EMEA Kickoff resumed after a short break away, returning with an upper quarterfinal matchup between Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #25 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak and FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan qRaxs Doğukan Balaban . Despite having big shoes to fill in the offseason, FUT prevailed, making quick work of Team Liquid in two maps.

The series played out on FUT's Pearl, Team Liquid's Fracture, while the decider map Split was not needed.

One of the viewing points of the match was the debut of xeus , FUT's newest Duelist, who stepped into a starting role after cNed stepped away from competition. While the rookie impressed, he was one cog in a well-rounded team effort. The match also saw in-game leader MrFaliN play Tejo for the first time.

MrFaliN with a FAST 4K.

MrFaliN's plant denial and control of A main, thanks to his Guided Salvo, gave FUT a 9-3 halftime advantage. Down the stretch, clutch displays from qRaxs and yetujey got FUT past the finish line comfortably, sealing their map pick 13-7.

In their debut map of the 2025 season, Team Liquid displayed a polarizing zero Duelist comp on Fracture, their map pick against KOI KOI Europe Rank #40 grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko sheydos Bogdan Naumov Filu Dawid Czarnecki flyuh Xavier Carlson soulcas Dom Sulcas . They returned to the well against FUT, bringing back the same team comp on the same map.

The map began a scrappy one, characterized by early-round team fights. The battle of fine margins was won by FUT, as they claimed the first six rounds of the map. In five of those six rounds, Team Liquid held a man advantage but were unable to convert them into a win. FUT entered halftime with another 9-3 lead.

While mid-rounding errors had interrupted the early moments of Team Liquid's first half, they seemed to be a problem of the past once they switched to their attack side. However, as FUT inched towards match point, they continued to be the more composed mid-round team.

Yet another MrFaliN clutch.

FUT closed the map and the series 13-6, never letting their opponents get close enough to make them sweat. Initiator player qRaxs led the charge for his team in kills, recording a server-high 37, while also grabbing seven first kills with zero first deaths.

The performance across both maps was characterized by individuals stepping up for the team. Three FUT rounds were won in one-on-two fashion, while an additional three were won in one-on-three scenarios.

FUT will move on to the upper semifinal to take on Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #8 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso , while Team Liquid faces elimination in the lower bracket against EMEA's newest team, Apeks Apeks Europe Rank #2 florescent Ava Eugene hype Tautvydas Paldavicius MOLSI Michał Łącki AvovA Auni Chahade batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan .

VCT EMEA Kickoff will continue with the following matches: