The teams faced each other at the start of their tournament run, and DRX earned a win in that close match. Now, the battle is crucial: one team advances to the Playoffs, and one goes home.
Both Team Liquid and DRX experienced ups and downs at VALORANT Champions 2025. Beyond their opening match, DRX couldn’t achieve another win. In the advancement battle, they lost to NRG in a super close series.
Team Liquid had to go to overtime versus EDward Gaming to save themselves from elimination. In the final match of the Group Stage, the Liquid players faced their demons once again.
Putting the first match result aside, DRX and Team Liquid have been achieving pretty similar placements at big international VALORANT esports events. This made their Champions 2025 battle even more interesting.
Stream: Watch DRX versus Team Liquid at VALORANT Champions 2025
All the Group Stage matches of VALORANT Champions 2025 are on the official YouTube channel. You can watch the DRX vs TL stream below.
In the second match of this tournament day, GIANTX and XLG Esports battled for one Playoffs spot in Group A.
DRX versus Team Liquid: Details, stats, score
Check out the details from the VALORANT Champions 2025 match DRX vs Team Liquid in this section. You’ll find here info on the Agents, game stats, map scores, and brief recaps of each game.
DRX 2:0 TL — DRX wins the series and advances to the Playoffs at VALORANT Champions 2025
Map 1, Corrode, TL pick | Map 2, Abyss, DRX pick | Map 3, Bind |
|---|---|---|
| DRX 13:8 TL | DRX 13:7 TL | - |
Agents
DRX Picks | DRX | Team Liquid | TL Picks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Omen (G1) Omen (G2) | Kim "MaKo" Myeong-kwan | Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin | Waylay (G1) Cypher (G2) |
| Vyse (G1) Cypher (G2) | No "freeing" Ha-jun | Georgio "keiko" Sanassy | Omen (G1) Omen (G2) |
| Waylay (G1) Waylay (G2) | Song "HYUNMIN" Hyun-min | Kamil "kamo" Frąckowiak | Neon (G1) Jett (G2) |
| Fade (G1) Sova (G2) | Kang "BeYN" Ha-bin | Patryk "paTiTek" Fabrowski | Fade (G1) Kayo (G2) |
| Yoru (G1) Yoru (G2) | Cho "Flashback" Min-hyuk | Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko | Vyse (G1) Sova (G2) |
Match recap
DRX overclassed their opponents in this match thanks to their patience during difficult rounds. It was obvious that both teams took their first matches into account, but Team Liquid's tactics could not vault over DRX’s wall.
On each map, Team Liquid stood strong in the first half as attackers. But after the side swapped, DRX were better in most aspects, as if they took time to accumulate enough power for the final hits.
DRX won the match to secure a spot in the final brackets of VALORANT Champions 2025!
Team Liquid has been eliminated from the tournament, and the competitive season is now over for these players.
Map 1, Corrode
Team Liquid gambled a lot in this opening game: with the map pick and the team composition.
- TL picked Corrode, taking notes from NRG, who defeated DRX on this map.
- nAts picked Waylay, a Duelist, for the first time in his career across 506 games.
Taking two Duelists worked relatively well on the attacking side for Team Liquid. They successfully took control over Mid in most rounds and won many direct combats on bombsites.
Still, considering the defense-sided nature of Corrode, going to the side swap with 6:6 did not feel like a win for TL.
DRX had great moments throughout the first half: like freeing winning a 1v1 versus keiko in Round 5 or MaKo defusing at the last moment in Round 7.
As attackers, DRX dominated the map! They looked more coordinated, and their scenarios felt truly powerful. TL were somewhat desperate closer to the end. They sure won Round 16 on low buy, but that was one of only two for them in the second half.
Map 2, Abyss
The teams played on this map in their first match at VALORANT Champions 2025. Since then, they’ve learned new tricks and patterns.
The game was close — but only in the first half. Round 3 featured an absolutely ridiculous kill by TL. MaKo tried to hold an unusual corner, but he was spotted first, and nAts looked at him motionless for a few long seconds.
After the side swap, the game fell apart for Team Liquid. DRX faked B plant and executed on A — the TL players rotated and could do nothing.
In general, DRX repeated a similar setup again and again, as it worked nicely. Liquid just could not find a response to that. After the plants, DRX were flawless in their positioning, giving no chance to the opponents.
The Korean players demonstrated remarkable individual skill. kamo with 3K in Round 6 was amazing! BeYN and Flashback win tense 1v2 clutches in rounds 12 and 16.
The win of DRX was logical with such an attacker play!
Aiming for the top 6 again? Pre-match overview
The competitive record of DRX and Team Liquid at big international events is not bad, but not too good either. Liquid has a slight advantage in attending more of such tournaments.
DRX
Since its formation in 2022, DRX has been regularly hitting the top 6 at VALORANT Masters. At the same time, the esports organization skips events disturbingly often.
The Champions 2025 roster of DRX competed at Masters Bangkok 2025 as well, where the team finished 5th-6th.
Team Liquid
Alongside reaching the top 6, VALORANT Team Liquid has been experiencing more disappointing results. However, being 9th-10th at Masters Toronto 2025 is probably better than not qualifying for the event at all.
In 2025, Liquid attended both Masters tournaments, which feels like a big progress after not being present at the international scene in 2024.
VALORANT Champions 2025 is the first tournament for trexx as a Team Liquid player. He replaced Maikls “SerialKiller” Ždanov in July.
Sure, both teams want to go past top 6, but only one of them can achieve this. The Playoffs Stage of VALORANT Champions 2025 starts on Sept. 25.
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