The opening round of the VCT Champions 2025 playoffs wrapped up with another quick series, as NRG NRG North America Rank #1 s0m Sam Oh brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold defeated GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #9 Cloud Kirill Nehozhin grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George 2-0. The series came and went, with both maps wrapping up in quick fashion. NRG won GX's pick of Haven 13-1, and then won their own pick of Lotus 13-6.

Haven was thought to have been a solid map for GX, hence why they picked it. The week before, they captured a monumental 2-1 victory over Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #5 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid with Haven being the decider map. NRG chose to start on attack, putting GX on the weaker defense side. That choice paid dividends.

After winning the pistol and anti-eco rounds but losing the bonus, NRG never looked back. GX had no answer for the NRG attack. Led by mada 's Neon and brawk 's Sova, NRG had no trouble reading the map to get the spike down, finding a plant in all 12 rounds of the first half, and shutting down any form of GIANTX defense. Retakes and quick floods were shut down, with the fight being met with ferocity. On rounds that GX did manage to reach the spike, NRG had plenty of post-plant utility, with Killjoy's Nanoswarms, Viper Snake Bites, and Sova Shock Darts.

The second half was just a matter of winning the pistol and shutting down a GX force buy, which was just another day in the office for NRG.

brawk finished the map 18/1, with his one death being the lone bonus round that NRG dropped. mada and s0m added a further 15 as part of one of the biggest blowouts in recent Champions history.

Icing on the cake. s0m finds a nice 4K to help NRG wrap up map one.

The series then moved to NRG's pick of Lotus. While the map has been a sore spot of sorts for GX, it has been a stronger one in NRG's map pool as of late. Both teams had nearly identical comps, with each side adopting the Omen-Viper double-Controller look with a Raze and Fade. NRG opted for a Vyse, while GX picked Cypher.

GX chose to start on defense, which once again gave NRG the opportunity to hit the ground running. After winning the pistol and anti-eco to get off to a good start, GX slipped as NRG claimed the next three rounds to claim a momentary lead. GX responded to tie it up, but NRG went on another run.

NRG shut down the more proactive defending plays from GX, with brawk's Odin unsurprisingly shutting down several tight angles. Strong and disciplined teamplay, and wonderful reading of the map helped NRG to six straight rounds from there, entering halftime with a 9-3 lead.

GX claimed another pistol, their second of the game, to start the second half. It was a crucial win if they wanted to mount a comeback, but a chaotic-but-coordinated retake consisting of just five Classics got NRG to double digits and one round closer to closing out the series.

Organized chaos in this retake from NRG.

NRG claimed the next two rounds to reach match point, and a brief hiccup saw them drop two rounds to GX, but it only delayed what seemed inevitable since the first half of Haven.

Dropping just seven rounds through two maps, NRG had the largest margin of victory in a two-map Champions playoffs series ever. brawk and mada had 35 and 34 kills each, while s0m had an additional 29.

Up next

NRG continues their dominant Champions run with a matchup against regional opponents MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #1 xenom Eduardo Soeiro cortezia Gabriel Cortez Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos next, while GIANTX falls to the lower bracket, where they will also play a regional opponent in Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #2 Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius .

VCT Champions Paris will continue with the following matches: