On March 29, Paper Rex made a huge announcement that shocked the Valorant community — duelist main Wang “Jinggg” Jing Jie is back on the main roster.
Speaking to ONE Esports, PRX coach alecks describes this as “the most impossible thing” that happened to the team. It’s also a piece of news that he then had to convey to Cahya “Monyet” Nugraha, who got benched.
Several months ago in August 2023 during Valorant Champions 2023, the organization announced that Jinggg had to undergo National Service — compulsory military enlistment in Singapore that lasts two years. While he was still contracted to the team, he did not join them for training or competitions.
But because he suffers from a lifelong medical condition, he was deemed unfit for service, and could therefore return to pro play.
While fans are happy to see the main roster reunite — one that achieved consistent top-three rankings at regional and international VCT tournaments in 2022 and 2023 — these roster changes haven’t been easy on anyone. 2023 also saw Patiphan “Cgrs” Posri fill in at major competitions when Ilya “something” Petrov could not travel due to visa issues.
Coach Alexandre “alecks” Sallé shares more about the internal challenges that the team is facing in this exclusive interview with ONE Esports.
Coach alecks details challenges Paper Rex has to deal with after Jinggg’s return
To fill for Jinggg, Paper Rex acquired Monyet from Global Esports for the 2024 VCT season. A controller main, he picked up Raze to help the team.
The young Indonesian player joined in September 2023 and competed in VCT Pacific Kick-off and Masters Madrid, accomplishing third place in his international debut.
“First of all, it’s not the happiest thing to do. I built a relationship with Monyet,” alecks said, describing the situation as “unavoidable.” While chemistry isn’t the issue, it’s understandable to put Jinggg back on the original roster — the one iteration that has achieved the most and gone the furthest in the organization’s history.
Nonetheless, Paper Rex is committed to supporting Monyet. If he decided he would like to fight for a place on the main roster or move to another team, coach alecks welcomes his choices. He is planning to take a week after playoffs just to work with Monyet one-on-one to review his Masters Madrid performance.
“Monyet is not as comfortable with the double satcheling for space, so we tried to enable him to do it in his own way,” alecks said. Because he would “occasionally make mistakes” and fly too high, they mostly focused on micro improvements. During the final stages of Masters Madrid, that’s when he thought he had finally showcased his best abilities.
External pressure was also mounting on Monyet during the tournament, which the team spent time helping him with.
Now on the bench as a reserve, Paper Rex’s strategies have to be refreshed, which impacts existing players too. “You work very hard for five months, and then suddenly you’re told, oh, we are going to go back to the old way we’re playing,” alecks gave perspective.
“This kind of uncertainty doesn’t help any player. We got comfortable with a couple of comps, we got comfortable with Monyet. Certain maps show,” he elaborated, giving the example of Sunset which the team locked down and can be considered one of the best in the world. But this three to four months of work has gone out the window.
“Then Jinggg comes back. He has 20 days to get it together. It’s very hard for him also, so all the other players have to try and pick up the slack,” said alecks. “We have to try and teach Jinggg what he’s missed for five months. And the whole dynamic changes again. It’s not easy.”
“This is a bittersweet thing. We’re happy seeing Jinggg. We’re sad for Monyet. It was not our intention to put him in this situation where he has suddenly no team but at least we brought him to a Masters event,” he added.
All in all, alecks is glad that Monyet got to experience competing in Madrid and believes he’s a better player because of his collective experience with the team. Describing him as a “cheerful guy” with “positive influence,” he has a unique skillset as very few Valorant players can excel on both controller and duelist.
READ MORE: Exclusive: When PRX something played on NA, pro players were convinced he was cheating
