The VCT EMEA league playoffs opened with an elimination match between Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #22 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Zyppan Pontus Eek SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin ardiis Ardis Svarenieks and Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #8 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Kicks Kimmie Laasner runneR Emil Trajkovski ceNder Jokūbas Labutis Sayf Saif Jibraeel , with Vitality winning 2-1. The winner would make it into the double-elimination bracket. Throughout their regular season, Vitality had improved upon their Stage One performance, winning three of their four games this split. On the other hand, NAVI had only found a singular win this split but made it to playoffs thanks to their Stage 1 record.

The map veto saw NAVI choose the opener to be Haven. FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 hiro Emirhan Kat Derke Nikita Sirmitev Boaster Jake Howlett Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder had demolished Vitality on that map the last time they played it, so NAVI leaned into that possible advantage. Vitality countered with one of their comfort picks, Sunset, and the decider came down to Ascent.

Vitality got off to a blistering start on Haven on attack with six round wins in a row convincingly. It came down to ardiis to win out a couple one versus one clutches to get NAVI on the board. From there, however, he invested in an operator and used it to great effect through the map. NAVI were able to stabilize and get themselves to a 6-6 half despite the rough beginning.

NAVI were hitting some crispy shots on Haven.

Vitality won the pistol after they swapped to defense, with Sayf finding a 3K. However, NAVI won the anti-eco and brought the score to 9-7. The momentum was in their favor, and Vitality's eco was broken. In the next round, Sayf found a 4K with the help of his Jett knives, but that was Vitality's last push. NAVI won the next four rounds consecutively to take the map 13-8.

Ardiis had insane impact on the map, winning multiple clutches and finding 13 kills with just the operator. In comparison, he found 12 in total during all of Split 2.

Despite their loss on map 1, Vitality looked extremely comfortable on map two, Sunset. Both teams rocked a mirror comp, but Sayf on Neon dominated 31-15 the last time he played the agent. Starting on attack again, they once more found themselves up 6-0 before NAVI won a round. NAVI brought the score up to 6-2 but Vitality recovered their footing, continuing their quick-paced entries off the back of Neon and Kayo. Sayf found three 3Ks in the first half, and Vitality found themselves with a 10-2 lead.

NAVI seemed to recover a bit on attack after a pistol win and anti-eco conversion but the damage had been done. Vitality closed out the map, losing only one more round, 13-5. The momentum had shifted.

Vitality dominated on Sunset.

On Ascent, NAVI started on defense and for the first time today, found success right off the bat with a 4-1 lead and in round five, were five against one. trexx however, with some clean headshots and positioning won out the 1v5 to get Vitality on the board.

The round that shifted the tides in favor of Vitality.

The rest of the squad seemed to wake up after, with NAVI and Vitality trading rounds back and forth until the half ended 7-5 in NAVI's favor.

On defense, Vitality looked like a whole other team. They won the pistol, anti-eco, and bonus convincingly, setting up the team's economy for an early operator buy on Sayf. They would not lose a single round on defense, with Trexx and Kicks both dropping 20-bombs. Vitality took Ascent 13-7 and the series 2-1, propelling them forward in the bracket. Unfortunately for NAVI, their competitive season for 2024 concludes with this loss.

Both Sayf and trexx, the former on the duelist and the latter on Sova, ended the series with 53 kills and over 250 ACS apiece. While NAVI looked better in terms of first kills, especially on the first map, Vitality looked much more cohesive as a team.

Vitality will face Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius tomorrow in the upper semifinals.