Given their controversial qualification to the tournament, MIBR’s run to reach the VALORANT Champions playoffs has helped Riot avoid any more egg on its face. The Brazilian org reached the tournament via infamous tiebreaker rules specific to VCT Americas, but their renewed form has gone a long way in vindicating their presence in Paris.
MIBR (and aspas) struggle, but qualify for VALORANT Champions anyway
Aspas’ skill doesn’t need explaining. His name comes up constantly in VALORANT GOAT debates — with good reason — and he’s made a habit of boosting previously middling teams into global contention.
He did that again this year with MIBR, leading them to back-to-back Americas podium finishes in Kickoff and Stage 1, the latter earning a spot in Masters Toronto — the organisation’s only international tournament aside from 2023 LOCK//IN.
But aspas, and MIBR by extension, were inexplicably poor in Toronto. Their successive 2-0 losses to Gen.G and Team Liquid aren’t horrendous defeats on their face; both opponents have been top sides at points this year, but the manner of the defeats was unusual.
Aspas himself was very poor. He wound up with just 31 kills and a -22 kill differential across both series combined, with respective 107 and 153 ACS scores far, far below the impact levels that have come to be expected from the Brazilian star.
That poor form continued regionally into Stage 2. While they did manage victories against 100 Thieves and LOUD, their 2-3 win-loss record was not enough to even reach playoffs, ending their Americas season almost an entire month before Champs was to begin.
While half of each region’s Champions seeds are granted to Stage 2 playoff finalists, two spots are also awarded to teams with the highest Championship Points earned by performances throughout the year.
MIBR’s earlier successes had been enough to put them in joint fourth alongside Cloud9. In all other regions, tiebreaker rules would have granted the fourth and final Champs place to the better-performing side that stage. This would have seen C9 qualify having come 4th in Stage 2, far better than MIBR’s 9th-10th.
However, for a reason still not particularly clear, Americas was the sole region to have alternate tiebreaker rules, instead favouring the team with a better head-to-head record across the season. In the case of MIBR and Cloud9, the Brazilian team won both matchups in 2025, granting them a place in Paris.
Embarrassment waiting to happen
It would be difficult to find anyone outside of MIBR’s camp, or diehard aspas fans, that would have had any grievances with Cloud9 qualifying for Champions instead. All other regions followed the same tiebreaker rules and would have seen C9 make it, while Americas’ anomaly meant that the league’s final place instead went to an out-of-sorts MIBR.
As a result, expectations for the team were nonexistent heading to Paris, with the side frequently sitting at the bottom of pre-tournament power rankings and widely expected to crash and burn like they did at Masters.
With the difference in tiebreaker rules seen to have most likely been the result of admin negligence, a subsequent disastrous run from MIBR would have made a mockery of their qualification and an embarrassment to the tournament and developer Riot Games itself.
MIBR are actually good, thankfully
Qualification controversy aside, and in spite of their form over the last few months, MIBR, and most importantly aspas, are suddenly back in form.
Their opening matchup was a somewhat kind draw. Though Bilibili Gaming were China’s first seed, their own poor run in Toronto meant that, like MIBR, expectations for a substantial Champs run were not particularly high.
Even still, a 13-2 opening map victory for MIBR was a shock. On BLG’s own Haven pick, MIBR slaughtered their Chinese opposition as IGL Verno led with a ridiculous 18/3/3 record. Aspas then took control on Corrode, dropping 22 kills and helping his side start off their Champs run on the right foot. There were now signs of life, even given the context of that win coming against a weak Bilibili, who were quickly eliminated by RRQ.
Though MIBR followed the win with a loss to Fnatic, their opening map victory, coupled with aspas’ performance across the 2-1 loss to the Europeans, continued to breed confidence in the team’s ability.
Then, another big test against RRQ proved that MIBR really were in Paris to compete. Back-to-back 13-5 wins saw the team knock out their Pacific opponents and earn a place in the knockout stages, guaranteeing a top-eight finish.
Aspas was once again a monster on the server, going 36/14/4 across the two maps with an ACS of 255, bested only by artzin’s 256.
MIBR’s qualification for playoffs is a blessing for the tournament. Not only are fanbases of Brazilian orgs and superstar players always welcomed by organisers, but the avoidance of a potentially embarrassing scene will no doubt have had Riot breathing a sigh of relief.
Had MIBR crashed out early, again, then the tiebreaker fiasco would have become an outright farce. Instead, MIBR have corrected course, snatching the lucky chance they had to compete in Paris and making the absolute most of it to allow the community to quickly forget the dubious circumstances in which they qualified in the first place.
