The opening day of the 2025 VALORANT Game Changers Championship in Seoul delivered exactly what the bracket promised: region-defining clashes, close and dominant maps alike, and a clear reminder that no lead is safe on the international stage. Upper Round 1 featured two best-of-three series: NOVA Esports GC vs Ninetails on one side of the bracket and MIBR GC vs GIANTX GC on the other. Day 1 was their first chance to play under the lights at LoL Park, the arena for First Strike Korea five years ago.
The opening series of the tournament was a meeting of two teams that had largely outgrown their home scenes. Nova arrived with a spotless year in China, having not dropped a single series across both stages. Ninetails, Korea’s top Game Changers squad and Pacific’s second seed, had bulldozed their domestic competition, stringing together 21 straight wins before finally losing to Xipto at the Pacific event.
On paper, this was as even as it gets: both undefeated domestically.
Bind, Ninetails’ choice, has historically been a balanced map for both sides; coming in, each team held around a 50% win rate there over the year. The twist came in the compositions.
Ninetails started on attack and debuted a double-Initiator composition featuring Veto, marking the first time the agent has been played at a VCT event. Nova instead opted for a more traditional setup: double Controller with Brimstone and Viper, anchored by a Deadlock to strengthen their defensive setups and post-plants.
The early rounds went Nova’s way. Their layered utility and strong site anchors enabled them to jump out to a 4-1 lead. Ninetails eventually adjusted, finding more value out of their Initiator pairing in the latter part of the half, but Nova still closed their defensive side ahead at 7-5.
On attack, Nova shifted gears. Clem’s Raze became the spearhead of their executes, constantly cracking open sites and punishing Ninetails’ attempts to fight for early space. Nova strung together three straight rounds after the side swap to reach 10-5 before Ninetails finally stabilized for a single defensive round at 10-6. That proved to be only a brief pause. Riding the momentum from their explosive entries and well-timed utility, Nova closed out the next three rounds to win Ninetails’ map 13-6 and seize control of the series.
Statistically, Clem and icebox defined the opener for Nova: both posted close to 250 ACS, combining for 35 kills, with Clem securing five first kills across the map. For Ninetails, fullmoon and 332 had impact moments and found frags in mid-rounds, but as a unit they struggled to consistently match Nova’s structure and discipline.
Haven was a comfortable map for both teams, but Nova arrived with the stronger record: 8-2 on the year compared to Ninetails’ 6-3. Both teams played a mirror composition — Viper, Omen and Killjoy as the backbone, supported by Sova and Neon. Once again Ninetails opened on attack, and this time their spacing and explosiveness landed immediately. They raced to a 5-0 lead, winning a mix of fast hits and patient defaults. Nova managed to claw back a few rounds thanks to a couple of solid retakes, but Ninetails still closed the half ahead 8-4.
After the sideswap, the match flipped. Nova came out of halftime with a clear game plan, leaning on more decisive mid-round calls and stronger site hits. They rattled off six consecutive rounds to go from 4-8 down to 10-8 ahead, completely seizing momentum. Ninetails managed only one further round before Nova closed the map with another three-round streak, taking Haven 13-9 and the series 2-0.
THEIR FIRST INTERNATIONAL WIN@NovaEsportsTeam wins the series 2-0! pic.twitter.com/MpJDl6PxNK
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) November 20, 2025
The standout on Haven, and ultimately the series, was shirazi on Viper. She finished the map with 21 kills, four first kills, and a +8 kill differential, constantly shutting down Ninetails’ lane control and anchoring key retakes.
Across the entire series, shirazi was the MVP. She amassed 33 kills with an average combat score of 244, the highest on the server, and was a constant stabilizing force whether Nova were under pressure or closing out leads.
With the 2-0 win, Nova move on in the upper bracket, where they will face G2 Gozen in one of the most anticipated early matches of the tournament. Ninetails drop to the lower bracket and will now have to fight through elimination matches to stay alive in their first Game Changers Championship appearance.
The second series of the day pitted GIANTX GC, EMEA’s third seed, against MIBR GC, the Americas Last Chance Qualifier winners. GIANTX booked their ticket to Seoul by finishing second in both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of GC EMEA, earning enough circuit points to claim the region’s final slot. MIBR’s path was far more turbulent: they lost Brazil’s direct spot to Team Liquid Brazil in a narrow 3-2 final, then recovered to win the Americas LCQ over Wadadaa in a Swiss-into-final format, reclaiming their place on the global stage.
