The final match of Group A at Valorant Champions 2025 was between GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #9 Cloud Kirill Nehozhin grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George and Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #2 NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) coconut Colin Patrick Chung (钟弘祖) , both trying to qualify for the playoff stage. In the end, GX swept XLG 2-0 to eliminate the final Chinese team from Paris.

The first map of the series was Bind, with XLG opting for a solo Waylay and double-Initiator composition, while GX chose double-Controller with Astra and Viper alongside a Deadlock and Raze. XLG took the first pistol thanks to the confidence of NoMan 's Skye, and Rarga got the eco kills to get his ult quickly on the attack side. Add onto that a bonus conversion, and XLG were running away with Bind to start. It took a round where ara picked up the Operator for GX to get their first defense-side round win. Even then, just after, XLG had an amazing read to stop a B long retake and get a free site. GX's hope was built on strong rounds from ara and westside , then further solidified by step-up rounds from Cloud and grubinho . It wasn't enough to truly recover the half, though, as XLG reached the half up 8-4.

GX won the second pistol to claw back some of the deficit, and also converted their attack side bonus round by the tighest of margins.

XLG barely misses a bonus round defuse against GX.

Just as it looked like GX would tie the game with a perfect start to the second half, Rarga showed off his talent on Waylay and won 2 rounds to extend the lead. That hope and drive from GX didn't go away, as a force buy brought the map back within reach. It was a small comeback for GX, but ara closed it out 14-12 to take the series lead.

Next up was Ascent, with both GX and XLG running the default Ascent composition with Jett, KAY/O, and Cypher. GX got the first pistol round off a near-immaculate B site take, and despite losing the bonus conversion, they showed promise on the attack side of a very defense-sided map. XLG was able to take the lead partway through the half, with star moments from coconut and NoMan, but happywei got the most satisfying moment by tucking into the god spot outside A and getting three.

happywei gets three from wine against GX.

XLG entered the half up 7-5, but GX won plenty of rounds for attack-side Ascent. That confidence was evident in their second pistol win on Ascent, with Cloud securing two kills in a risky spot. GX was unable to convert the bonus, but they eventually tied the game at 9-9. Then, some amazing moments from ara and Flickless helped close out the map 13-10 and the series 2-0, securing GX a spot in the Champions 2025 playoffs.

The player of the series was ara, the same player who entered Paris with an illness that he had to overcome, and with his performance against XLG, it was almost like it never happened. He ended the series with a 1.53 match rating, 54 kills in two maps, +23, and 13 first kills.

With this result, GIANTX will move on to the playoff stage of Valorant Champions 2025, while XLG are eliminated from the competition. XLG are still in VCT after Dragon Ranger Gaming Dragon Ranger Gaming China Rank #4 Flex1n Lo Rui (罗瑞) vo0kashu Ilya Ushakov Akeman Zhang Haoran (张浩然) Nicc Shao Yi-qun (邵逸群) SpiritZ1 Lin Dingyu (林定宇) 's loss to G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #2 jawgemo Alexander Mor trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf the other day, but with their elimination, no VCT China teams made it out of the group stage after EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #3 ZmjjKK Zheng Yongkang (郑永康) nobody Wang Senxu (王森旭) CHICHOO Wan Shunzhi (万顺治) Smoggy Zhang Zhao (张钊) Jieni7 Zhang Juntai (张君泰) 's championship run in 2024.