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NRG vs Fnatic: VALORANT Champions Paris 2025 Grand Finals Preview
It’s time people. The VALORANT Champions Paris 2025 Grand Finals is upon us, and the two final teams remaining in the tournament has just been decided. With the elimination of DRX at the hands of Fnatic, the latter will join NRG for one final Bo5 (Best-of-five) to decide which team will lift the Champions trophy and cap out their competitive year with a monumental victory. It’s NA vs EU baby, let’s get it.
NA vs EU: Which Region Will Reign Supreme?
An age-old rivalry that transcends even VALORANT, we have only one more Bo5 left at Champions 2025 to decide the winner of the entire event. And it’s come down to Fnatic and NRG. Every year since its inception, the VALORANT Champions Grand Finals stage has played host to two unique teams, and this year it’s no different.
| Year | Upper Bracket Team | Lower Bracket Team | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Acend | Gambit Esports | Acend (3-2) |
| 2022 | LOUD | OpTic Gaming | LOUD (3-1) |
| 2023 | Paper Rex | Evil Geniuses | Evil Geniuses (1-3) |
| 2024 | EDward Gaming | Team Heretics | EDward Gaming (3-2) |
Even more exciting, its a rematch of the Upper Finals between these two teams. NRG came away with a clean victory the last time but its unlikely to happen twice against a team of Fnatic's caliber, meaning regardless of the victory, this is going to be a brawl to remember.
NRG: The Ultimate Dark Horse
NRG’s run at Champions 2025 has been one of comebacks, clutches, and incredible play. At every turn, the team has faced down titans of the competitive scene and emerged victorious. Starting from their victory against defending Champions winners EDG, NRG has only continued to power up at this event. Among their notable scalps is recently exited Pacific representative DRX, Brazilian powerhouse MIBR, and Fnatic.
But to win tomorrow, they’ll need to deliver everything they have left in the tank.
Fnatic: Another Deep Run
Regardless of how many impressive teams EMEA fields, in the end it always seems to come down to Fnatic to carry the banner for their region. The start of the year for Fnatic started fairly strong with the addition of kaajak to the roster. While the team stumbled a few times at the beginning of 2025, by the middle, they had clearly found their stride with a podium finish in Toronto. Now, they’re back months later in another international Grand Final and another shot at lifting a title to cap off their year.
A Look At the Map Pool and Stylistic Approaches
NRG come into tomorrow’s match with a massive advantage: that being the double map ban over Fnatic. In essence, they’ll get to decide the 5 maps the series will be played on. All that’s left is to make sure they get the order right and ride that momentum to victory.
The two teams share fairly similar map pools. Neither team particularly enjoys Sunset and tend towards banning it outright, making it extremely unlikely we see it tomorrow. Two other maps who are likely marked for bans are Ascent and Bind. While Fnatic is not particularly strong on either maps, neither is NRG. The American representative will most likely attempt to accentuate their best maps and narrow down their weak maps as much as possible.
Both have Lotus as their best map and Abyss close up there too. The deciding map tomorrow will likely to be Corrode. As one of NRG’s best maps, it’s also one of Fnatic’s weaker ones. However, this is where the day’s form will really come into play. Because if Fnatic come into tomorrow’s series playing like they did today against DRX, then even that small advantage will shrink even further.
Furthermore, both teams have fairly similar approaches to a lot of the same maps, favoring the double controller composition choice in the majority of maps. All that said and done, the biggest deciding factor tomorrow will come down to each individual player. With the level of skill across all the role matchups (Chronicle-s0m, Alfajer-skuba, kaajak-mada), the anticipation is very high for a full 5-map series.
Will the Trophy return to America? EU’s Clamor for the Top
Strange is it may feel, EU has not won a Champions event since 2021. The region has not won a Master’s event since 2023, when Fnatic lifted the trophy for Masters Tokyo. While the region as a whole has come close on multiple times for both, it’s the winners in the end that remain immortalized.
Team Heretics earned their shot last year and came so close to the title. But now, in this new year, another familiar EMEA representative steps back into the spotlight. For America’s case, they’ve managed to lift 2 Champions titles already as a collective region, one in 2022 and another in 2023. But in 2025 thus far, it’s been a dry season for the region. The closest they came has been G2 in Bangkok at the very start of the year but since then, not a single silverware.
Moreover, the region may be the same but it’s a new face. NRG has surprised and delivered at every turn thus far. While Fnatic may be an imposing figure to face and the stakes have never been higher, this new face of NA has also never looked more prepared or less daunted.
NRG and Fnatic will clash for the final time tomorrow at 1pm CET/4am PDT. Lock in for not only the final match of the season between these two teams but also the opening ceremony and new agent reveal. Catch the game on Twitch or YouTube.
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Featured Image Credit: Adela Sznajder/Riot Games
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