G2 Esports loses to Team Heretics at VALORANT Champions 2025

Back-to-back-to-back VCT Americas champion G2 Esports made its VALORANT Champions 2025 debut with an unexpected loss against EMEA’s Team Heretics.

In a similar vein, the first match of the day saw a previously shaky T1 defeat VCT China’s Dragon Ranger Gaming.

VCT EMEA’s fourth seed, Team Heretics, began its 2-0 upset over Americas Stage 2 winner G2 Esports with a surprising Corrode pick in the map veto. G2 has yet to win a single game on VALORANT’s newest map, but Team Heretics also kept the map permabanned throughout Stage 2. 

Unsurprisingly for such a defence-sided map, both teams looked more comfortable in the defensive halves. However, Heretics looked overall better prepared in regard to utility min-maxing and creative game plans. Three of its members delivered over 20 kills on the map.

While G2 loved using the Odin on Corrode’s paper-thin architecture, its opponent also used the weapon to melt through G2’s Sage walls. Even more demoralising for Americas’ first seed was when Enes ‘RieNs’ Ecirli achieved a 4K with a single Odin spray on defence.

After an ok 4-8 attack half, Heretics let only two rounds slip through its versatile defence strategies before claiming the map 13-10.

Lotus started well for G2 as the Americas team strung together six rounds on the back of its first pistol win. Still, Team Heretics managed to bounce back (5-7) once Mert ‘Wo0t’ Alkan could afford an Operator on Chamber.

His dominance continued throughout Heretics’ defence side, where the squad secured the second pistol round. This second half primarily came down to which team could take A control. Heretics seemed to recognise this trend and adjusted its defensive strategy accordingly.

Suppressing G2 with effective utility combinations, the underdog won Lotus 13-10.

Before the encounter between G2 and Heretics, VCT China Stage 2 runner-up, Dragon Ranger Gaming (DRG), clashed with Masters Bangkok champion T1. The Chinese Ascension team made its international debut with last-minute stand-in Maximilian ‘Demon1’ Mazanov and lost both maps in overtime (0-2).

DRG’s map pick, Lotus, was scrappy all around as both teams struggled to gather map control on their defence sides. First, DRG found itself repeatedly punished for disjointed, aggressive plays. At the same time, Demon1 returned to the international stage as a pistol round demon, setting his team up for a decent 5-7 defence and a strong start in the second half.

T1’s defence saw the Korean roster not capitalising on the A space freely given by its opponent. As his team seemed to fall apart, T1 rookie Kang ‘DH’ Dong-ho came to life. His repeated clutches shifted the momentum in T1’s favour, which lasted throughout overtime. The team ultimately stole Lotus at 15-13. 

On Sunset, it was T1’s turn to win two pistol rounds, leading into a valuable early Operator buy. Afterwards, DRG managed to break through the opponent’s defences occasionally, despite lacking a Sova or Raze to break defensive Cypher trapwires. Both teams, however, struggled to gain momentum in the face of numerous tech pauses. 

Following a 5-7 half, T1 secured the majority of its slower attack rounds while DRG reliably shut down the enemy’s fast A hits. This half also saw Luo ‘Flex1n’ Rui step up after an underwhelming showing on Lotus.

When it came to overtime, it was T1’s Kim ‘Meteor’ Tae-oh who took it across the finish line. His multi frags against DRG’s solo-swinging members concluded the map 16-14.

Following the debut of all Group D teams at Champions today, winners T1 and Team Heretics are heading towards the upper-bracket on September 18th. 

Meanwhile, G2 and DRG will meet in the group’s lower bracket on September 20th. This also means that one of the members from EG’s 2023 Championship-winning roster, Demon 1 and G2’s Alexander ‘jawgemo’ Mor, will lose their shot at a second Champions trophy next week.

Until then, VALORANT fans can look forward to the opening matches for Group B tomorrow. Starting at 2 PM BST, VCT China Stage 2 champion, Bilibili Gaming, will play against Americas’ third seed, MIBR. Afterwards, it’s time for EMEA legend Fnatic and Pacific’s second seed, Rex Regum Qeon (RRQ), to take the stage.

All VALORANT Champions 2025 matches will be broadcast on VCT’s official YouTube and Twitch channels.