The sixth round of league play in EMEA saw FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder and Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #20 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky become the first two teams to secure a playoff spot, with wins over Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #9 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak respectively. The two Turkish teams picked up wins against Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #31 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek and KOI KOI Europe Rank #43 grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko sheydos Bogdan Naumov Filu Dawid Czarnecki flyuh Xavier Carlson soulcas Dom Sulcas , and the week ended with a surprise upset by Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius over Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin .

mixwell shouting across the stage (Photo by: Hara Amorós / Riot Games / LVP)

Day One

So far in the season, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder has sliced through their opposition like a hot knife through butter. In their last three series entering this week, they had won every map with a scoreline of 13-6 or better, only giving up just one map loss in the entire season. In contrast, Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #9 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso 's form had taken a downturn in recent weeks: after a 3-1 start, they dropped back to sixth place following 2-0 losses to Natus Vincere and BBL Esports.

Nevertheless, Vitality pushed the LOCK//IN champions to the limit on Haven, even taking a 7-5 lead at halftime. The map went the distance despite FNATIC being comfortably ahead in kills, outfragging Vitality 94-77. Only in overtime did FNATIC finally overcome their opponents and put the map away with a 14-12 scoreline.

Naturally, Derke was FNATIC's top performer on this map, delivering 30 kills and a 1.26 rating. The Finn switched into a lower gear on the second map, only dropping 13 kills, but his teammates Alfajer and Chronicle picked up the slack and pushed their team to a 13-8 victory on Bind. The Moroccan map made its re-entry in EMEA this week after leaving the map rotation in January, and FNATIC showed why they were regarded as one of the best Bind teams back in the day.

With their undefeated record still intact, FNATIC locked in their spot in the EMEA playoffs, making them the first team to do so. After the result of NAVI against Liquid later in the week, FNC also confirmed their top-two placement, securing themselves a bye into the second round.

This is not Derke's first, but his second ace of the half.

Day Two

Last week, Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #31 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek appeared to be finally starting to turn their disastrous season around. Following a spell of games where the French squad were severely outmatched, Newzera stepped back from the team and assistant coach ZE1SH filled his shoes.

With ZE1SH taking over IGL duties, the team was able to take a win over KOI in only their second week with the new line-up. However, FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #6 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban proved to be a step ahead this week, as they took down KCorp with relative ease. The Turkish squad have exceeded many people's expectations thus far, as they sit at a 4-3 record with just two weeks to go.

Karmine Corp drew first blood on Haven with the first three rounds, but FUT looked strong once they got some rifles in their hands. After a 7-5 halftime score in favor of the Turkish squad, KCorp took the pistol round but couldn't convert the second round. FUT pulled away and took a 13-8 victory following a messy exchange of rounds in the first part of the half. Nearly a third of all rounds on Haven were won by the team with the weaker buy, a testament to how volatile the map was.

On Ascent, a map which Karmine Corp picked, one of the French team's old pitfalls came back to haunt them. Due to poor economy management, they only scraped together two full buys in the first nine rounds, allowing FUT to take an 8-1 lead. KCorp recovered slightly to bring the halftime score back to 8-4, but FUT regained control of the map after winning the second pistol. Karmine Corp would only win the bonus round as FUT took a 13-5 victory.

qw1 played a crucial role in his team's dominant Ascent win thanks to a 1.67 rating and 213 ADR. Perhaps more importantly, he managed to completely outperform his Jett counterpart ScreaM in first duels, winning nine out of his 10 opening engagements while ScreaM went 0-8.

xms 's Minima Sheriff denies a beautiful ace from qw1.

In the second match of the day, BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #42 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal chiwa Egor Stepanyuk PROFEK Dawid Święć LewN Burak Alkan continued their good run of form. After starting the season 0-4, they have won three matches in a row, including this week's 2-1 over KOI KOI Europe Rank #43 grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko sheydos Bogdan Naumov Filu Dawid Czarnecki flyuh Xavier Carlson soulcas Dom Sulcas . While the 2-1 scoreline might hint at a closely contested series, none of the maps ran past round 18.

KOI came out of the gates swinging on Pearl. They rapidly put the game out of reach for BBL, winning nine out of the 10 first rounds. BBL managed to salvage a 9-3 half, but KOI made quick work of the second half, winning four straight to convert their map pick 13-3.

BBL rebounded on Ascent, a strong map for them historically, on which they delivered league leaders FNATIC their only map loss of the season. BBL's successful force following KOI's pistol win allowed the Turkish squad to take an early 5-1 lead. The teams were evenly matched for a brief period, but an ace from Brave put BBL firmly back in the driver's seat. They would only lose one more round for the remainder of the map to secure a 13-4 victory.

Bind saw the series' closest opening half yet. The teams were dead even after 10 rounds, but BBL managed to eke out a 7-5 halftime advantage by winning the last two rounds of the half. On defense, BBL were much more convincing, as they didn't lose another round to close out the third map 13-5.

Surgical from Brave.

Day Three

On the last day of the week, second-place Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #20 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky and third-place Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak clashed for a crucial match, as the winner would most likely secure second place and a bye in the playoffs. However, there was a spanner in the works for Liquid, as Sayf – not just the top performer for Team Liquid, but for the EMEA league as a whole – would be unable to play due to illness.

“Obviously it wasn't the best news when it's quite a big match,” soulcas said. “I also know how much it means to our coach, because he's battling it out with his twin, but I think the main focus was to make sure Sayf's health is all good, and that he's fully rested and well prepared for the final two games, because those will be the most important ones.”

NAVI triumphed over their rivals 2-0, but Team Liquid – reinforced by emergency substitute Harmii – were hot on their heels and dragged both maps to a full 24 rounds.

soulcas praised the German for how quickly he adapted to the new environment.

