VALORANT - Champions 2025: Team Heretics, a Two-Sided Monster (14/16)

This year's Champions — VALORANT’s annual world championship — will be held in Paris from Sep 12 to Oct 5. To build up to the event, Sheep Esports is presenting one of the 16 qualified teams every day ahead of the tournament. This Tuesdat, the countdown continues with the introduction of Team Heretics, VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) EMEA’s 4th seed.

Heretics had a strong start to Kickoff and maintained that momentum into Stage 1. They reached the EMEA grand final, but were swept by Fnatic. Their second-place finish secured a spot at the Toronto Masters, but the team was eliminated in the Swiss round without winning a map. Heretics responded immediately at the Esports World Cup, producing one of the year's most memorable storylines by sweeping Fnatic to win the title. Mert "Wo0t" Alkan was named MVP. In Stage 2, they kept the momentum and appeared to be the league's pace-setters, going 5–0 in groups.

However, doubted appeared as they were upset in back-to-back playoff series. This caused them to slide to the fourth seed in the EMEA region for Paris. Overall, this year shows that the roster can reach championship level, yet struggles with consistency when the competition heats up.

Heretics are a high-variance contender with real upset potential. They can beat anyone when their spacing, trading, and utility layering are on point. However, they are vulnerable when those fundamentals slip. The mission in Paris is simple: reproduce the EWC level more consistently. If they can gain early confidence in the group stage, they could challenge the top seeds again.

Team Heretics’ title chances are likewise boosted by the Champions map pool. It includes four maps on which the EMEA fourth seed have a positive win rate across 2025: Haven (80% over 15 games), Sunset (75% over 4), Ascent (70% over 10), and Bind (100% over 2). Lotus has been serviceable at 50% over 8, and often looks much stronger when their trading and mid-round calling are clean. However, there are still some questions for TH. The team has only one official on Corrode this year, and Abyss remains a concern with 0% across three Kickoff maps. Those two will require quick, targeted prep for Paris.

Although the pool already suits them, Heretics are missing two of their most-played maps from 2025: Icebox (46% over 13) and Pearl (60% over 5) are absent at Champions. Losing Icebox and Pearl removes familiar looks from their book, putting extra emphasis on polishing Abyss and deepening reps on Corrode.

Heretics' spark plug is a true Duelist. Over the last 90 days, Wo0t has played Jett in 35% of his maps and Iso in 31%. These are by far his two most-used agents, with the occasional use of Fade and KAY/O for specific game plans. This usage pattern highlights his role of taking the first space, pressuring early angles, and converting opening duels so that Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukaševičius and Benjamin "benjyfishy" Fish can trade behind him. On Jett, he averages 1.15 rating with a positive opening split. He stays just as efficient on Iso with 1.21 rating, giving Heretics two distinct entry looks without losing firepower.

The pedigree is there, too. The EWC 2025 MVP wasn't just a narrative award. Wo0t delivered elite performance in the reverse sweep win over Fnatic and excelled under the brightest lights. With his MVP performance and current Jett/Iso form, Wo0t is the barometer for Heretics in Paris. When he wins the first fights and dictates the tempo, Heretics' playbook opens up, and they look like championship contenders.