After a series of resilience, MIBR GC locked top four at Game Changers Championship 2025 and eliminated tournament favorites G2 Gozen.
The final EMEA team in the VALORANT Game Changers Championship 2025 is now out of the running as G2 Gozen fall to MIBR GC in the lower bracket quarterfinal. The 2-1 match went in MIBR's favor, locking in a top-four finish at the minimum. This also means that the competition's top four teams are solely composed of Americas teams.
G2 mimi: It hurts a lot.
G2 Gozen was the first team to win GCC back in 2022. Michaela "mimi" Lintrup, the only one remaining of the winning G2 roster, said that she isn't too happy about their exit this year.
"We got the 6th place. We are not satisfied, and it hurts a lot. Both games were super close; it could have gone both ways. The momentum shifted for them... and it was really hard to break it," said mimi. "There is nothing we can do right now. It really sucks, but we are very grateful to be here. We had a lot of hard battles through the year, and despite the lack of results, I'm proud of the girls."
Experience is something that I've learned is something very powerful and important. I also learned that communication is the most important thing on a team and that was the reason we have lost today, unfortunately.
On the other hand, this is rookie Esllene "Akita" Xu's first international competition. "It was a great experience. I didn't play very good. I've had a wrist injury since the start of Split 2 and I didn't have time to recover," she said.
MIBR's resilience, confidence, and strength
Both of MIBR's map wins were labored, and they got demolished by G2 in map 2. Despite this, the team said they had full confidence in themselves all throughout.
"We know we are a team of comebacks - a team of resilience and trust. We believe we can do it and then transcribe it into the result," said Nicolas "srN" Niederauer.
This victory represents our fight for Brazil. As a non-binary person, this celebration is also a symbol of strength.
"Our resilience is very important because we have time, we have time to think. When we are in a tense situation, we want to make everything [happen] at the same time: we want to smoke early, kill early and I'm like 'We have time! We have 40 seconds, chill.' We need to be calmer and believe in our communication and individual decisions," Camila "sayuri" Obam added.
This was supported by head coach Marcelo "pleets" Leite. "All I did was to believe in the girls and the work we have been doing. We need to believe until the end. We are a team of resilience. This is all their merit, their adaptation to every unique situation," pleets said. "bstrdd (Paula Naguil) was crazy, killing everyone," he added.
"I was pretty confident; the score didn't matter. 'We would win,' I had that feeling. I didn't feel the defeat - the team was all on the same page. Everyone is aware of the team's potential, and that does make us more confident and secure," Giulia "lissA" Lissa said.
MIBR vs G2 Gozen in GCC 2025
This was a lengthy series. The best-of-three went the distance, and two maps went on overtime.
Map 1 was a labored win for MIBR GC. The first half looked good for them, but an impressive eight-round win streak from G2 brought the map to overtime. It was short as MIBR won both rounds, but it was still closer than it could have been.
Sunset was G2's pick, and it showed. They dominated MIBR here, with a 10-2 half and closing it out quick, 13-5.
The decider map began with a similar dominance from G2. Another 10-2 half from them made it seem like MIBR was down for the count, but they flipped the script in the second half and pushed to overtime. Here, they complete the comeback and hand G2 a heartbreak of a loss.
For more VALORANT coverage, stick around esports.gg.
