The elimination game for Group A at Valorant Champions 2025 pitted one of the most popular teams in Valorant against the best Chinese Ascension team so far. Xi Lai Gaming Xi Lai Gaming China Rank #1 WsLeo Huang Pinwei (黄品维) Lysoar Liang Youhao (梁优好) NoMan James Man Rarga Arthur Churyumov happywei Deng Minwei (邓闵维) defeated Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #6 Reduxx Yassin Aboulalazm Jerrwin Gurjiwan Gill Victor Victor Wong stand-in johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid cortezia Gabriel Cortez JonahP Jonah Pulice 2-1, in a rematch of the upper bracket quarterfinals from Masters Toronto that went the Ascension-winners' way this time around.

The first map of the series was Abyss, with both teams running similar compositions. The only change between the two was the double-Duelist from XLG, while Sentinels instead opted for double-Initiator. bang started the series strong to secure the first pistol with a 1v1 win, but Viva positioned himself perfectly to win the bonus easily. N4RRATE lurking up mid caused some issues for the XLG defense, but the end of the half showed some positive signs from Rarga as XLG entered the half only down 7-5.

Sentinel won the second pistol, but coconut and Viva converted the eco to prevent Sentinels from running away with the map. Some clean XLG post-plants tied the game 8-8, but Sentinels got ahead and always managed to prevent XLG from getting to another tie, and zekken ended the map 13-10.

zekken survives and wins Abyss over XLG.

Next up was Lotus, with the teams continuing to stray differently from each other compositionally. XLG brought back its triple-Sentinel composition from VCT China, while Sentinels ran a more standard composition with double-Controller. Sentinels continued their pistol win rate, but Rarga on Sage prevented the bonus conversion. NoMan was landing some great nets to prevent retakes from Sentinels, as they took the lead on attack side and never relinquished. Rarga and happywei led the team to a 9-3 lead at the half.

Sentinels kept up their pistol round dominance to start the comeback on Lotus, and converted the bonus to make it a reality. XLG won their first defense round on round 17 thanks to coconut, and on the final round before overtime, figured out a C site retake down 4v5 to win Lotus 13-11 and take the series to map three.

XLG close out Lotus with a C site retake.

Last up was Haven, with both teams running the same composition for the first time in the series. Both had Neon as the solo Duelist, Killjoy as the Sentinel, and double-Controller with Viper and Omen. Rarga immediately stomped over Sentinels' A site hold with a triple kill on low HP, getting XLG their first pistol win. Sentinels were quick to get three rounds back, but XLG showed resilience to fight back and get a small 7-5 lead at the half.

Sentinels won the second pistol to tie the series, but lost the bonus to relinquish the lead. Now attacking, Sentinels struggled against the unlocked Rarga on Neon, while both NoMan and happywei also racked up double-digit kills in a half to finish Haven 13-8 to win the series 2-1.

The best player of the series was happywei, who stepped up on a different agent every map and still outfragged everyone else in the lobby. He ended the series with a 1.34 series rating, 262 ACS, 63 kills, 81% KAST, and 169 ADR.

With this win, XLG remains alive at Champions 2025, with their next match against GIANTX to see which team makes it to the playoff stage. As for Sentinels, their VCT 2025 season ends in the group stages of Champions, unable to win a match and bowing out alongside the 2024 champions in EDward Gaming EDward Gaming China Rank #2 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) .