“We played a few scrims just to get some foundations set and to get some ideas down of how we want to play rounds,” soulcas said. “During the match, we made it more of a fun, friendly vibe, throwing in more jokes than usual, just to keep it relaxed. We wanted Harmii to be as comfortable as possible because it's his first time playing on a stage like this, and he performed super well, I'm proud of how he played.”

NAVI started Fracture with an early 4-1 advantage, which Liquid pulled back to a level scoreline at halftime. NAVI took the pistol round in the second half, but Liquid responded with the eco as the lead swung back and forth. In the final round, NAVI finally managed to convert their advantage and narrowly closed out Fracture 13-11.

Heartbreak for Liquid.

Thrifties were the name of the game throughout the series. The team with the weaker buy ended up winning the round 18 times across two maps, 10 times on Fracture and eight times on Bind.

That statistic shocked soulcas when he heard it.

“Eighteen? What the…” he said. “Yeah, I guess it just shows how scrappy Valorant can get. Both teams have great aimers, and in this game you can really win any round. Not many teams are that flawless in securing those anti-eco rounds, but this game especially was a bit more than usual, which I guess shows how we were playing a bit looser and off confidence.”

On Bind, the early advantage went Liquid's way as they took a 5-1 lead. Slowly, NAVI started chipping away at their deficit, pulling the halftime score to 7-5. NAVI maintained this momentum into the second half, and thanks to a handful of half-buy wins they were able to stop Liquid from stringing rounds together, which allowed the Ukrainian team to close out the map 13-11.

While NAVI have secured playoffs with this win, Liquid are not quite out of the woods yet, and there's work to be done against BBL Esports and KOI.

“I don't think we're mentally preparing for playoffs yet,” soulcas said. “[BBL and KOI] are still good teams, even though they haven't had the best success in the season thus far. It can also be harder to play against a team when they've got nothing to lose, that's when games can get quite tough and scrappy. We're not too worried, but we're making sure not to get overconfident.”

Team Liquid standing in a circle before the match Wait a second, what's going on here? Nevermind, it's just eMIL wearing a Erik jersey. (Photo by: Hara Amorós / Riot Games / LVP)

The week ended with an upset result in the match between Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius . Earlier in the week, Heretics announced that they had benched zeek , their IGL and top performer at the time, citing internal issues. In his place, the team brought in assistant coach weber , with whom the last-placed team will play for the rest of the season.

“It was expected that they would play better,” Giants captain rhyme said. “From the outside and from rumors it seemed like they had some internal conflicts, and I think removing that eases up the mind of the players. It's also the fact they have nothing really to lose, and they played better because of it.”

With their new lineup, Heretics threw a curveball Giants' way and upset them by winning both maps. They showed a new look out of the gates: with Mixwell 's Yoru throwing the Giants backline into disarray, Heretics steamed towards a 9-3 opening half on Pearl. Giants started to come back in the second half and narrowed the gap to just one, but Heretics reeled in the win for a 13-9 scoreline.

keloqz didn't need to carry this game, but this round was still pretty good.

“I don't think we got caught out by the Yoru, we just adapted a bit slow on defense,” rhyme said. “We started attack from a really rough spot, we were down 9-3, and I'm pretty sure we take Pearl if we adapt earlier and get a couple of rounds going on defense. It's hard to come back from that if you don't get the momentum.”

During the match, the Heretics players did not hesitate to trash-talk their opponents from across the stage. Of course, the teams are familiar with each other, as rhyme, hoody and many of the Heretics players played together on the old G2 Esports roster.

“I couldn't hear them, I didn't even realize honestly. Without saying too much, I think they should just focus on themselves, because at the end of the day we're not the ones at the bottom of the league,” rhyme said. “It's funny, because in previous matches keloqz was shushing people while being 12-5 down, I don't understand that. I think you should just focus on yourself.”

On Lotus, Giants got off to a stronger start, taking the first half 7-5. They extended their lead to five rounds, before letting it slip in the closing stages. By taking seven out of the last nine rounds, Heretics managed to force overtime. Here, they kept the momentum in their favor by taking series point on three occasions. The first two times, hoody pulled his team back from the brink, but the third time was too much to ask, and Heretics closed out Lotus 16-14.

Throughout the series, weber held his own in the server, boasting his team's second-highest rating (1.10) on Pearl and third-highest (1.03) on Lotus. This was nonetheless weber's first competitive match since First Strike, more than two and a half years ago.

“He was a player before, so it doesn't surprise me how he played.” rhyme said. “The guy has been playing FPS games for I don't even know how long, probably longer than most people in the scene. It was expected that he wouldn't be bad, and I think he showed he can still play pretty decent.”

13 years of FPS experience makes you ice cold in the clutch.

This loss puts Giants in a tricky position. Next week, they face off against Vitality, who boast the same 3-4 record as them. Both teams are in desperate need of a win, or risk blowing their shot at playoffs.

“I think winning three games in a row screwed with our heads a bit, maybe we got a bit too cocky,” rhyme said. “Losing two games again definitely isn't a good feeling, but I think people will be more hungry for the next games. I hope everyone can step up and show that they are super hungry, because that's what we were last time as well.”

“After starting the season 0-2, we came to the stage thinking ‘whatever, let's just play.' And kept winning over and over with that mindset. But now that we're most likely one win away from making playoffs, it's getting into the heads of people. We're not coming on stage to play, we're coming to qualify for playoffs, and that's a totally different game. If we can turn on that old mindset again, I think we will stomp Karmine Corp and Vitality. But it's hard, because we're humans, and we naturally want to win.”

Looking ahead

With two teams securing the first playoff slots, crunch time is fast-approaching for the mid table teams if they want to secure one of the coveted playoff slots during the last two weeks of league play.

Next week's matches are: