In the upper finals of VCT Champions Paris 2025, FNATIC and NRG would challenge each other's undefeated streaks for a spot at the Grand Finals.
These two haven’t matched up against each other on stage since 2023 during the VCT Masters Tokyo, where FNATIC swept NRG in the upper quarterfinals.
A lot has changed since that match, but the few players from that server who remain are Alfajer, Chronicle, and Boaster for FNATIC.
For NRG, s0m would be the ones to stay in their respective teams.
Now in Paris, they fight for the first spot in the Grand Finals.
FNATIC would open the match with the first map pick of the game.
They would choose Ascent as their first map, as it is one of NRG’s worst maps with a 1-3 record and a 25 per cent win rate.
Knowing this, FNATIC were looking to start this match aggressively as they chose to be on the attacker's side in the first half, leaving NRG on the defensive side.
What started as a smart move on FNATIC’s side quickly turned into their nightmare as NRG blocked any chance for FNATIC to take control of the map and any of the sites.
This left FNATIC only winning four rounds to NRG’s 8 rounds at the end of the first half.
NRG’s rookie brawk would be leading them in the first half with 12 kills, 7 deaths and 7 assists.
Going into the switch, NRG was looking confident in their ability to close out the match, but FNATIC would soon make a comeback on the defensive side.
Whether NRG took control of the site or they battled for control, FNATIC would defuse the spike, eliminate NRG or even push them past the time limit, giving them enough rounds to push it into overtime.
After a big comeback like that, FNATIC had all the momentum going into overtime, but the momentum wasn’t enough as NRG would ice out FNATIC’s hot streak and win in overtime.
NRG would win 14-12 with Skuba taking map MVP with 22 kills, 15 deaths and 4 assists.
Although FNATIC lost map one, they would still have enough confidence in their performance to move on to map two.
Map two would be NRG’s pick, and they would choose Abyss as the second map.
Even though they had played the map three times with a record of 2-1 and had a win rate of 67 per cent, they would feel confident enough to choose the map, and it showed.
NRG would show out and demolish FNATIC in the first half with an 11-1 round win streak.
FNATIC in the second half would win a few rounds, but it wouldn’t matter as the deficit was too large to climb, and they ended up getting swept with NRG’s Skuba taking map MVP with 17 kills, 7 deaths and 6 assists.
Skuba would also take match MVP with a total of 39 kills, 22 deaths and 10 assists.
With that loss, FNATIC’s undefeated streak would come to an end, but their run to the Grand Finals wouldn’t end there, as they would go to the losers' final.
They would await the winner of DRX vs Paper Rex, and whoever won would face FNATIC in a best-of-5 map series to determine who would face NRG in the Grand Finals.