The Upper Bracket Finals of VALORANT Champions concluded with NRG defeating FNATIC 2-0. This victory places NRG one step closer to winning the tournament for the first time. In the second match of the day, DRX defeated Paper Rex and crushed their dreams of winning another trophy in 2025. Here is everything you need to know about what went down during VALORANT Champions 2025 on October 3rd.
If there was one team that very few people had as their favorites in this tournament, it would be NRG. Going into this tournament, the team finished runners-up in the grand finals of VCT Americas Stage 2. They lost 3-0 against G2 Esports and, during the group stages of VALORANT Champions 2025, defeated EDward Gaming in a clean sweep 2-0 for the first time.
Following this, they showcased their mental fortitude by completing the reverse sweep against DRX 2-1. In the playoffs, they defeated the likes of GiantX and MIBR, securing their spot in the Upper Bracket Finals. In their latest match, they faced off against FNATIC. The last time these two teams met was at the 2023 VALORANT Masters Tokyo.
During the first map of the 2025 VALORANT Champs Upper Bracket Finals, NRG took the lead 8-4. FNATIC initiated their comeback and took the game to overtime on Ascent. Many of us have seen a similar story to this in the past, but things were different this time. During overtime, NRG secured the win with a score of 14-12.
On the second map, NRG dominated FNATIC on the attack and ended the first half with a score of 11-1. Interestingly, FNATIC didn’t take many timeouts during the first half. The second half ended with NRG winning with a comfortable 13-15 scoreline. If there was one player who stole the spotlight, it was skuba. He played on Vyse during both matches and ended the game with a KDA of 39/22/10.
Image: Riot Games
The second match of the day was between DRX and Paper Rex, a VCT Pacific derby. Going into this match, Paper Rex were the favorites. This was clearly on display during the first half of map 1. Paper Rex were in the lead 9-3. Like in the past, Paper Rex just couldn’t beat the 9-3 curse. DRX made the comeback to 10-10 and then to 12-12. During overtime, DRX secured the win 15-13. During this match, Hyunmin was playing Waylay and ended the first half with seven kills. By the end of the map, he had 36 total kills and eight first skills to his name.
Before map 2, many people could sense that the mentality of Paper Rex was down the drain. This became painfully evident in this map. On Lotus, Paper Rex just couldn’t keep their composure and lost the map 13-8. While Jinggg tried his level best on Raze, that wasn’t enough. With this Paper, Rex finishes their VALORANT Champions journey in 4th place.
FNATIC will face off against DRX in the Lower Bracket Finals on October 4th. Interestingly, MaKo from DRX and Crashies from FNC will face off against each other for the second time in the lower bracket finals of a VALORANT Champions tournament. The first time they faced off was during VALORANT Champions 2022 in the Lower Bracket Finals. During that crash, Crashies was part of Optic Gaming, while MaKo was still with DRX. Only time will tell which of these veterans will emerge victorious in this face-off and lead their team to the grand finals.
Featured image credit: Riot Games / Valorant Esports
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