points, more than any other team in the league, and Malaysian fans have watched them grind those points across Kickoff, Masters Santiago, and Stage 1 all year. Times below are Malaysia Time (GMT+8) unless noted. All match times draw from the official VALORANT Esports Champions Shanghai announcement and were cross-checked against the Wikipedia season page. This is the last Champions of the franchise era; from 2027 Riot moves to an open qualifier, so the underdog story ends here.
Paper Rex Enter Champions with 22 Pacific Points
Paper Rex lead the Pacific league on 22 points, ahead of Nongshim RedForce (12) and T1 (10). That gap is not soft. Every point after eight comes from deep bracket runs, not group wins, and Paper Rex banked theirs across three international events. The roster still leans on the duo the Malaysian VALORANT crowd knows well: f0rsakeN's dueling map pool and mindfreak's flex utility. d4v41, who lifted Masters London earlier in the year, remains the emotional anchor. "We came here to win," the team wrote on their pre-Champions social post, a line that sounds ordinary until you read the record.
Group C is the death group. Team Liquid returned from the EMEA Stage 2 grand final with a Bo3 win rate above 70%. TYLOO carry home-crowd noise in Shanghai. G2 have never lost a Champions opener. Only two of the four advance to playoffs, and the double-elimination GSL format inside each group means one bad Bo3 does not end anyone — but two do. REDX Game's Malaysia Valorant page tracks a lift in top-up volume on Paper Rex match days, and the traffic patterns from Masters London back that up.
Group C Head-to-Head: Paper Rex vs Team Liquid, 24 September
The opener is a Bo3 at the 5,600-seat Jing'an Sports Center. Both sides bring a heavy duelist meta into a map veto that will most likely leave Lotus and the new Breeze rework in the pool. Here is the head-to-head at a glance:
- Region: Paper Rex represent Pacific; Team Liquid fly the EMEA flag.
- 2026 championship points: Paper Rex 22; Team Liquid 14.
- Best 2026 finish: Paper Rex reached the Masters London final; Team Liquid lifted the Stage 2 trophy.
- Star duelist: f0rsakeN for PRX; nAts running flex for Liquid.
- Tip-off (MYT): Thursday 24 September, 5:00 pm at Jing'an Sports Center, Shanghai.
A KL viewer catches the first pistol round right after work. The Bo3 usually wraps in under three hours, so the second Group C match, TYLOO vs G2 at 8:00 pm MYT, lands in the same evening. Both matches stream free on the official VALORANT Esports YouTube channel and the Twitch mirror. No login. Free access, no paywall. Boleh tahan for a mid-week fixture.
Agent Gear 2.0 Lands in Patch 13.06 Before Group C Opens
Patch 13.06, which went live 22 September at roughly 9:00 am MYT, ties Agent Gear rewards to per-Agent playtime for the first time. Pros felt it inside 48 hours. Iso and Waylay saw immediate pick-rate bumps in the Pacific scrim scene because the free ability charges they earn at 20 hours of playtime translate directly into a saved economy round on defence. Paper Rex's scrim VOD hints suggest a heavier Waylay presence in their Lotus comp. Team Liquid did not adjust — their EMEA scrim block ran on the old patch until 23 September.
The practical fan angle: this is the first Champions where a mid-cycle patch reshaped the pistol round. Anyone doing a Champions pool with friends in Petaling Jaya should weight the first-blood side. Coaches in the qualifying leagues have said as much on the record, and it changes how Bo3 map picks stack up. Memang best for casual watchers, painful for cast-and-analyse crews on air. The Wikipedia 2026 VCT season page logs every patch that shipped during a Stage window if you want the receipts.
Ringgit Math for a Champions VP Top-Up
The Champions 2026 skin bundle drops during the tournament run and follows the standard 5460 VP price point that Riot used for the Run It Back V26 Capsule on 3 September. Malaysian pricing lands very differently depending on where you buy VP.
- At REDX Game, 5350 VP costs roughly RM 220 with 1–3 minute delivery via DuitNow, MYR-only checkout, no login required.
- On the App Store Malaysia storefront, the equivalent 5350 VP pack runs closer to RM 249 after the 8% SST that Apple applies at ringgit checkout.
- That is roughly a RM 29 gap on a single bundle top-up, or almost enough VP for a Radianite pass on the side.
The gap widens on the smaller 1000 VP packs where Apple's fixed rounding hurts more, and it also widens if a Malaysian buyer wants to top up mid-tournament, when the Champions bundle rotates in during the group-stage run and the Radianite refills spike at the same time. Anyone topping up before the Group C opener has a short window. Whether it is 24 September or the 18 October final, that ringgit rate holds, and the price stability is the real story for a fan on a student budget in Cyberjaya. A student pack of five is essentially one free Radianite refill spread across the tournament run, if the KL group buys together via REDX Game.
FAQ: VALORANT Champions 2026 Malaysia Timing
What time does Paper Rex vs Team Liquid start in Malaysia?
Thursday 24 September 2026, 5:00 pm MYT. That converts from 4:00 am CDT at the Jing'an Sports Center in Shanghai.
When does VALORANT Champions 2026 end?
The grand final at Mercedes-Benz Arena is Sunday 18 October 2026. Playoffs open after group stage wraps around 4 October.
How much is the total prize pool?
Total $2,250,000 USD. Winners take $1,000,000. Ninth-through-twelfth teams each pocket $30,000; thirteenth-through-sixteenth take $20,000 each.
Where can Malaysians watch free?
Both the official VALORANT Esports YouTube and Twitch channels stream all matches free with no VPN needed for the SEA region.
Is REDX Game safe for a Champions VP top-up?
Yes. The platform delivers within 1–3 minutes to the Riot account typed at checkout, accepts DuitNow, Boost, and Touch 'n Go, and charges in MYR only. No middleman resellers, no third-party account linking.
Malaysia Viewing Tips for the Shanghai Late-Nights
Group stage matches run 5:00 pm and 8:00 pm MYT on weekdays. Bracket days push start times later, with the 4 October playoff opener at 7:00 pm MYT, and the 18 October grand final tipping off at 7:00 pm on a Sunday, perfect for the mamak or a home watch party in Shah Alam. Malaysian VALORANT fans get a rare gift here, because Groups A and D open the following weekend and a full week of top-flight VALORANT lands in the KL prime-time slot between 5:00 pm and 11:00 pm every evening from 24 through 27 September. Local esports crews like Team SMG and Todak (from the mobile scene) will run their own watch parties on the Discord side; check their socials the day before. REDX Game recommend topping up VP the morning of match day rather than during peak Bo3 hours, when the Malaysian payment rails process a spike.
For the record, no sponsorship deal exists between this site and Paper Rex or any Pacific team at Champions 2026. The recommendation stays functional: the cheapest, fastest ringgit route to VP during the biggest VALORANT window of the year sits at REDX Game's Valorant top-up page. Beyond that, enjoy the tournament. It is the last Champions of the franchise era, and Paper Rex have never looked more ready.
