Three series were played out on EMEA's grueling penultimate LCQ day. M3 Champions M3 Champions Inactive Jady Yaroslav Nikolaev purp0 Semyon Borchev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Redgar Igor Vlasov secured the first grand finals slot following a 10-round overtime in the third map against Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak .

In the lower bracket, G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive found a win in the rematch against OG LDN UTD OG LDN UTD Inactive , ending the Lithuanians' underdog run.

Finally, Team Liquid booked their ticket into the grand finals by beating G2 in another three-map thriller.

Team Liquid vs. M3 Champions (M3C 2-1)

Two of the most decorated teams from the EMEA region dueled for the first spot in the grand final. Both Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak and M3 Champions M3 Champions Inactive Jady Yaroslav Nikolaev purp0 Semyon Borchev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Redgar Igor Vlasov already had a top-four placement at Champions under their belt, but only one of them could make a potential return to the Champions stage.

M3C opened with the first pistol on Breeze, but Team Liquid denied them a second round, Sheriffs in hand. They extended this advantage to a 4-1 lead, before M3C managed to find a pair of rounds back. However, Liquid's economy was still standing strong, and by winning three of the remaining four rounds, they put the halftime score at 8-4 in their favor.

A second pistol round went M3C's way, but yet again, Liquid were able to take the subsequent round with Sheriffs. After Liquid got to double digits, three M3C rounds in a row brought the scoreline within two, before three Liquid rounds closed out the first map 13-8.

Nivera ended Breeze in style.

Moving over to Bind, Team Liquid won the first two rounds and converted their bonus to go 3-0 up. However, M3C got themselves on the board with a round four thrifty, and only dropped one out of the next seven rounds. Liquid stifled the momentum slightly with the final round of the half, putting the score at 7-5 in M3C's favor.

M3C won the pistol in the second half, and managed to convert the follow-up round for the first time to go up 9-5. Team Liquid brought the game back to within one by winning three rounds in a row, but the M3C defense stood fast in the last four rounds, wrapping up the second map 13-8 and sending the series to an Icebox decider.

M3C's latest recruit proved he could hang in the big leagues.

The third and final map began with each team winning pairs of rounds at a time until ScreaM 's squad developed a 4-2 advantage. Starting in round seven, M3C managed to break away with a streak of six rounds, granting them an 8-4 lead at halftime.

M3C extended their streak to eight by winning the first two rounds of the second half, before Liquid finally stopped the bleeding in round 15. For the next four rounds, the teams traded rounds back and forth, but M3C's advantage meant they now held six match points. Round by round, Liquid extended their lease on life, until they found themselves in the very last round of regulation, where they managed to convert and send the game to a final overtime.

Overtime started with Liquid taking an advantage on two occasions, after which M3C tied the score back up. Liquid looked poised to take a third lead, but a nAts 1v3 denied them the privilege. M3C were on the verge of wrapping up the map in the following round, but the duo of ScreaM and dimasick took down four players to level the score at 15-15.

M3C gained another advantage in round 31, which Liquid shut down to set the score at 16 apiece. M3C picked up their third overtime match point, which was finally the one they managed to convert on, and they came out on top of this war of attrition with an 18-16 victory and a ticket to the grand final.

“I think someone cursed our Icebox map. Seriously. I don't know how we're always going to overtime or losing to comebacks on that map,” Chronicle said in the broadcast interview. “I can tell you, in pracs we are destroying everyone on Icebox, but in officials we play like idiots,” he said with a grin on his face.

This is only one excerpt from a feature-length highlight reel from Icebox.

With two rosters of exceptionally talented players, it seemed like no round was ever over. A total of 17 clutches were won across the series; seven went in favor of M3C, while Team Liquid picked up 10. The two players that won the most clutches – three each for nAts and Nivera – also ended up being each team's top performer, with 170 and 146 ADR respectively.

While M3C had secured the title of being the first grand finalist, Team Liquid's day was not yet over: later today, they would play the winner of the upcoming match between OGLU and G2, and they would get a second chance to secure a grand finals ticket.

OG LDN UTD vs. G2 Esports (G2 2-0)

For the second match of the day, OG LDN UTD and G2 Esports played a rematch of their opening match, wherein OGLU found an upset 2-0 victory – only 5.3% of VLR users had OGLU winning in their pick'em. This time, the stakes were much higher: the winner of this match would play Liquid for a spot in the grand finals, while the loser would see their season come to an end.

