VCT EMEA is back with the first week of Stage 2. All the top teams from Stage 1 managed to find victory as expected, but nearly every match could have ended in an upset for the underdogs.

Here are the results of this week's matches:

Eight of the twelve teams showcased their new roster changes this week, and 10 players made their first ever appearance on the VCT EMEA stage, with several more making their return after a brief hiatus.

One of the more anticipated rookies was ComeBack , joining Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Rank #62 Proxh Yusuf Emre Tunc Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn ComeBack Berkcan Şentürk Minny Patrik Hušek kamyk Maks Rychlewski from the dominant tier two Turkish team BBL PCIFIC BBL PCIFIC Europe Rank #6 Crewen Ali Eren Sargin Loita Utku Kart Lar0k Yusuf Kaan Kanber Rosé Eren Erzan lovers rock Umut Pekdoğan stand-in . Off the back of their new star duelist, Gentle Mates were poised to deliver a convincing 2-1 victory against FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #13 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban , but the returning Turkish Champions winner cNed put a wrench in those plans. On map three, the M8s let slip a 6-12 deficit, and despite a monstrous 34 kill performance from their IGL Minny , FUT completed the comeback to win in overtime.

The only upset that saw its way to completion this week was GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #42 Cloud Kirill Nehozhin grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George 's win over Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #20 Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner UNFAKE Bartosz Bernacki KovaQ Blendi Kovaci Less Felipe de Loyola Basso . The Kickoff champions continue to tumble down the rankings, as their new pickups were unable to fix the team's increasing dysfunction. GIANTX, on the other hand, are finally starting to pick up steam, with grubinho 's pickup bolstering the two rookies they added at the end of Stage 1.

KOI KOI Europe Rank #283 nataNk Nathan Bocqueho baddyG Kamil Graniczka MONSTEERR Ondřej Petrů Filu Dawid Czarnecki flyuh Xavier Carlson 's three new additions also improved the team from their less than ideal start to the year. However, going toe to toe against the consistent force of Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #11 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak with their new weapon of trexx , they were still met with defeat.

Finally, Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #22 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky alexiiik Alex Hawlasek Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat and their new Duelist alexiiik stomped Apeks Apeks Europe Rank #36 penny Erik Penny OLIZERA Diogo Oliveira MOLSI Michał Łącki AvovA Auni Chahade batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan . The ascension team is on their third roster iteration, but has still yet to find a win in the league.

The other four teams that didn't make roster changes were also EMEA's four representatives at the Esports World Cup, and were matched up against each other for week one. Fresh off their EWC win, Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #2 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius faced off against BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #4 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal PROFEK Dawid Święć LewN Burak Alkan MAGNUM Martin Penkov and got absolutely blasted on map one. BBL got up to an 11-0 lead before Heretics mustered their first round, and easily closed out the map. However, Heretics held strong and brought it to map three, which absurdly started off with three aces in a row.

benjyfishy , Wo0t , and Jamppi get consecutive aces.

After the insane start, Heretics stabilized as Wo0t took control of the game, taking their lead up to 12-6. BBL tried to repeat the feat of their Turkish brethren FUT, but their comeback stopped just short of overtime, losing out the final round to lose the map 13-11.

To end the week, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , the reigning EMEA champions, returned home after a second place finish at both Masters Toronto and the EWC to face off against Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #10 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek . While the kings of EMEA came out on top as per usual, Karmine Corp made them sweat for it. Map three came down to the wire, and the MENA representative Avez was frying for KC. However, Chronicle clutched up at the last moment, ending the series with a 13-11 win on Icebox.

EMEA will continue next week with the following matches: