Sixteen teams are gearing up for VALORANT Champions 2025, with all eyes on its $2.25m (~£1.66m) prize pool. However, one organisation will be looking to achieve a historic feat — becoming a back-to-back champion.
Following Group Stage previews for Groups A and B, Esports Insider returns to dive into Group C‘s participants.
This stacked lineup, featuring VCTEMEA Stage 2 winner Team Liquid, reigning VALORANT world champion EDward Gaming (EDG) and Americas dark horse NRG, leaves little room for mishaps, while putting an inconsistent DRX in a seemingly insurmountable underdog position.
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Team Liquid’s Shot at International Glory
Team Liquid heads to VALORANT Champions as the EMEA’s first seed in Group C and one of the event favourites.
How did the team get to this pole position? The foundation to Team Liquid’s success was laid back in 2022 with the signing of Ayaz ‘nAts’ Akhmetshin. The legendary in-game leader (IGL) has been recognised for his innovation on Viper and Cypher and for inspiring his rosters during games.
Three years later, it seems like Team Liquid has managed to develop a well-oiled system around nAts, featuring selfless duelist player Kamil ‘kamo’ Frąckowia, a high-fragging smoker/second duelist in Georgio ‘keiko’ Sanassy and its most recent signing Nikita ‘trexx’ Cherednichenko.
The stacked roster placed second and third at EMEA Kickoff and Stage 1, respectively, but ramped up to claim the Stage 2 trophy from Grand Final opponent GIANTX (3-0).
However, Team Liquid has yet to prove that it can translate its potential into success on the global stage. Both Masters runs (Bangkok and Toronto) this year have ended with early exits. However, its Toronto elimination was likely due to nAts’ Visa issues and initial absence.
Thankfully, nAts has concluded Stage 2 in top form and is guaranteed to be in Paris for his team’s opening series against DRX on September 13th. In this series, Team Liquid will aim to get a head start in the race towards its first international trophy.
Does NRG Lack Strategic Depth?
Group C’s second seed, NRG, is a true dark horse, at least when taking into account its recent performance during VCT Americas Stage 2.
Despite notable players on its roster, including 2023 Champions winner, Ethan ‘Ethan’ Arnold, NRG started the 2025 season with two consecutive losses at Kickoff. Similarly, the team barely survived the VCT Americas Stage 1 Group Stage and lost its first Playoffs series in the lower bracket.
Therefore, few expected NRG to lead Group Omega during VCT Stage 2 and later persevere through the Playoffs against regional favourites, such as Cloud9 (2-1) and Sentinels (3-1).
The North American squad was ultimately defeated by G2 Esports (0-3) in the Grand Final. However, NRG’s defensive protocols and Odin plays left a lasting impression among viewers and opponents alike. On defence, NRG’s duelist, Adam ‘mada’ Pampuch, established himself as arguably the region’s best Operator player.
The attack side is where this team struggles at times, as it relies heavily on carefully crafted site executes. Not only can these be studied and countered by enemy teams, but they also leave little room for on-the-fly adaptations mid-round.
The team will need to showcase improved strategic depth and versatility to secure its first series on September 13th against EDG and continue outsmarting future opponents. However, the organisation has already defied expectations once in VCT Stage 2, so it could possibly do the same in Paris.
EDward Gaming Has a Point to Prove
As the reigning VALORANT world champion, EDward Gaming (EDG) requires little introduction. The Chinese roster was the region’s shining star for several seasons and earned global recognition with its 3-2 Grand Final victory over EMEA’s Team Heretics at Champions in 2024.
So how did such an accomplished organisation end up as the region’s third seed for Paris? Well, EDG has struggled to maintain its 2024 dominance following the departure of Hsieh ‘S1Mon’ Meng-hsun.
Prior to this sudden change in April, the roster won VCT China Kickoff and reached third place at Masters Bangkok. However, started to go downhill afterwards, as first XLG Esports and then Bilibili Gaming broke EDG’s flawless regional win streak during Stage 1, finishing the event fourth.
Securing another fourth-place finish in VCT China Stage 2, EDG only qualified for Champions thanks to its VCT Points standing. Moreover, the team has not had the best read on the current meta, failing to successfully adopt popular Yoru team compositions.
Despite this daunting picture, EDG fans have reasons to be hopeful. First, the Chinese team has already proven its ability to defy expectations, with its previous Champions run. Second, Abyss will return to the active map pool for this year’s Championship, which was historically a strong map for EDG.
Finally, EDG and, particularly, its star duelist Zheng ‘ZmjjKK’ Yongkang have had three weeks to prepare for this event and fine-tune its Yoru usage.
EDG has all the necessary tools to become the first back-to-back VALORANT Champions. The question is whether the team can deploy itself effectively to once again disrupt the community’s pick’ems.
Is DRX Doomed in Group C?
DRX has been dealt a rough hand with its Group Stage match-ups. Despite winning Kickoff at the start of the 2025 VCT season, the Pacific team has recorded an underwhelming year so far.
At Masters Bangkok, DRX was eliminated in the Group Stage. During Stage 1, the roster finished fourth, missing out on Masters Toronto entirely. Finally, in Stage 2, it claimed the top rank within Group Alpha just to suffer an early Playoffs elimination at the hands of TALON (1-2) and Rex Regum Qeon (0-2)
It was only thanks to RRQ’s victory over TALON in the Lower Bracket Final that the final Pacific slot at Champions was given to DRX based on VCT Points.
DRX has also trialled different active roster iterations throughout the season, leaving the community to speculate who among its seven signed players will take the stage in Paris.
Still, the team is brimming with potential. For instance, in-game leader (IGL), Kim ‘MaKo’ Myeong-kwan, is one of the most experienced players in this region, and Song ‘HYUNMIN’ Hyun-min has impressed analysts with his impact in the duelist role. Furthermore, DRX can return to one of its favourite playgrounds, Abyss, for Champions.
Although an upset over Team Liquid is unlikely, DRX has enough starpower and experience on VCT’s international stages to go on a run when it matters most.
VALORANT Champions Paris 2025 will kick off on September 12th and broadcast across VCT’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.
Esports Insider’s other VALORANT Champions 2025 Group Previews
Source: https://esportsinsider.com/
