The EMEA Stage 1 lower bracket began today with Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 koshmaras Martynas Namikas Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius facing BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #5 Crewen Ali Eren Sargin Lar0k Yusuf Kaan Kanber Loita Utku Kart Rosé Eren Erzan lovers rock Umut Pekdoğan and Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Rank #7 starxo Patryk Kopczynski bipo Taranvir Singh marteen Martin Pátek GLYPH Conner Garcia Minny Patrik Hušek facing Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 purp0 Semyon Borchev MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak . Heretics and Mates came out on top, sending BBL and Liquid home early and moving on in the lower bracket.

Heretics pull off 9-3 comeback on Ascent to 2-0 BBL

Both squads came into this match looking to bounce back, with Heretics having lost to Eternal Fire Eternal Fire Europe Rank #13 Izzy Baran Yılmaz audaz Soner Ekiz Favian Enes Yiğiter echo Ömür Serkan Şenol nekky Anıl Dağdeviren earlier this week and BBL having a poor group stage after winning Kickoff.

The first map was BBL's choice of Breeze, where they opted into Neon and Jett picks. Heretics brought out the unique Sage-Chamber composition that they had last shown in Kickoff to defeat Natus Vincere.

Heretics immediately looked more comfortable than the opponent on their defense side, winning a full eco in round two and a 2v4 retake in round four to go up 4-1. From there, BBL continued to struggle to fend off Heretics' coordinated retakes, giving Heretics an 8-4 lead in the half. Heretics won the second pistol and the following bonus round for a clean 13-4 win. koshmaras was the top fragger in the server, ending with a 19/10/6 KDA and 295 ACS.

Double-Sentinel reared its head again on Ascent, this time on the side of BBL as they brought out a Deadlock-Cypher composition to compete against Heretics' Neon-Jett one. BBL mounted an impressive defense, fully locking down both sites and luring Heretics into GravNet traps to take a 9-3 lead.

Down but not out, Heretics began to close the gap, first with the pistol round, and then with a series of measured retakes. BBL won a few rounds, earning themselves three map points, but Heretics held fast and forced overtime. A successful 3v5 attack round for Heretics to go up 13-12 was the nail in the coffin for BBL; the defense round followed all too easily for a 14-12 finish. benjyfishy topped the scoreboard with 24 kills, while Wo0t 's Jett proved instrumental to the comeback with 20 kills.

Heretics move on in the lower bracket and will face FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #6 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski CyvOph Clement Millard Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn Alfajer Emir Ali Beder tomorrow, May 10. After winning Kickoff, BBL exit Stage 1 in the top eight and are out until Stage 2.

Mates defeat Liquid 2-1 after dominant map three performance

Going into playoffs, Mates found themselves in a similar position to BBL, struggling to replicate their Kickoff form in the new meta. Using new compositions, they found their footing against Liquid in a week five rematch to survive another day.

Mates selected Split for the first map and opted to move bipo over from Neon to Jett to create a more old-school composition with Jett, Raze, and Skye. The changes did little for them on the map as Liquid held the lead from start to finish, snowballing to a 9-3 lead on defense after winning out multiple man disadvantage situations. A double pistol promised a wide deficit as Liquid won out 13-4.

Map two was Ascent, where Mates opted for Jett and Phoenix versus Liquid's Neon and Phoenix. Both teams traded blows in a 6-6 first half, as neither team was able to win more than two rounds in a row. A pistol and bonus for Mates spiraled into a 10-6 lead; while Liquid managed to match Mates in the buy rounds, they were never able to close the gap as Mates steadily worked up to a 13-10 win. Minny was in his element on Cypher, going 19/11/7 with a 1.45 rating.

Fracture was the decider. Crucially, after multiple losses with marteen on Veto, Mates switched their composition, putting marteen on Phoenix and Minny on Cypher. Liquid, debuting the map for the first time this year, locked in a Raze-Neon composition with a solo Initiator Breach.

Mates utterly dominated the map, locking out Liquid with united floods. Despite a rollback of round 10, it was still a perfect 12-0 half for Mates. A Liquid pistol was the only difference between a potential 13-0 and the actual result of 13-2. marteen ended the map with a 23/5/6 KDA, 393 ACS, and a 2.22 rating.

Liquid bows out early in the top eight, their worst regional result since 2024. Mates, still in the hunt for the last London spot, will play Eternal Fire tomorrow.

The EMEA playoffs return tomorrow with the following matches:

• FNATIC vs. Team Heretics (Lower Round 2)
• Eternal Fire vs. Gentle Mates (Lower Round 2)