GIANTX ara: "I had a lot of bad habits from Tier Two that I needed to adjust when I got to Tier One."

Coming into VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - Valorant Champions, EMEA second seed GIANTX were seen as major underdogs at the tournament and for good reason.

Just a few months ago, GIANTX was a bottom-dwelling EMEA team that finished 9th-10th in VALORANT Champions Tour 2025 - EMEA Stage 1. That lackluster performance is now a catalyst for an impressive stretch of strong gameplay that led them to the VALORANT Champions playoffs following their 2-0 victory over XLG Esports.

One of the biggest reasons behind their victory came in the form of GIANTX duelist Eduard-George "ara" Hanceriuc, who showcased outstanding gameplay in their series against XLG Esports, boasting a 1.53 Rating and 53 kills.

Ara’s performance in their series against XLG Esports was a major improvement from his series against Paper Rex where he struggled to find footing. That was something that ara wanted to change going into their qualification series against XLG Esports.

“At the end of the day, it’s a shooter. If you aren’t hitting the shots you need to hit then you are just going to lose. I wasn’t hitting my shots and I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again.”

The changes were also geared towards the mental side of competiiton as well. The GIANTX duelist highlighted his shift in approach to “practice” and “putting more energy” into his comms which all came together to move forward in the tournament.

Yet, despite his standout performance on the server, ara was quick to deflect the spotlight on himself. Instead, he attributed his strong performance in their qualification series to an amazing effort from the entire team.

“The differences for me were the flashes from Karel "Flickless" Maeckelbergh and the calls from Kirill "Cloud" Nehozhin, which helped me shine. Miłosz "westside" Duda was holding the site really well, so I could do my job on the other side of the map. And Grzegorz "GRUBINHO" Ryczko was doing amazing flashes with Flickless. It was a team effort, so it wasn’t just me.”

This group of five players wasn’t ever together at the start of 2025. In fact, every single player apart from GIANTX captain Cloud had never played in Tier One outside of the 2025 season.

Their meteoric rise to the top was something that ara had never expected, especially in his rookie season.

“I did not think I would be here at Champs right away. I thought that I would still need to play for a few more months before I even got a shot at tier one, let alone go to Champions.”

The young superstar highlighted his uncertainty to play at the “Tier One level”. It wasn’t until he received an offer from GIANTX head coach pipsen who helped him adjust to Tier One and tweak his “bad habits” created in Tier Two.

“I had a lot of bad habits from Tier Two that I needed to adjust when I got to Tier One VALORANT,” ara said. “I was primarily working on my Operator and entries onto sites because you get punished a lot more for little mistakes at the highest level.”

There was a lot of work put into adjusting to Tier One VALORANT, and while it wasn’t an easy path to this point, it was always important for him to remember his talent for the game.

“I remember I would constantly ask Pipson if I had more time, would I be able to handle those situations I make mistakes in better, but he would always tell me that mistakes like this will always happen. The most important thing was to have belief in my own abilities and that he believes in me.”

Ahead of his own personal timeline, ara is now on the global stage representing EMEA at VALORANT Champions Paris, playing against some of the best players in the world.

He will look towards his upcoming match against NRG on September 26, 2025, where he and GIANTX will look to continue their run at VALORANT Champions Paris.

Feature Image via Adela Sznajder of Riot Games