VALORANT - Champions 2025: T1 the overtime slayer, Heretics took its revenge against G2

Day 3 of the VALORANT Champions in Paris, the winner of the Masters Bangkok takes the win! T1 outlasted DRG in two nail-biting matches to secure their place in the Winners Match. Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, Team Heretics swept G2 Esports with relentless mid-rounding and momentum-swinging clutches. This sets up a blockbuster T1 versus Team Heretics match for first place in the group, while G2 will face DRG to avoid elimination.

Lotus, pick of DRG and Max “Demon1” Mazanov's first match as a replacement for the Sentinel Ilya "vo0kashu" Ushakov, with a composition where Demon1 takes out Vyse and Zhang "Akeman" Haoran Waylay. The Chinese start strong, but T1 responds by varying tempos like quick execs, control map and takes the lead 7–5 at the break. The Lin "SpiritZ1" Dingyu Yoru and Shao "Nicc" Yi-qun the IGL on Breach the duo pulled off a series of spectacular plays to tie the score at 12–12, but the Koreans forced overtime and closed out the match 15–13, carried by a clutch DH on Omen.

The second game will take place on Sunset, T1's pick, with almost perfect mirrors except for the initiator, a Fade for DRG and a Sova for T1. The start of the site looks promising for T1, who manage to take the lead thanks to a good retake. At halftime, it's 7-5 for T1, then the Koreans pocket the attack pistol and put the pressure on to 11-7. DRG refuses to give up, comes back to 11-11, and we head into another overtime. In a thrilling money time, Yu "BuZz" Byeong-cheol with Neon and Kim "Meteor" Tae-oh on Cypher rack up the frags, Kim "Stax" Gu-taek steers the end of the round, and T1 closes 16–14, with a decisive 2v4 to seal the series. The winners will play for first place in the group against the winner of Team Heretics vs G2 Esports.

For the 1st map, the Team Heretics' pick. TH kicks things off with a pistol round won thanks to a superb entry by Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukaševičius's Sheriff, but G2 Esports responds immediately with an eco round and then confirms the purchase, carried by Trent "trent" Cairns's Odin impacts. The tone is set: a tight duel between two teams of pure shooters, with lots of multi-kills with Odin and even wall boosts from Jonah "JonahP" Pulice on Sage to surprise with some plays with Operator/Odin. After TH's fourth point, G2 tightens up the game, stacks up the rounds and closes out the side 8–4. Second half. MiniBoo does it again at Sheriff for the pistol entry, and Enes "RieNs" Ecirli scores a 3K at Frenzy in the process. TH imposes a proactive defense, refusing to give up any free space, but G2 scrapes together some info, even steals the bonus, and catches up. Benjamin David "benjyfishy" Fish then pulls off a masterclass with a 3K in B outfit on Cypher, giving TH the advantage back, before an ACE from RieNs on Odin on A-main explodes the momentum: 12–8, four map balls. G2 hangs on to force overtime, but to no avail: TH closes out 13–10 on his pick and takes the lead in the series.

First half, G2 launches Lotus at home and holds the defense from the start: pistol validated after a superb opening by Alexander "Jawgemo" Mor's Sheriff on Raze, followed by the anti-eco and the bonus to go 3–0, then 5–0. The round-by-round action is tense, with a lot of aggression from NA and painful multi-frags on Odin. But Team Heretics reacts with Mert "wo0t" Alkan on Chamber starts to heat up, RieNs snatches key rounds, and TH methodically chips away to come back to 7–5 at the break, a real breath of fresh air on their attack side.
Second half. On the return, TH takes the pistol, punishes the force-buy, then pockets the bonus, 8–7 Heretics, momentum completely reversed. Behind them, the two teams trade blows, trash talk flies, the coaches are under pressure until the turning point, RieNs and "Boo" pull off a monumental 2v4 that gives TH two match points. In the wake of this, wo0t and Boo cleanly close out the map to seal the 2–0 series win. Team Heretics heads to the Winner's Match against T1, while G2 faces DRG in the elimination match.