VCT EMEA's ‘super week' has concluded after ten grueling matches. Some playoffs and relegation spots have been decided as a result.

While five matches are still scheduled to be played, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive and Guild Esports Guild Esports Inactive 's slots are confirmed in the playoffs. On the opposite end of the table sit Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Rank #14 skylen Asil Yalçın ip0TT Yiğit Karadeniz VenTT Emre Bozkurt Celasun Emir Celasun umu7 Umut Pekdoğan , who will be relegated. BIG BIG Inactive are one loss away from being demoted.

Friday

The weekend started out with two Group B matches that didn't favor SuperMassive Blaze and BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #34 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal chiwa Egor Stepanyuk PROFEK Dawid Święć LewN Burak Alkan . Combined, the two Turkish squads only won 23 rounds across the two maps each team played in a devastating weekend.

Fnatic started the match on their Icebox pick, a map Jake "Boaster" Howlett previously expressed the desire to dominate. Fnatic started the map 3-2 down, but flipped that result around to jimp ahead 4-3. They carried that lead into the final rounds of the map, closing it out 13-9 with the aid of Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev, who finished the map with over 300 ACS and 200 ADR.

SuperMassive Blaze picked Ascent, one of their strongest maps, to try and fight back and force the decider. However, the Turkish squad couldn't piece much-needed rounds together and Fnatic steamrolled their way to a 13-4 to wrap up the first game of the weekend.

All eyes were on Derke for Friday's game, who scored 11 first bloods across both maps. Meanwhile, Mistic had an 82% KAST and won nearly all of his duels against SuperMassive Blaze

FNATIC Boaster
@OfficialBoaster
2-0 vs SMB! Woohoooooo!

Here's my favourite anti-strat of the day!☺️

#GetYourBoastees
11:48 AM · Mar 11, 2022 ·
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The pressure was placed on BBL to put up a better performance than their Turkish counterparts in SuperMassive Blaze, but the team faced a G2 squad that showed no mercy.

G2 picked Icebox, but BBL were the ones to find a lead in the early rounds. After being down 5-3, G2 bounced back to an 8-5 lead. BBL managed to find two more rounds, but were completely shut out afterwards. G2 chained the last five rounds of the map together to find a 13-7 win.

The second map was an absolute blowout victory in favor of G2. BBL were only able to find three rounds, two of those largely thanks to individual plays from Ali "AsLanM4shadoW" Osman Balta and Hüseyin "aimDLL" Kabişteke. Oscar "Mixwell" Cañellas, whose Jett finished at the bottom of the leaderboard for his team on Icebox, had a much better outing on Chamber with nearly 360 ACS and an 81% KAST.

The star of the day was, once more, Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas. Across Icebox and Split, he averaged an 89% KAST and 177 ADR, the highest on the server.

Saturday

Four matches were played on Saturday. To be able to meet the schedule, Riot set up a B-stream with simultaneous games. With two of the four games going the distance, it was a long day of Valorant.

SuperMassive Blaze entered the server on Saturday sitting last in Group B's standings. After getting swept by Fnatic on Friday, they had hoped this match would keep them afloat and away from relegation.

Guild started Haven, their opponents' pick, poorly by going 6-2 down. Jose "koldamenta" Luis Aranguren's men managed to put together several more rounds but let the map slip 13-10. It didn't matter, as a swift 13-1 reply on Breeze equaled the series. Icebox was a grueling match, lasting well over an hour and marked by 12 overtime rounds. In the end, Guild triumphed 19-17 and sealed SuperMassive Blaze's fate in this VCT Stage.

This loss meant SuperMassive Blaze are inevitably relegated to the VCT Promotion tournament scheduled for April, ending their first 2022 VCT run with a 0-5 record. Guild, on the other hand, furthered themselves into a 3-0 record that put them on the cusp of reaching the playoffs.

Just casually noscoping three through a wall, you know?

The next teams to enter the server were FunPlus Phoenix FunPlus Phoenix Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Zyppan Pontus Eek ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky ardiis Ardis Svarenieks , the Group A leader, and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak . Due to Kyrylo "ANGE1" Karasov's unavailability caused by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, FunPlus Phoenix slotted in Kamil "baddyG" Graniczka for their IGL. Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom opened up the series with a pistol ace on Ascent, but Liquid soon found themselves on the backfoot as FunPlus Phoenix took a 10-3 half, one they quickly turned into a 13-6 win.

On Haven, Liquid were given no breathing room with yet another 10-3 half. Once FunPlus Phoenix reached map point, comeback hopes from Liquid were fed by five chained rounds in the second half, but a successful C retake wrapped up the series in favor of FunPlus Phoenix.

This result moved FunPlus Phoenix closer to the playoffs, while Liquid now sat in the middle of the table with a 2-2 record.

The third match of the day was a clash of titans. Acend Acend Inactive ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi pyrolll Artur Minin cullumx Nikolaj Cullum Andersen chiwa Egor Stepanyuk and Fnatic were next up in a match that could secure their place in the playoffs. Despite these two being some of the most hyped-up teams of the group stage, Fnatic showed no mercy on Haven and only let up four rounds on their way to a 13-4 win on their map pick.

A different Acend showed up on their pick of Ascent, this time jumping ahead by 8-6. However, once Fnatic managed to piece together a full buy, they began to recover rounds and found a 13-10 victory with little struggle.

With this result, Fnatic secured their place in the playoffs. Despite having one more match to play, against Guild, their current 4-0 record is enough to be one of the six teams attending the EMEA Challengers playoffs.

Who doesn't love a good Boaster celebration?

Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #20 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio and BIG played the final game of the day. Prior to Saturday, the latter were close to relegation, while the former were sitting in the middle of the table.

BIG showed a convincing form in the early stages of this series, finding a comfortable 13-6 win on their opponents' Icebox pick, and taking a 7-5 lead on their Bind pick. However, NAVI's attacking side on Bind brought the map into a 10-round overtime that ended in their favor 18-16.

On Ascent, NAVI carried their momentum over from Bind to lead a 9-3 half. BIG's retakes enabled them to tie the score at 10-10, at which point Kirill "Cloud" Nehozhin's men won the three rounds they needed to finish the series with a victory, placing BIG one step closer to relegation.

We've all learned something today.

Sunday

Four more matches were lined up for Sunday, also across two streams. The third day of VCT EMEA's super week also had the potential of defining two more playoffs — FunPlus Phoenix and Guild Esports.

FunPlus Phoenix were the first to fight for their playoffs chance. LDN UTD LDN UTD Inactive feqew Lukas Petrauskas Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius Destrian Tomas Linikas MOLSI Michał Łącki , despite having slim chances to reach the playoffs, fought hard for their chance and nailed an 8-4 start to Haven. FunPlus Phoenix managed to narrow the advantage and found themselves tied at 10-10, but LDN UTD were the ones to close it out, with a 1v2 clutch from Michał "MOLSI" Łącki.

The game moved to Fracture, where FunPlus Phoenix handed their opponents a quick 13-5 reply. Ascent was chosen as the decider map. Both teams kept it interesting and fought tooth and nail until the end where, after a long technical pause, LDN UTD won the final map 13-10 to keep themselves in playoffs contention.

MOLSI's clutch enabled his team to reach a 2-1 win on Sunday.

Guild were next up, standing just one victory away from qualifying to the playoffs. But to get there, they'd have to triumph over G2.

G2 got off to a slow start on Bind, ending up down 5-2 at one point. However, Guild let several rounds slip in the later stages of the game, leading to an 8-8 tie. G2 took full advantage of their recovery to find five more rounds, stealing Guild's pick 13-9.

Aaro "hoody" Peltokangas and co. showed a firm grasp on their pick of Icebox. Despite losing the first two rounds, G2 quickly bounced back into a lead they never lost, eventually finding a 13-7 win. With this loss, Guild now have to win against Fnatic if they are to secure first place in their group. G2, on the other hand, were left at the mercy of Acend's result against BBL.

If Acend lost, G2 would be guaranteed their playoffs slot. If Acend won, they'd be eliminated from the VCT for the remainder of Stage 1 due to the tiebreaker rules.

Liquid then played against BIG, who were fighting for survival in the tournament and were yet to secure a win. Liquid shut down BIG on Bind's first half by starting out the map 8-0. The German squad replied in the second half with nine rounds in a row that put them on map point. Liquid managed to force overtime, where they denied the comeback with a 14-12 win.

BIG weren't able to put up the same resistance against Liquid on Split, the latter's pick. Despite an early 5-3 disadvantage, Travis "L1NK" Mendoza and his team quickly took back control of the game and found a 13-6 win that wrapped up their group stage.

Liquid are now 3-2 and await the rest of the group's results to find out whether they make the playoffs or not. BIG are 0-4, but still have a chance to escape relegation in their match against M3 Champions M3 Champions Inactive Jady Yaroslav Nikolaev purp0 Semyon Borchev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Redgar Igor Vlasov , which has yet to be scheduled.

Dom "soulcas" Sulcas' form has not dropped since the start of the year.

For the final game of the day, Acend fielded a substitute. With Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt citing mental health troubles, his team was granted an emergency substitution and fielded Semyon "purp0" Borchev in his place in order to give their flex player some much-needed rest.

In their first map with purp0, Haven looked grim for Acend. After not securing an early lead, BBL managed to jump up to an 8-4 half that they quickly transformed into a 13-6 win. On Split, Acend had to stop a comeback in the final rounds, forcing the decider with a 13-11 victory.

Acend remained in contention for the victory for the first half of Ascent, letting key rounds slip but still finishing the half 7-5 down. BBL's attacking side was too strong for Santeri "BONECOLD" Sassi's team, who lost 13-6. This loss placed Acend out of contention for the playoffs.

It happens to the best, starxo.

Looking ahead

Group B's playoffs teams have been determined. Fnatic, Guild and G2 will all go through to the next stage of Stage 1: EMEA Challengers, but the final match between Fnatic and Guild will determine the placements. If Fnatic win, G2 will place second and Guild will place third. If Guild win, they'll go through in first, with Fnatic and G2 following in second and third.

In Group A, no team is yet locked in for playoffs. BIG are the only team incapable of making it into the playoffs, but are not yet guaranteed to be relegated. If BIG are to avoid relegation, they'll need to win against M3 Champions who, in turn, have to lose all their matches.

Despite this weekend's action, VCT EMEA is not over yet. There are still four Group A matches and one Group B match to be played, all extremely important for the playoffs. Riot has inserted more match days between March 16 and 18 which will close the curtain on EMEA's group stage.

EMEA Challengers' Week 6 games are: