VALORANT - Champions 2025: GIANTX, discovering the highest stage (10/16)

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 GIANTX, VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) EMEA’s 2nd seed.

After a difficult debut season in the VCT in 2024 — finishing 10th–11th at Kickoff, 9th–10th in Stage 1, and 10th in Stage 2 — GIANTX set their sights higher for 2025. To make that happen, the Spanish-British organization overhauled its roster, retaining only Kirill “Cloud” Nekhozhin and Semyon “purp0” Borchev. Aaro “hoody” Peltokangas, Adolfo “Fit1nho” Gallego, and Ramses “Famsii” Koivukangas were replaced by Emil “runneR” Trajkovski, Tomás “tomaszy” Machado, and Miłosz “westside” Duda.

In fact, GIANTX managed to improve their performance, but it still wasn't great. The team finished 7th–8th at Kickoff, which immediately triggered further roster changes. tomaszy and runneR were benched, while UCAM players Eduard-George “ara” Hanceriuc and Karel “Flickless” Maeckelbergh were promoted to the VCT roster — all while continuing to compete in the Spanish Challengers League.

Even with those moves, GIANTX failed to climb the standings, placing 9th–10th in Stage 1. Another change followed as Grzegorz “GRUBINHO” Ryczko joined the squad, replacing purp0, who was benched before being loaned out to Joblife in VCL France.

Against all odds, this latest iteration of the roster finally delivered. GIANTX had a breakout Stage 2, finishing second in Group Alpha before pulling off an incredible playoff run, defeating Natus Vincere, Fnatic, and BBL Esports to reach the grand final. Although they fell 3–0 to Team Liquid, the run secured them a spot at Champions 2025 as EMEA’s second seed.

GIANTX will have a fairly balanced map pool. Indeed, if we look at the team's performance over the year, it seems that the Champions' map pool is a real 50/50 for GX. For example, the team has been successful on three maps in the pool: Sunset (71% win rate over seven games), Corrode (67% WR over three games), and Ascent (56% WR over nine games).

On the other hand, among the maps selectable in Paris, there are also three maps on which the team is less comfortable, such as Bind (33% win rate in six games), Lotus (45% in eleven games) and Haven, which is a really average map for the team with a 50% win rate in ten games. One big question mark remains: Abyss, which GIANTX have yet to play in an official match.

One of the standout stories of GIANTX’s rise has been Flickless. The Belgian Initiator, promoted from VCL Spain with UCAM, impressed in his first VCT season and played a key role in the team’s Stage 2 surge, particularly on Breach. While his yearly stats are not really relevant since he joined mid-season, he still finished Stage 2 with the second-highest assists per round in the league (0.46).

His former UCAM teammate, ara, will also be a player to watch for GX. The Romanian Duelist has caused a lot of bloodshed since his arrival in VCT, quickly establishing himself as one of the team’s most dangerous weapons.