In front of a passionate crowd at the Accor Arena in Paris, France, the Valorant Champions Tour (VCT) 2025 season came to a thrilling conclusion. Americas team NRG dominated throughout, and their in-game leader (IGL) Ethan “Ethan” Arnold made history as the first Valorant player to become a two-time world champion.
On August 26, 2023, Ethan “Ethan” Arnold won Champions Los Angeles 2023 with Evil Genuises, alongside the legendary Maximillian “Demon1” Mazanov, beating Paper Rex 3-1 in the grand final. Two years later, under the NRG banner at the Champions Paris finals weekend, Ethan was reunited with the coveted trophy.
The FIRST EVER 2-time #VALORANTChampions Winner! pic.twitter.com/tybe4sPDIZ
— VALORANT Champions Tour (@ValorantEsports) October 5, 2025
NRG’s win marks the third time an Americas team has won Champions in five years. For Ethan, the win means he will forever be remembered as the first player in Valorant history to become a two-time world champion.
Taking to social media, Ethan said: “2x World Champion. This s##t means the world to me, that I was able to do it with this group of guys.”
Ethan went on to congratulate fellow NRG player Brock “brawk” Somerhalder, who received the MVP award, and sent out GGs to Fnatic. After all, beating Fnatic was far from easy.
NRG Denies Fnatic’s Comeback to Win Champions Paris
Despite the return of Emir “Alfajer” Ali Beder just in time for finals weekend, it wasn’t enough to power Fnatic to a win. Instead, it was NRG who won the upper bracket final to secure a spot in Champions Paris’ grand finale.
NRG knocked Fnatic down to the lower bracket with a 2-0 score (14-12 Ascent, 13-5 Abyss). After losing the first map, Fnatic bounced back in the lower-bracket final with three in a row to eliminate DRX 3-1, and earn a rematch against NRG.
Ethan led NRG to victory at Champions Paris. Image Credit: Riot Games
In the best-of-five grand final, NRG claimed a commanding 2-0 lead (13-3 Corrode, 13-6 Lotus), but Fnatic didn’t go down without a fight. Fnatic made a massive comeback (from 11-1 down) on the third map, Abyss, forcing double overtime to win 15-13. On the fourth map, Ascent, Fnatic scored a solid 13-8 victory, forcing a fifth and deciding map.
On the Attacker side of Sunset, NRG pulled ahead 9-3 in the first half, and didn’t allow Fnatic any chance of a comeback to close out the map 13-5, and thereby, the grand final 3-2.