VALORANT - Champions 2025: MIBR, a first for almost everyone (3/16)

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 Friday, the countdown continues with the introduction of Made In Brazil (MIBR), VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) Americas 4th seed.

MIBR entered 2025 with major roster changes, looking to improve on last year’s underwhelming campaign. In 2024, the Brazilian mainstay finish 6th in the Kickoff tournament and 11th in Stage 1 and Stage 2. To address this, the organization turned to Challengers League talent, signing Eduardo “xenom” Soeiro and Gabriel “cortezia” Cortez to help support long-time member Arthur “artzin” Araujo. The team also briefly brought in Agustin “Nozwerr” Ibarra for Kickoff. The crown jewel of MIBR's offseason, however, was Erick “aspas” Santos, one of the most renowned players in VALORANT history.

With their revamped roster, MIBR started strong, finishing 3rd at the Kickoff tournament . After the split, Andrew “Verno” Maust came in from NRG to replace Nozwerr, and immediately clicked with the team; MIBR once again secured 3rd place at Stage 1, earning a ticket to the second international tournament of the year, Masters Toronto. However, the international stage proved challenging: MIBR were eliminated early, finishing 11th–12th after back-to-back 0–2 losses to Gen.G and Team Liquid.

Stage 2 brought further struggles. The Brazilian team finished 5th of Group Omega in 2–3, failing to advance to playoffs. Still, thanks to their two podium finishes earlier in the season, they'd collected enough Championship Points to lock in their first-ever qualification for Champions. For MIBR — one of Brazil’s most storied FPS organizations — this marks a historic milestone in just their second year of VCT competition.

MIBR can celebrate their first ever qualification for the biggest tournament on the VALORANT scene, but the competition is likely to be tough. They will have to face all the best teams in the world, and the Champions' map pool doesn't favor the fourth American seed. Indeed, the team's best maps, Icebox, Split, and Pearl*, won't be part of the Champions map pool. A shame for MIBR, given their high win rate on these maps: Icebox 82% (11 games played), Split 67% (12 games played), Pearl 67% (7 games played).

To make matters worse, some of MIBR’s weakest maps are in rotation. The team has a 0% winrate on Ascent (5 games), 18% on Lotus (11 games), and 43% on Haven (7 games). For Verno and his teammates, adapting to this rotation will be essential if they want to turn their debut Champions run into a memorable one.

Much of MIBR’s success in 2025 has been tied to the performances of their superstar Duelist, aspas. The 2022 World Champion has once again been the driving force for his team, consistently ranking among the region’s best.

During VCT Americas Kickoff, aspas posted an Average ACS of 248.8 (3rd overall) and a K:D of 1.38 (3rd). He maintained elite form in Stage 1, finishing with the 3rd-best ACS (241.4) and the highest K:D in the league (1.35). Despite a difficult Stage 2 for the team, aspas still landed in the top 10 across both stats, with an ACS of 227.4 (8th) and a K/D of 1.22 (8th).

Once again, aspas will be a player to watch in the 2025 Champions edition. His appearance marks his fourth consecutive VCT Champions; he's one of the most decorated players in the game's history. Across his previous three runs at the tournament, he's never placed lower than 3rd: He won the title with LOUD in 2022, placed third with LOUD in 2023, and placed third once again in 2024, but with Leviatán. aspas, considered the best player in the world in 2022, will therefore be able to bring all his experience and expertise to a relatively inexperienced roster on the world stage.