OGLU took the opening pistol round on Bind, but the second round already set the scene for the type of series this would be. A string of thrifties and scrappy round wins saw OGLU edge a slight 4-3 lead. G2 managed to break away in round eight, winning four rounds on the trot and eking out a 7-5 lead at halftime.

The second half saw G2 establish a more dominant hold, as they took five rounds in a row after OGLU's pistol round, which put them on match point. OGLU staved off two of these match points, but G2 closed out an inevitable victory at 13-8.

G2 opened Haven with the first two rounds, followed by OGLU taking the only three-round streak of the entire map. The rest of the half played out with both teams trading round for round, with OGLU wresting out a 7-5 lead in the last round.

This back-and-forth affair continued into the second half, with the teams being tied up on five different occasions, further adding to the tally of four from the first half. However, one team would inevitably come out on top, and two crucial rounds allowed G2 to break away at the last minute to take a 13-11 victory.

OGLU walked straight into Mixwell and nukkye 's hail of bullets.

Between these teams' first encounter and today's rematch, nukkye improved his ACS by 80 – from 196 to 276 – and proved to be the difference maker for his team. On the other side of the coin, feqew was not able to find the same impact as in the first match, plummeting from 302 ACS to 165.

OGLU's season came to an end in this series, going out on a relatively successful LCQ run with multiple upset wins. G2 were not out of the woods yet, as they would hop straight back into the server for the lower bracket final against Liquid.

Team Liquid vs. G2 Esports (TL 2-1)

To close out this marathon of a day, Liquid and G2 took the stage for the second time today. Liquid had been watching G2's match from the sidelines, while G2 had just 30 minutes to take a breather between their OGLU series and this one. With a grand final slot on the line, this match would prove to be a battle of mental endurance.

G2 found the opening round of Bind, but needed a Meddo ace to secure the second round. Liquid secured the bonus round, but they were walking a tightrope in terms of their finances, enabling G2 to take a further two rounds. Liquid found more success starting in round six, and six rounds in a row allowed them to take a 7-4 lead. Meddo clutching a 1v3 ended G2's drought and brought the halftime score to 7-5.

soulcas started the second half off with an ace, allowing Liquid to take the first two rounds. nukkye responded with his own ace – one of three aces he got in this first map – spearheading a streak of three rounds for G2. Liquid got themselves to double digits, but another two G2 rounds tied the game up at 10-10. Two more rounds from G2 forced a Liquid timeout, but to no avail, as a flawless final round wrapped up G2's 13-10 victory on Bind.

Meddo's aim looks magnetic in this clutch.

A strong bounceback on Icebox saw Liquid take the first four rounds unanswered. G2 shut down two late-round hits to get on the board, and a round each put the score at 5-3. With a streak of three, Liquid put themselves firmly in the lead, and a final round going the way of G2 brought Liquid's lead to 8-4 at halftime.

G2 took the second pistol round, but Liquid's Sheriffs secured them a thrifty round and subsequent double digits. G2 responded with two rounds of their own, but off the back of another thrifty, Liquid found two rounds and put themselves on match point. G2 got three rounds of progress towards overtime, before a quick Jamppi 4K wrapped up the second map at 13-10.

Liquid opened the ‘Jamppi run in' page of their stratbook.

The first pistol round of Haven went Liquid's way, but G2 struck back ferociously with a flawless thrifty. G2 got four more rounds in a row before Liquid ended their drought with a thrifty. With a streak of rounds of their own, Liquid tied the game back up at 5-5. With two more rounds, G2 regained the advantage and went into halftime with a 7-5 lead.

With the first two rounds of the second half, Liquid leveled the score at seven apiece. WIth three more rounds, Liquid put themselves on double digits with the G2 economy in dire straits. Another two rounds later, Liquid were on match point, before G2 finally got a round in the second half. Thrust into a 1v2 in round 21, AvovA could not convert, and Liquid wrapped up Haven 13-8 following a dominant defensive half.

Blink and you'll miss it, ScreaM finds three.

Looking ahead

Tomorrow's grand finals will crown a champion of the EMEA LCQ, as either M3C or Liquid will secure the region's third and final Champions slot. A best-of-five rematch should prove to be a thrilling clash between titans.

Tomorrow's match is: