In the last match before VCT Champions Paris moves venues to the Accor Arena, DRX DRX Korea Rank #4 Flicker Kim Tae-hee (김태희) Flashback Cho Min-hyuk (조민혁) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) eliminated MIBR MIBR Brazil Rank #1 zekken Zachary Patrone tex Ian Botsch Mazino Roberto Rivas Verno Andrew Maust aspas Erick Santos with a 2-1 win, moving on in the lower bracket.

The map ban process came with no shortage of surprises. MIBR won their pick of Sunset 13-10, DRX won Ascent 15-13, and DRX won Bind 13-9.

The series opened on Sunset, which was a bit of a collector's item. The map had long been DRX's perma ban, being their go-to veto dating back to the beginning of Pacific Stage 2. MIBR went for the same comp it used against Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #5 Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish ComeBack Berkcan Şentürk Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius just days before, combining Viper and Omen with Sova, Cypher, and Neon. DRX, which has been playing a double-Duelist comp dubbed the 'mosquito comp' lately, fielded a near-mirror comp, with the only difference being Waylay instead of Viper.

The map started with pure domination from DRX, who chose to start on defense. Going for the more meta Neon as opposed to the Yoru meant that DRX had no true flashes to rely on. That was not a big issue for the Pacific side on defense. A 6-0 start gave DRX a strong start out of the gates, and the half ended with a 9-3 advantage for them. The scoreline was the same one that MIBR ended its defense half against Team Heretics.

Switching to attack, the lack of flashes appeared to hinder DRX. While MIBR had the additional Controller in artzin 's Viper, DRX struggled to enter with its one-two punch that came with the Yoru-Waylay. After giving up six straight to MIBR, a hero round from HYUNMIN reclaimed a momentary lead for DRX, but it did not last long.

DRX failed to claim a single first blood on attack and saw their set plays shut down with relative ease. At one point, MIBR's strong economy meant that aspas would throw away the Operator in favor of the cheaper Outlaw on certain rounds. MIBR looked comfortable in every aspect, closing out the map 13-10 with four straight wins to end.

With the banned Abyss being one of the strongest maps in DRX's map pool, DRX picked Ascent, a map that has been MIBR's second ban on many occasions, and a map that they are yet to win on in 2025. DRX Duelist Flashback was back on Yoru, while aspas played Jett, his signature agent.

MIBR elected to start on attack, and against the double-Duelist comp, managed just five rounds. The map was back and forth, with MIBR winning three of the first four rounds before losing six of the next eight. On attack, DRX struggled to hold back the MIBR attack. MIBR won the pistol again, making their lead in that category 3-1, and the map continued to be on a knife-edge.

An aspas 4K to force overtime appeared to give MIBR the momentum, but the fight on Ascent was to be the first team to win a defense round. While aspas and cortezia combined for 50 kills between the two of them, they just did not have enough in the end. A 24-kill map from BeYN , who also had a team-leading performance on Sunset, 23 from free1ng , and 20 from Flashback led the way for DRX, who won a defense round in the second set of overtime rounds to clinch a 15-13 win and force map three.

Both teams went for near-mirror comps with a double-Duelist, double-Controller approach. The only difference, of course, was HYUNMIN's Waylay and aspas's Raze. Bind has been a solid but shaky map for both teams, but DRX entered with a bit of momentum, with their 13-7 series-clinching win over G2 Esports G2 Esports North America Rank #2 jawgemo Alexander Mor BABYBAY Andrej Francisty trent Trent Cairns valyn Jacob Batio leaf Nathan Orf fresh in their memory.

After dropping the first two rounds, MIBR appeared to build some momentum, but were shut down by a DRX thrifty, which helped DRX snowball a bit themselves. DRX started their defender side in a groove, performing well on both ends of the map with a strong presence in Bath and B, effectively funneling the attacking MIBR into Flashback's Operator. With no flank-watching utility to speak of, DRX played proactively on defense, claiming open space to take space behind MIBR backs to claim an early 6-2 lead. MIBR stormed back though, winning four straight to enter halftime with the honors even at 6-6.

DRX won the pistol round again to make the score on pistols an even 3-3, but stormed forward. They played a clean, coordinated attack side, with the mosquito comp working to near perfection. HYUNMIN's dash in and teleport out broke MIBR crosshairs, setting up his teammates for kills.

With an 11-6 lead, a win against a more patient DRX attack round gave MIBR a glimmer of hope, leading to two straight victories to save their economy from the brink of death. Three straight rounds, including a win where four DRX ults and two MIBR ults were used, saw MIBR claw back to within two, but a timely ace from Flashback put DRX on the doorstep of victory.

MIBR kept clawing back, but their surge of three straight rounds only delayed the inevitable. DRX wrapped up the map 13-10 to win, claiming the final map in flawless fashion to eliminate MIBR.

aspas, after setting the record for kills in an international Bo3 with 80 in the loss to NRG NRG North America Rank #1 keiko Georgio Sanassy brawk Brock Somerhalder mada Adam Pampuch skuba Logan Jenkins Ethan Ethan Arnold , had yet another strong performance, dropping 76 but coming up short. BeYN, free1ng, and Flashback all finished with above 50 kills, with Flashback's 55 leading the DRX effort.

After fumbling a handful of large leads earlier in the competition, DRX pulled through with a monumental win, which earns them their first top-four placement since Champions 2022. Meanwhile, MIBR will head home with a 5th-6th finish, ending a monumental year for the organization, which saw it reach the international stage for the first time ever.

Up next

With wins in the lower bracket, DRX and Paper Rex Paper Rex Asia-Pacific Rank #1 invy Adrian Jiggs Reyes Jinggg Wang Jing Jie f0rsakeN Jason Susanto d4v41 Khalish Rusyaidee something Ilya Petrov set up a regional clash for the right to advance to the lower final. With finals weekend awaiting, VCT Champions Paris will go dark for three days before moving into the Accor Arena, with the following matches to close out the event of the year:

• FNATIC vs. NRG (Upper final)
• Paper Rex vs. DRX (Lower Round 3)
• TBD vs. TBD (Lower final)
• TBD vs. TBD (Grand final)