The upper bracket quarterfinals of the second day of the playoffs at Valorant Champions 2025 delivered huge surprises in terms of intensity, with the games ending far quicker compared to day one. MIBR dismantled Team Heretics 2-0, while NRG put on a statement performance against GIANTX to move deeper into the bracket without dropping a map. Heretics and GX now must fight in elimination rounds, while MIBR and NRG will face off in the upper bracket. Both games were dominant wins from the Americas representatives, with NRG’s brawk even setting a new record for the best K/D at Champs in history.
MIBR vs Team Heretics — Brazilian Precision Overwhelms Los Niños
In the MIBR vs Heretics opener, the vetoes played out as MIBR banning Lotus and Heretics banning Abyss. MIBR then picked Corrode, Heretics responded with Sunset. The remaining maps and bans left Haven on the table, but MIBR did not allow a decider to even come into play, as they started off strong on their opening pick, and followed it up with a dominant map two win.
Map 1 — Corrode: MIBR win 14-12
What began as a tightly contested map saw MIBR find an advantage as the first half wore on, eventually culminating in an 8-4 lead for the Brazilians. However, on their attack side, Heretics looked far more convincing, and pushed the map to overtime. Despite the resilience shown by Heretics and their comeback, during overtime, MIBR locked in. They gained slight advantages that they converted convincingly and after a clean post-plant, shut down their opponents to close Corrode out 14-12.
Artzin on KAY/O stood out in the first map, not just for his phenomenal util, but his raw stats. His ACS of 280, four first kills, and overall frags and trades were the highest in the lobby, and he made several decisive plays in late rounds to tip the balance in MIBR’s favor. He was central to converting small advantages into map wins.
Map 2 — Sunset: MIBR win 13-6
On their pick, MIBR dominated, once again starting out strong on defense on Sunset. They built up a 5-1 lead, which they eventually converted into a 9-3 advantage at the end of the half. The first half already showed the control MIBR had over the pace of the map; they built a lead that Heretics couldn’t wrestle back. Post-swap, MIBR put together a decisive attacking side, fuelled by aspas’ Neon, never letting Heretics back in. The final was a decisive 13-6 for MIBR, and a 2-0 win putting the Americas rep into the upper semifinal.
Aspas was the star for MIBR on this map. He posted a 4/0 first kill/death ratio, had an ACS of 284, and had superb impact in terms of the sheer space taken off his util. Combined with Verno and cortezia’s util and frags/trades, MIBR looked stronger as a team, with a defense Heretics just couldn’t break through, coupled with an attack they could not hold against.
Across both maps, in terms of both raw stats and utility usage, Artzin takes the series MVP. His consistency under pressure in the tight opening map, combined with smart utility and impact plays as well as the setup he gave Aspas on multiple rounds, helped lock the series before map 2 tilted heavily toward MIBR. Across the board however, MIBR looked incredible, with every player having an impact moment. Heretics, on the other hand, after a short burst on Haven, never really seemed to look comfortable.
NRG vs GiantX — NRG Crushes GX 2-0 to Advance
NRG’s matchup with GIANTX was a question mark, with both teams having their inaugural year at Champions, and having at least a couple of players for whom Champions Paris is their first international event. GX chose Haven to be the first map of play, followed by NRG’s choice of Lotus. After bans, the decider was left to be Abyss, but the series didn’t get that far since NRG did not mess around.
Map 1 — Haven: NRG win 13-1
NRG chose to start on attack, putting GX on defense, and they never looked back with their Neon/Sova/Omen attack looking incredible, and their Viper and KJ controlling the rest of the map. In fact, NRG won every single attack round, one after the other. GIANTX’s defenses were broken repeatedly, and by the half it was already heavily in NRG’s favor to the order of 11-1. The second half was just cleanup: a 4K from Brawk in the pistol ended any hopes of a comeback, and NRG shut down the map 13-1, completely dominating GX.
Brawk on Sova annihilated GX on Haven. He ended with 18 kills / 1 death / 8 assists, and an ACS of 324, setting a new record at Champions for the best K/D performance. He was everywhere — entry frags, clutch plays, post-plant reads, and his Odin was oppressive to boot.
Map 2 — Lotus: NRG win 13-6
On their pick, NRG kept up the pressure that their map one win had built up. Their momentum from that carried over into Lotus as they once again overcame a 3-3 start to end out the map 9-3 in their favor after another incredible attacking side. GX tried to adapt, but the damage was done and NRG’s lead was too much for GX to overcome. NRG won Lotus 13-6 and dominated throughout the series.
Mada delivered a strong performance on Raze. All three rookies for NRG: brawk, skuba, and mada had incredible stats on this map, and ensured NRG’s attack and post-plant looked unstoppable. Brawk gets the overall MVP for the series though; his unforgettable and record-setting performance on map 1 set the tone for the sweep. Mada’s Lotus showing was great, as was the overall performance from the entire NRG squad, but brawk’s domination on Haven and presence across both maps earns him top honors.
Playoff elimination next at VALORANT Champions
With these matches done, two elimination matches will see the first exits from the Champions Paris playoffs. The losers of DRX vs G2 Esports and GIANTX vs Team Heretics will be sent home. Meanwhile, NRG and MIBR set up a clash in the upper semifinal after their wins.
