Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin has triumphed over KOI KOI Europe Rank #30 grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko sheydos Bogdan Naumov Filu Dawid Czarnecki flyuh Xavier Carlson soulcas Dom Sulcas in the upper bracket final of the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier. With this result, Giants secures their spot as the fourth EMEA team at Champions 2023, alongside FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #5 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #12 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak , and FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan qRaxs Doğukan Balaban .

rhyme and Cloud embracing on stage (Photo by: Hara Amorós / Riot Games / LVP)

“When you're one win away from playoffs, you're not coming on stage to play, you're coming on stage to qualify. That is a whole different mindset, and that got into people's heads a little too much,” rhyme said ahead of the penultimate week of league play.

Back then, Giants needed just one win to secure themselves a spot in playoffs, but experienced tough losses against Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #12 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius to make their road that much harder.

This time, Giants overcame their demons and qualified for Champions at the first time of asking, sifting straight through the upper bracket without dropping a map.

Fit1nho , who has been with the Giants organization for two and a half years, seized the opportunity to qualify to a major tournament for the first time with both hands. The Spanish Jett player went +22 across two maps with a 1.46 rating and 12 opening kills, spearheading the path to victory for his team.

It's Fit1nho's world, we're just living in it.

During the first half of Haven, both teams were neck-and-neck, mostly thanks to KOI scraping some crucial wins in player disadvantages. In the end, Giants earned themselves a 7-5 halftime lead by winning the last two rounds.

The second half saw Giants quickly extend their lead by taking the pistol, eventually securing map point in round 19. However, five rounds in a row from KOI sent the map to overtime. Nevertheless, Giants managed to put together two convincing rounds to clean up the first map 14-12.

On Pearl, KOI picked up an early advantage after securing a thrifty in round two. However, a timeout in round five allowed Giants to swiftly reel in KOI's lead and recover into a 7-5 half. Afterwards, Giants steamrolled their defensive half, not losing a single round and eventually taking the map 13-5.

Despite Fit1nho stealing the show, topping the scoreboard with 24 kills in both maps, his teammates played no small part in Giants' qualification to Champions. hoody 's 23 assists on Haven helped him to an impressive 1.38 rating, and nukkye 's solid performances on Cypher and Killjoy netted him a 1.20 rating across the series.

KOI will need heroic rounds like these if they want to qualify to Champions from the lower bracket.

KOI has a second chance to qualify for the biggest tournament of the year, but they must beat Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #16 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio again to do it. The lower bracket final is a best-of-five series, and tomorrow's match will be a test of endurance.