The second competitive day of VCT 2025: Americas Kickoff will conclude with one of the most anticipated matches — a derby between NRG Esports and Cloud9. The winner of this encounter will take the first step towards the coveted slot at Masters Bangkok, while the losing team will drop to the lower bracket of the tournament. In this material, we will analyze both teams’ chances of winning by examining their form, map pool, and other factors that could influence the outcome of this intense matchup.

Current Team Form

NRG Esports

NRG Esports is showing confident form. The team has won two tournaments in a row: the SEN City Classic 2024 and the SOOP VALORANT League 2024, competing against both tier-1 and tier-2 teams. In their last five matches, they secured four victories, winning a total of 10 maps and losing only 4. Their only loss was against Rapid Lofi, but just two days later, NRG Esports avenged the defeat with a 2:0 win.

The team was strengthened by young talents mada and Verno, significantly increasing their flexibility and potential ahead of VCT 2025.

Cloud9

Cloud9 also participated in the SEN City Classic 2024 and Red Bull Home Ground #5, where they demonstrated competitiveness, advancing from the Play-in qualifiers by defeating Sentinels. Out of their last five matches, the team won three, including victories against top European teams Fnatic and Team Heretics, albeit in best-of-one formats. However, one of their two losses was against NRG Esports.

Before the start of the season, the team faced internal challenges, leading to changes in the roster, including the replacement of the captain and another player. These adjustments may affect Cloud9's overall synergy, as they had less time to prepare for the season.

Team Map Pools

NRG Esports

NRG Esports usually bans Pearl, occasionally Abyss and Haven.

Maps played most frequently over the past year:

• Haven (8 times, 75% win rate)
• Split (8 times, 63% win rate)

Best maps:

• Haven (75% win rate)
• Abyss (63% win rate)

Cloud9

Cloud9 typically bans Split and Haven, which are priority picks for NRG Esports.

Maps played most frequently over the past year:

• Lotus (9 times, 56% win rate)
• Bind (9 times, 44% win rate)

Best maps:

• Lotus (56% win rate)
• Abyss (60% win rate)

Predicted Map Pool

• Banned maps: NRG Esports bans Pearl, Cloud9 bans Split
• Picks: NRG Esports picks Haven, Cloud9 picks Bind
• Decider: Lotus

Head-to-Head Matches

Over the past year, NRG Esports and Cloud9 have faced each other three times. In their most recent game, NRG Esports emerged victorious, strengthening their overall 2024 record to 2:1 in their favor. Earlier matches are less relevant due to significant roster changes, but overall, the teams have met 10 times, with Cloud9 winning the majority of these encounters.

Match Prediction

Based on current form and statistics, NRG Esports appears to be the stronger side. Their confidence from recent tournament victories, a stable map pool with high win rates on Haven and Split, and the addition of new young players give them an advantage.Cloud9, despite their competitiveness, has yet to achieve stability following roster changes, which could impact their performance, especially on maps with weaker win rates.

Expected Score: 2:1 in favor of NRG Esports.

VCT 2025: Americas Kickoff takes place from January 16 to February 8 in a LAN format at the Riot Games Arena in Los Angeles, America. Twelve partnered teams from the VCT program are competing for two invitations to the Masters Bangkok tournament and crucial Americas Points needed to qualify for the World Championship.