VALORANT: KRÜ, Wolves, Vitality, KCorp… the Big Absentees from Champions Paris

As Champions are about to begin in just a few days, Sheep Esports takes a look at some of the most notable VALORANT teams that will be absent from Champions Paris 2025. Out of the sixteen squads that managed to qualify for the competition, only Fnatic and DRX have taken part in every single World Championship so far. Although, it is worth remembering that the South Korean organization owes this record to its acquisition of Vision Strikers back in January. 2022.

The first major absentee from this year’s Champions is without a doubt KRÜ Esports, the team founded by former Argentinian football star Sergio Agüero. Having appeared in all four previous editions of Champions, KRÜ could have joined Fnatic and DRX as one of the very few organizations to feature at every VALORANT Worlds. However, 2025 turned out to be a difficult year for them, as the team spent most of the VCT Americas season stuck in the middle of the pack. After a promising Top 4 finish at the Kickoff, KRÜ only slipped further down, finishing 5th-6th in Stage 1 and eventually 7th-8th in Stage 2. Those results left them far away from qualifying for Paris, a disappointing outcome for such a historic name.

Another unexpected absence comes from Wolves Esports and their charismatic captain Pong "SiuFatBB" Ka-hei. The Chinese squad, who made headlines with their surprise Masters Toronto run, ultimately fell short of qualifying for Champions. Wolves started modestly with a Top 9-12 at the Kickoff before breaking out in Stage 1 with a Top 3 finish, earning their very first international LAN appearance. In Canada, they stunned the scene by securing a podium finish, putting themselves in an excellent position to aim for Paris. But the dream quickly faded during Stage 2, where Wolves crashed out at the bottom of their group with only one win and four losses, ending any hopes of reaching France.

Team Vitality, the champions of the EMEA Kickoff, also failed to book their ticket to Champions later in the year. With Felipe "Less" Basso, world champion in 2022 with LOUD, and Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev, one of the game’s true superstars, the Hive entered the season as one of the strongest contenders in their region. After their impressive early triumph and a solid Top 4 at Masters Bangkok, Vitality’s season unraveled. A pair of disappointing 7th-8th place finishes in Stage 1 and Stage 2 effectively ended their run, a bitter result considering the caliber of their roster and the resources invested in the project.

Finally, Gen.G Esports might be the biggest disappointment from the VCT Pacific region, given the potential they showed early in the season. They opened strong with a Top 3 at the Kickoff and a runner-up finish in Stage 1, setting themselves up as a real force going into Masters Toronto. But while they managed a respectable Top 5-6 there, the performance did not match expectations. Returning home to the Pacific league, Gen.G began to show cracks. Despite sitting comfortably in the circuit points ranking, the team barely scraped through their group in fourth place and were quickly eliminated in the first round of playoffs by Rex Regum Qeon. With no further opportunities to redeem themselves, Gen.G’s hopes of making it to Paris ended abruptly.

An arena without its host

Storyline, yet a notable absentee in this context, Karmine Corp will also be missing from Champions Paris. A large part of the competition, apart from the final three days of the playoffs, will actually take place at the Arènes d’Évry-Courcouronnes, located an hour and a half south of Paris, the very venue that usually serves as KCorp’s home ground for its major events.In the game itself, the arrival of seasoned veterans Matias "Saadhak" Delipetro and Dmitrii "SUYGETSU" Iliushin, combined with the addition of promising talents such as Hazem "avez" Khaled and Efe "Elite" Teber, failed to produce the expected breakthrough. After finishing 9th–12th at the Kickoff and then 7th–8th in Stage 1, KC had to wait for the Esports World Cup qualifiers to find a potential first path back toward success.That momentum, however, proved short-lived. Despite managing a quarterfinal run in Saudi Arabia, the team was unable to carry that form into Stage 2, once again finishing 7th–8th, a result that ultimately meant missing out on qualification.