VALORANT Champions 2025 is slated to start on September 12th, it will be the 5th edition of the international esports tournament. The final international tournament for the VCT 2025 season will be held in Paris, France, at the Les Arènes de Grand Paris Sud. The top 16 teams from all four regional VCT Leagues will face off against each other. In this article, we take a look at all past winners of VALORANT Champions.
| Event | Winners | Region | Roster | Prize Money Won | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berlin
2021 | Ascend | Europe | BONECOLD cNed Kiles starxo zeek | $350,000 | Gambit Esports |
| Istanbul 2022 | Loud | Brazil | pANcada Sacy Saadhak aspas Less | $300,000 | OpTic gaming |
| Los Angeles
2023 | Evil Geniuses | NA | Boostio Ethan jawgemo C0M Demon1 | $1,000,000 | Paper Rex |
| Seoul
2024 | EDward Gaming | CN | CHICHOO nobody ZmjjKK Smoggy S1Mon | $1,000,000 | Team Heretics |
| Paris
2025 | NRG | NA | Ethan s0m mada brawk skuba | $1,000,000 | FNATIC |
This tournament has had four iterations thus far. VALORANT was only officially released on June 2, 2020. Riot initially used a gradual development process for the VALORANT esports scene. Initially, there were privately organized events with the goal to kickstart the pro-gaming scene. Following this we saw ecosystem move on to joint partnerships like First Strike before the launch of the Valorant Championship Tour and the four partnership leagues.
During each season of the Valorant Championship Tour, there are three regional tournaments and three international tournaments. The mid-season international tournaments are known as VALORANT Masters. The final tournament at the end of the VALORANT Esports season is called VALORANT Champions. Many even refer to it as the world championship tournament of VALORANT or even the VCT Championship. In the detailed list below, we have shared who won VALORANT Champions in the past and what brought them there.
Image credits: Riot Games
The first team in VALORANT Esports to be crowned World Champions is Valorant Champions history is Ascend. Sadly, as of the writing of this article, all but one player from the original team are now playing within the VCT Leagues. Bonecold retired in 2024; Kiles, starxo, and zeek still play in the VALORANT Challengers League in EMEA. Recently, cNed played for FUT Esports but sadly couldn’t qualify for VALORANT Champions 2025.
This team, during VALORANT Champions 2021, proved why VALORANT Esports will be one of the most exciting Esports to watch worldwide. During this event, Ascend dominated the group stage, topping their group with a 2-0 score. During that time, the playoffs phase of the tournament was a single-bracket tournament. Ascend defeated the likes of Team Secret and Team Liquid in a clean sweep, with a scoreline of 2-0, to reach the grand finals.
The grand finals were a 5-match thriller between Acend and Gambit Esports. During that match, nAts performed like a demon, having a KDA of 93/62/31. Despite their performance, Gambit Esports couldn’t secure crucial rounds, resulting in Ascend becoming the first-ever VALORANT World Champions. During that match, we saw a glimpse of what one could expect from the Turkish duelist cNed.
Image credits: Riot Games
If we had to list out some of the best teams to have won the VALORANT Champions trophy in the past few years, it would be LOUD Esports. That team consisted of some of the best Valorant players from South America. This was the last tournament to take place before the launch of the VALORANT partnership league. For teams to qualify for this event, they needed to secure enough circuit points to qualify from their region. LOUD at that time qualified from the Brazil region. During the group stages, we saw LOUD finish in second place within their group, having lost against their rivals Optic Gaming.
In the playoffs, they defeated the likes of Leviathan and DRX to qualify for the upper bracket final. In this match, they faced off against Optic Gaming once again. This time, they got their revenge and won 2-0, securing their spot in the finals. During the grand finals of VALORANT Champions 2022, we got to see the rubber match between LOUD and Optic Gaming. LOUD once again defeated their opponents 3-1 and became VALORANT World Champions.
Image credits: Riot Games
In our list of VALORANT Champions winners, Evil Geniuses will always be a name that surprises everyone. This team was on the brink of qualifying for VALORANT Champions 2023. When they did, no one had any hopes for this team. The Season 16 teams were participating in VALORANT Champions 2023, with the Chinese teams qualifying through open qualifiers. During the group stage, Evil Geniuses defeated FunPlus Phoenix and FUT Esports 2-0. Thus, qualifying for the playoffs phase of the tournament.
During the playoffs, they defeated EDward Gaming and DRX to qualify for the upper bracket finals. During this match, they lost to PRX 2-1 and faced off against LOUD, the defending champions from 2023. In the lower bracket finals, Evil Geniuses defeated LOUD 3-2 and qualified to face off against Paper Rex in the grand finals. The Evil Geniuses went on to exact their revenge and defeat Paper Rex 3-1, becoming the VALORANT World Champions in 2023.
Image credits: Riot Games
The VALORANT World Champions 2024 are the powerhouse of Chinese VALORANT: EDward Gaming. In 2024 they shocked everyone after defeating Team Heretics in the Grand Finals. Back in the 2024 VCT Season, EDward Gaming were unstoppable in the VCT CN league. They had blitzed past all the other teams at Valorant Champions to win as many tournaments as they could within their region. During this time, their performances in the two VALORANT Masters Tournaments during that season weren’t ideal.
Going into the tournament, they weren’t the favourites, but rather the dark horses to watch out for. In the group stages, the team finished in 2nd place after defeating Paper Rex in a nail-biting elimination match. Following that, they dominated in the upper bracket, beating the likes of Sentinels and Leviatan to reach the Grand Finals. In the grand finals, they faced off against Team Heretics.
Team Heretics won map one 13-6. EDward Gaming won the following two maps on the bounce, taking us to Map 4. On Map 4, Team Heretics narrowly won the map, taking us to game 5. On Abyss, ZmjjKK proved why he is one of the best duelists in the world, securing the trophy for EDward Gaming. Following this victory, EDward Gaming became the first Chinese team to win a VALORANT Champions tournament and the first Chinese team to win an international VALORANT tournament.
Image credit: Riot Games
The current VALORANT World Champions are none other than NRG. Their victory this year was truly unexpected. In the 2025 VCT Season, they failed to qualify for any international VALORANT tournament and finished in 7th place during both the VCT Americas kickoff and Stage One. Heading into VCT Americas Stage 2, not many fans expected them to qualify for VALORANT Champions 2025.
NRG went on to lose their first group-stage match. They went on a 4-game winning streak and secured a playoff spot. They reached the grand finals against G2 Esports. In the Grand Finals, they lost in a clean sweep, 3-0, to G2 Esports.
However, during the group stage of the tournament, something clicked for the team, and they won the tournament undefeated. Along their impressive run, they defeated notable teams such as EDward Gaming, MIBR, and DRX. In the grand finals, they faced FNATIC and won 3-2. Brock “brawk” Somerhalder was awarded the MVP of the tournament. Just a few weeks after their victory, the team’s in-game leader, Sam “s0m” Oh, announced his retirement from VALORANT Esports.
Featured image credits: Riot Games
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