Clément "Clem" Desplanches is sure gaming at a high level this time with the way he is racking up impressive wins in the recent StarCraft II A-Tier tournaments as of late. It cannot be denied that he is starting to build up a strong momentum for his title defense campaign in the upcoming Esports World Cup 2025.

This year has been nothing short of elite for Clem, who has been scoring one tournament win after the other. Since the year 2025 tournaments have begun, Clem has either finished as the winner or the runner-up of an A-Tier tournament six times, which is more than any other player this year, with herO and MaxPax having the second most at two.

The French wonder kid has taken down one elite star after another, and it is safe to say that this is him getting the gauge of his potential opponents heading into the coming months. With three big A-Tier tournaments left to play before the Esports World Cup, it seems that this will be the last runs that Clem needs to win at the very least.

Clem Gunning for Wins

Clem claimed his first win in 2025 with a revenge game against MaxPax in the OSC Championship Season 12, where he avenged his loss in the prior LiuLi Cup 2024 Grand Finals. He would go on to finish as a runner-up in the next two tournaments, losing to Cure in the WardiTV Team Liquid Map Contest #13 and then to Serral in the PiG Sty Festival 5.0 – both in the Grand Final stage of the respective tournaments.

Since then, Clem has managed to beat MaxPax once more with a victory in the WardiTV Spring Championship 2025, and followed it up with the recent PiG Sty Festival 6.0, where he defeated herO as well.

The next three tournaments to look out for Clem are Bellum Gens Elite Stara Zagora 2025 (June 4-7, 2025), HomeStory Cup XXVII (June 27-29, 2025), and the Championship of Russia 2025 (June 21-July 21, 2025). All of these have impressive prize pools compared to the last competitions that Clem played in, so it is easy to expect that he would be eager to play in the aforementioned tournaments.

In hindsight, Clem has won or finished as the runner-up in the last six A-Tier tournaments this year, and that says a lot about the impressive pace that he is riding in for possibly a promising win to look out for.

Driving the Pace

The Esports World Cup 2025 tips off on July 7th, with games for Dota 2, Rennsport, and Valorant kicking off on the next day. StarCraft II games, on the other hand, doesn’t begin until July 22, which means that Clem will be either opting to skip the Championship of Russia or push through a tight schedule heading into the massive tournament.

It can be remembered that Clem took home the big trophy of the inaugural run of the Esports World Cup last year, beating his rival Serral in a massive 5-0 sweep in the Grand Finals. In that run, Clem walked off with $400,000 in prize earnings, while Serral placed second and earned $150,000.

With a lot of teams expected to show up and challenge Clem’s dominance, the French star’s hopes of winning and defending his title stand tall at this point.