And that is the enormous question in circulation-the one asking: Which team will bag that trophy at VALORANT Champions Paris this year? Everybody has their personal answer, and the responses given to that particular post are simply chaotic-but that word is used in the very best way. You could almost feel the energy, the hype, the absolute assurance that every single soul would have their team laid out before the table as the final. Then, there is fear. Always fear.
Let’s just quickly run through the ASE for those who may be starting out in VALORANT esports now. Champions is the most significant event of the year; consider it the World Championship. The whole season is built around this one event in Paris; only one team out of the 16 best Shararn in the world gets to be crowned champions-the stakes speak for themselves.
Now, scrolling through the responses, a few names keep cropping up like they are being stuck on a repeat; but really, in the darkest sense, in the most popular way, they just keep naming: G2 Esports, Paper Rex (modern abbreviated PRX for cool kiddies), and Team Liquid. Then again, someone responded, “@ValorantUpdated G2, PRX or liquid”, which right there cracked the spirit of half of the conversation. So, in essence, it comes down to what a lot of people call a three-horse race.
Then we have the die-hard super fans; Opera San, whose display name is some cute confectionary of symbols, said, “@ValorantUpdated I really hope its G2🫠”. That melting face said it all. Hope fused with pure dread for everything going down the drain. That emoji basically sums up the entire VALORANT viewing experience.
Then we have Paper Rex fans with Clivv broadcasting plainly: “@ValorantUpdated PRX all the way”. No scene-setting, no wavering, just unwavering confidence. A man deserves respect for his unwavering confidence. Luluu decided on a spicy approach and lumped PRX in with T1 and SENTINELS; if Sentinels pull off a deep run, that would be storybook material after all of that drama.
And there we have it. The spoilers. Drifty is going to put his neck out and predicts a TL VS RRQ FINALS: Team Liquid against Rex Regum Qeon? Now that would be a real clash of regions. On the other hand, milwyy, otherwise known as PierdSÅ‚onia, declared GX a dark horse. Those are the kind of calls that get people talking. Everybody loves the underdog story.
But hey, it’s not all support and love. The trash talk represents the same old esports bickering. Something Weird was said about EDward Gaming (EDG), and the well-known clapback followed. Gh0steyy said, “@PakiMystic @ValorantUpdated the only b2b situation that’s gonna happen for EDG is losing b2b games in the group stage 🥀”. Sarcasm meets rose emoji for two rounds of clapping. Then bingordow piled on with “…not winning a single map 😔. Ouch. The community can be pretty savage sometimes.
Now for the personal favorite: the smartass comment. D4RK dropped this obvious-yet-hilarious thanks-for-that-one comment: “@ValorantUpdated I think it might be one of the 16 teams going to paris #thoughts”. Really clever analysis, dude. Nailing it down for us.
So what does this all mean? It means the community is alive and kicking-they care; they are invested. The reckonings are all over-the-place, which just serves to show how heavy the competition really is. Nary a single favorite. You could pretty much make a convincing case for five or six other teams who could walk away with the bag. And that is exciting. Nothing is set in stone.
G2 has the firepower and the regional superiority in EMEA. Paper Rex is just all about chaotic, unpredictable style that goes from genius to complete disaster with no in-between. Team Liquid is all about experience and clutch conversion. Sentinels are never to be counted out when they get hot. Then, there are the dark horse teams from other regions, ready to surprise and pull off an upset run.
For sure, these finals will be on everybody’s must-watch VALORANT list. The games will be insane, the plays will be unbelievable, and for 15 of these teams, heartbreak will be real, and the other team-that is, one team-will celebrate the culmination of a year’s work and the hoisting of the trophy.
The guesstimates will come flying out then. Hype is very real. Paris is gonna be absolutely alive. Now, a few of these prophecies have to come true. What do I think? Some will be wild; mostly, no one saw them coming, because really, when does anything ever go as planned?
