G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak have survived the first elimination round on the third day of the Stage 1: EMEA Challengers Playoffs.

G2 eliminated M3 Champions M3 Champions Inactive Jady Yaroslav Nikolaev purp0 Semyon Borchev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Redgar Igor Vlasov 2-0. Liquid knocked Guild Esports Guild Esports Inactive out with a 2-0 sweep. Today's winners will face each other again tomorrow, with the winner securing the final EMEA slot in Stage 1: Masters Reykjavik.

M3 Champions vs. G2 (G2 2-0)

M3C and G2's new roster had never faced each other. The stakes in this first encounter could not be higher: the winner would have one more chance to reach Masters Reykjavik while the loser would go home.

G2 picked Icebox to start the series, finding a strong 5-1 start that prompted a timeout from M3C, who then then found three rounds. A 3K from Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov narrowed the result to 5-4. Bogdan "sheydos" Naumov closed in on a 1v3 clutch to keep it tight, but Oscar "Mixwell" Cañellas just saved the round to get his team to 7-4. In the spirit of revenge, sheydos took down three again in the next round to give his team a realistic chance during the second half, which they entered at a 7-5 disadvantage.

Having switched sides, G2 and M3C traded the first four rounds of the second half, reaching 9-7. On round 17, G2 unpredictably flipped an A retake to find double digits, with two strong rounds taking them to map point. M3C barely hung on, finding their eighth round and calling a timeout, but Auni "AvovA" Chahade and Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas collectively sprayed down their opponents on the A site to finish the map 13-8.

Enough is enough, said AvovA and nukkye.

"If I say I should do something, the team trusts me 100%, which is something really important for the future, because if you want to improve you need to trust your teammates," Mixwell told the broadcast. "And I trust all of them. They also trust me, and after the preparation we've done, we can win against anybody."

Despite a lackluster first half, AvovA stood out on G2. Ending the first half with a mere 1.4 KDA, the Danish player rounded out the map with a 2.58 KDA and a 90% KAST, topping the charts in nearly all metrics.

M3 Champions had no trouble finding the first two rounds. But with the guns coming out, G2 replied with five-straight points. M3C clawed back four rounds, with a highlight play from Nikita "d3ffo" Sudakov tying the scoreline. A hectic A take involving a 3K and a teamkill from d3ffo, as well as a kill blindly through a Viper's Pit, placed M3C in the lead again. G2, however, managed to leave their defense at 6-6.

Calling this round 'wild' might not suffice.

On the attack, G2 found the pistol round and the following, winning the first one due to a 3K from Aaro "hoody" Peltokangas. M3C found their seventh point, but strong and clinical rounds from G2 took the team to map point at 12-7. M3C found two more points and sheydos aced on B, giving his team double digits and hope, at a time that his team looked to be just hanging on.

Those hopes were short-lived. The following round, G2 completely shutdown M3 Champions and found their way to a 13-10 win. The Masters Berlin champions were eliminated in a swift 2-0 sweep by G2, who are now just one game away from Reykjavik.

"It was an insane match, especially after losing against Liquid the other day," Mixwell said. "We stepped up and I'm happy because everyone did their job really well."

nukkye was notably absent from today's series, finishing near the bottom of the scoreboard for his team. Mixwell, however, praised him for his IGLing.

"I think nukkye is doing a really good job as an IGL, but I wasn't helping as much the other day. Like I said, I wasn't in the action," mixwell said. "I'm usually the second voice in the team, the one that talks the most other than the IGL, and the other day I wasn't talking as much because I wasn't in the action, I didn't know what they were doing. So today, me taking risks helped me see how the enemy team was playing and everyone gave their input. That's the biggest change from the other match."

Having secured today's win, G2 are now one series win away from qualifying to Iceland. They will play against Liquid.

"I think if we play like today, we'll win. I would like to play against Liquid again, just to have a rematch and win this time," Mixwell said.

Sheydos' ace gave M3C the smallest glimpse of hope.

Team Liquid vs. Guild Esports (TL 2-0)

Last time Liquid and Guild met each other was back in October, during the EMEA LCQ. Guild had a different roster at the time, but were at both times met with rough losses that led them to make changes for 2022.

Guild chose Breeze to kick off their series against Liquid, taking the pistol round. However, Liquid secured the next two rounds to go 2-1. Guild went back up to 4-2, but some flawless and safe rounds put Liquid on top at 6-4.

Two back-to-back highlight plays allowed Liquid to win the half. Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom sniped four with his Tour de Force, while Travis "L1NK" Mendoza took down an equal number of enemies to place his team at 8-4, the biggest gap in the scoreline of the map so far.

Guild chained the first three rounds of their defense. A Nivera 3K retake on B nearly placed Liquid on the board, but a 1v2 clutch from Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko allowed Guild to shrink the scoreline to 8-7. A successful A take gave Liquid their first round of the second half. A massive 4K from L1NK, clutching against two in the process, gave Liquid double digits and put Guild's economy on the brink of collapse.

Guild hung on for one more round, prompting a timeout from Liquid. Guild looked to be back in the map as they found their eighth point at 10-8, but Nivera quickly replied with a 1v3 4K, to place Liquid on 11. Guild hit double digits themselves with two rounds but, in the end, Liquid only just edged out their opponents, stealing their Breeze pick with a 13-11 result.

"I knew the enemy Jett was holding me with the OP so I jumped, so he would shoot. I killed two people and I was just praying. At this time, Jamppi was telling me the last player was 1 HP," Nivera said regarding Russel "Russ" Mendes, who had near-full health. "You can see his health, he is not 1 HP at all. He was just giving me confidence and… yeah, I played the bomb. We knew it wasn't half. I won the round and I was happy."

There's something about Nivera and pistols.

The Benrlitom brothers carried Liquid into match point on Breeze. Both players had a 188 ADR and won most of their duels, with Nivera just topping his brother with 311 ACS and a 2.23 KDA.

"The funny thing is that we just changed our comp like one day before," Nivera said. "We didn't have a lot of practice, but we just know each other really well and try to put the best Agent on everyone. My brother was playing Jett and he's really, really good with Jett."

Heading to their pick, Liquid's start to Ascent went about as well as they could have expected. The first half of the map was dotted only by four spaced-out rounds from Guild, which put Liquid in a comfortable place for victory, enabled by several multikills.

Liquid would need the pistol round to quickly find the much-wanted win. Guild, however, were the ones to open up the second half of the map, making Liquid's ride to playoffs much bumpier. Guild recovered three rounds, narrowing their disadvantage to 8-7. With their economy in ruins, Connor "Sliggy" Blomfield stepped in to chat to his team.

That timeout was followed by a complete shutdown on A from Liquid, allowing Liquid to climb into the double digits with credits to spare. Guild pulled out a last-second rotate on round 18 to keep themselves in the game, but Liquid replied with two flawless rounds to reach map point. Russ nearly saved Guild on a chaotic A round, but became detained at the last possible second, with Nivera knifing the English player to finish the series with a 13-8.

This loss means Guild are out of Reykjavik contention and will now sit on the sidelines until Stage 2 of the VCT rolls around. Liquid, however, have one more chance to reach Masters. They'll play against G2 tomorrow in a bid to return to Iceland.

Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen returned to Jett on Ascent, climbing to 299 ACS and a 2.15 KDA. While IGLing, the Finn was also able to win or tie all of his duels across the second map of the series.

It's hard to imagine a rougher way of getting eliminated.

Looking ahead

Tomorrow's games will decide the first grand finalist of VCT EMEA, as well as the third and final team from the region who will play in Masters Reykjavik.

Tomorrow's VCT EMEA games are: