FNATIC shut down Paper Rex, win 12 rounds in a row

Esports & Games Writer

Publish Date: September 29, 2025

fnatic beat paper rex valo champs playoffs

With VALORANT Champions 2025 in the playoffs stage, the stakes for each game only get higher. The top eight teams at the tournament are facing off to be crowned the champion.

In the upper bracket of the tournament, Paper Rex was incredibly defeated by FNATIC after losing 12 rounds in a row. Many call this the best comeback of all time as well. NRG proved to be the dark horse during this event, defeating MIBR. Here’s what went down and its impact on VALORANT Champions.

Fnatic take down Paper Rex, proving why they are one of the best

Going into this match, all fans were genuinely excited to see two of the best VALORANT teams in the world. The last time FNATIC and Paper Rex faced off was during the grand finals of VALORANT Masters Toronto 2025.

At the Toronto Masters finals, Paper Rex won 3-1 and claimed their first Masters tournament victory.
After the game, FNATIC posted that they didn’t have the best run of form during VCT EMEA Stage 2.

One point to note is that, before the Champs FNATIC-Paper Rex game, FNATIC player Alfajer was not playing this game due to medical reasons. Thus, FNATIC got back their former player Doma into their team as an emergency substitute.

The first map unfolded in a manner most expected it to.

Fnatic took the lead in the first map. Though they failed to capitalize on the opportunity and lost the map 13-10.
In the second map, they dominated Paper Rex and won 13-4. During this map, it did feel like the players from Paper Rex couldn’t do anything to counter Fnatic on their map pick. Each time we saw some form of brilliance, Fnatic just knew who to shut down Paper Rex.
Map 3 was a game of two halves. Fnatic won the first round, followed by Paper Rex’s victory in the next nine rounds. The first half ended with a score of 9-3. In the previous game against DRX (read about the game here), we saw Fnatic provide a comeback from being 10-2 down to winning it 11-13. During this map, we saw history repeat itself, but in a more dominant manner. FNATIC won 12 rounds back-to-back, with Chronicle being crucial in shutting down Paper Rex. FNATIC won the game with a scoreline of 13-9, proving the 9-3 curse to be as real as it can be.

NRG, the dark horses of this event

NRG, the real dark horses, at valorant champions

Image: Riot Games / Valorant Esports on X (@ValorantEsports)

NRG vs MIBR was a game that showed the best of both teams. Both teams proved why they are in the playoffs this tournament. During the three map series, the first and third maps went into overtime. Each time this happened, NRG won the map with a score of 14-16. NRG was holding its nerves during this game. On the other hand, we saw incredible game play and aggression by MIBR.

While NRG won the match against MIBR, none of their players ended the game on a positive KDA. The reason was due to one player, aspas. On each map, he played a different duelist agent (Jett, Neon, and Waylay). He ended the game with a KDA of 80/42/6. This was by far the highest kills by any player during the match. He also had the highest first kills during the series in 15. This performance by Aspas and NRG demonstrates the importance of individual brilliance, but it won’t always result in a victory.

The next games

With this, NRG will face off against FNATIC in the Upper Bracket Finals of VALORANT Champions. The team that wins will qualify for the Grand Finals.
Paper Rex will face off against Team Heretics while DRX will face off against DRX in the lower bracket.