VALORANT Champions 2025: Liquid & XLG eliminated from group stage

Team Liquid and XLG Esports exited VALORANT Champions 2025 in Paris on Sunday, which revealed as much about identity as it did mechanics.

Liquid, the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) EMEA top seed, fell 0-2 to DRX after a high-risk game plan that never settled.

Later on, XLG, China’s last hope, were defeated by GIANTX 0-2 despite promising starts on both maps.

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  Fast Payouts

Liquid’s downfall began with a gamble. They picked Corrode with limited reps and shifted Ayaz “nAts” Akhmetshin to Duelist for the first time on LAN.

The surprise carried them to a 6-6 attack half, but DRX flipped the script immediately after the break, chaining pistol and bonus into clean B-site takes to win 13-8.

On Abyss, the rhythm was familiar: Liquid’s patient early rounds produced parity at the half before DRX’s second-half prep and pace shifts drained Liquid’s utility and confidence, closing out the series with a 13-7 win.

The elimination doesn’t indict EMEA—Fnatic and Team Heretics topped their groups, and GIANTX advanced—but it does shine a spotlight on Liquid’s lack of a settled blueprint.

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  The bookies' bookie

The offseason priority is role clarity, a sturdier map pool beyond Abyss and Bind, and repeatable Operator win conditions that don’t telegraph their plans.

With Nikita “trexx” Cherednichenko still bedding in and a core that have shown a playoff ceiling at VALORANT Masters events, the pieces remain viable if the plan tightens.

XLG’s story was the inverse: strong scripts, soft finishes.

On Bind, they rode pistol-plus-bonus and sharp anti-aggression reads to an 8-4 lead, only to be dragged into overtime, where GIANTX sprung a clever A-main trap on defense and burst through a misplaced Brimstone molly to steal it 14-12.

Ascent brought another 7-5 cushion that unraveled once GIANTX claimed pistols and let Eduard-George “ara” Hanceriuc’s Jett dictate entrances with the Operator.

The talent is clear—Teng “happywei” Min-wei’s Cypher impact and James “NoMan” Man’s initiating setups translated—but the late-round protocols and economy pivots did not, resulting in a 13-10 loss.

The path forward is codifying comeback plans, higher pistol conversion, layered bonus rounds, and sturdier post-timeout looks so momentum swings don’t spiral.

As DRX and GIANTX move on to the playoff bracket, Liquid and XLG Esports turn to review rooms and scrim blocks.