GIANTX opened the series on their choice of Haven, running the same Neon/Sova double-initiator hybrid composition that Nova and Ninetails had showcased earlier, with Viper, Omen and Killjoy rounding out the defensive core. MIBR mirrored the comp, setting up a clean strategic comparison.
Starting on attack, GIANTX found early joy through decisive site hits and strong Neon openers from smurfette, jumping out to a 6-3 lead. While MIBR adapted with some well-timed retakes, GIANTX kept their nose in front and closed the half at 7-5.
The second half evolved into a duel between the two Neons: smurfette for GX and sRN for MIBR. After MIBR took the pistol to tie the game at 7-7, the teams traded the early gun rounds and the scoreline reached 8-8. From there, GIANTX produced a defensive masterclass, reading MIBR’s timings and rotations perfectly and stringing together five consecutive rounds to win the map 13-8.
Individually, smurfette was the clear standout for GIANTX with 22 kills, six first kills, and an ACS of 296. Despite that, sRN actually topped the server in raw stats with 23 kills and 317 ACS, underlining just how intense the Neon vs Neon battle became even in defeat.
Map two shifted to Abyss, MIBR’s selection, and the regional win-rate disparity was stark even before pistol: MIBR came in with roughly an 83% win rate on the map, while GIANTX sat near 17%. That difference showed immediately.
On attack, MIBR flew out of the gates. Their spacing, mid-round calling and comfort with Abyss’ unusual geometry translated into a 4-0 start, which quickly ballooned into a 9-1 advantage as GIANTX struggled to anticipate the Brazilians’ pace and routes. GX managed to stabilize just before halftime, scraping together a couple of rounds to close at 9-3, but MIBR still carried a commanding lead into the second half.
The pistol went MIBR’s way as well, pushing the score to 10-3 and making a swift 1-1 series feel almost inevitable. GIANTX refused to collapse. They won their force-buy and converted the next two rounds via sharper site anchors and more decisive retakes, pulling the game back to 10-6. From there, the map became tense. MIBR steadied themselves enough to reach 12-9, standing a single round away from forcing a decider, but GIANTX again answered, grinding out two more rounds to make it 12-11 and putting overtime firmly in play.
Day 1 of #VCTGameChangers Seoul is complete.
Here are the scores from today’s matches! 👇 pic.twitter.com/c7ZzDRaePy
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) November 20, 2025
Ultimately, the comeback fell just short. MIBR closed the final round to take Abyss 13-11, tying the series 1-1, but surely frustrated at how much of their initial nine-round cushion had evaporated.
For GIANTX, Ness on Omen was the server MVP, finishing with 25 kills and an ACS of 284 and posting the only positive kill differential on her team. In contrast, MIBR showcased depth: four players finished positive and above 200 ACS, highlighting a more evenly distributed performance that carried them over the line.
Map three, Split, saw MIBR start on attack. Both teams had played the map a decent amount since its return to the map pool, with MIBR having a 6-2 record and GIANTX a 10-4 record. MIBR once again got off to a blistering start, winning their fourth pistol of the day. They surged ahead thanks to their double duelist combo of sRN and bstrdd dominating on the Raze and Yoru respectively. Once again, they were up 9-3 at the half, but this time, MIBR were determined to deny any comebacks.
They went on to only let their opponents win two more rounds before they closed the map 13-5, the most dominant map of this series. Similar to the previous map, four players went positive for one side while only one did on the other, however this time the teams were reversed.
SRN was the series MVP for MIBR, with 60 frags, an ACS of 273, and a +17 kill differential. For GX, both eva and Toki had 47 kills apiece and were their team’s top fraggers, but MIBR as a whole looked much stronger. After their win, MIBR will play Shopify Rebellion, a repeat of last year’s grand final. On the other end, GIANTX drop to the lower bracket and have no more room for any kind of loss.
Day 1 closes with NOVA and MIBR advancing in the upper bracket and Ninetails and GIANTX dropping to the lower. The second day of the Game Changers Championship will continue with two more BO3 matchups on the schedule:
The day after, G2 Gozen will meet Nova in their next series, and Shopify Rebellion Gold lie in wait for MIBR: the stakes will only rise from here.
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