The second week of VALORANT Champions 2025 has become a do-or-die week for some teams. Some of the teams taking part in the tournament faced off in the first round of elimination matches. Shocking, both EDward Gaming and Sentinels got eliminated from the tournament. Here is everything that went down during VALORANT Champions 2025‘s first round of elimination matches.
Going into this tournament, the reigning champions of VALORANT Champions 2025 have been in top form. They were the third seed from the VCT CN League. During the pre-event press conference, the team wasn’t in the best of moods. We didn’t see ZmjjKK in his dynamic demeanor. Instead, he was a lot more mellow. EDward Gaming faced off against Team Liquid in the first elimination match of the tournament. Team Liquid were the winners of VCT EMEA Stage 2.
During this match, nAts truly popped off. He was the clear MVP during the game. EDward Gaming started the match by dominating Team Liquid on the first map 13-3. On map 2, Team Liquid secured the comeback and won 13-6. Finally, on map 3, the game went to overtime on the map of Bind. EDward Gaming got the early advantage, but they couldn’t capitalize.
During round 27, Team Liquid won the round on attack and secured the win on round 28. The IGL of Team Liquid nAts ended the game with a KDA of 60/ 37/9 and 6 first kills to his name. This marked the end of the VALORANT Champions 2024 winners’ run during this tournament. This team is one of the best in their league, but having lost so early was quite disappointing.
Image credits: Riot Games/Valorant Esports
In the biggest shocker of the tournament, Sentinel lost to Xi Lai Gaming. This was quite the upset because everyone expected Setinels to secure a spot in the playoffs. Xi Lai Gaming made a pretty surpising entry into this tournament. With their star duelist Rarga, the team tried their best against Paper Rex but lost in their first match during the tournament. Sentinels had a similar case as they lost against GiantX, the second seed of VCT EMEA.
Going into the match between Xi Lai Gaming and Sentinels, Sentinels were the clear favorites to win. This could be seen within the VLAORANT community as well as the VALORANT odds for this game. Map 1 went according to what many expected, with Sentinels winning it 13-10. On the second map, Lotus, we saw the script undergo significant changes. Xi Lai gaming on Lotus, which was Sentinels’ map pick, won 9 rounds on attack. They went on to win the match with a score of 13-11. Rarga, during this game, shocked the world by playing Sage and dominating the map.
During map three, Sentinels crumbled as Xi Lai Gaming won the first half 7-5. On defense, they shut down the Sentinels’ attack and completed the reverse sweep 2-1. During the map, both Happywei and NoMan popped off. Each ended the game with a KDA of 24/11/7 and 23/11/1 respectively. With this, both the journey of Sentinels and EDward Gaming come to a close, two teams that have won international VALORANT tournaments in the past, but none in 2025.
Featured image credits: Riot Games/Valorant Esports
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