Acend Acend Inactive ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi pyrolll Artur Minin cullumx Nikolaj Cullum Andersen chiwa Egor Stepanyuk and Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Unranked skylen Asil Yalçın ip0TT Yiğit Karadeniz VenTT Emre Bozkurt Celasun Emir Celasun umu7 Umut Pekdoğan have both qualified to Stage 3: Masters Berlin today, winning against Gambit Esports Gambit Esports Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Chronicle Timofey Khromov d3ffo Nikita Sudakov sheydos Bogdan Naumov nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin and G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive , respectively, in the EMEA Challengers Playoffs.

Gambit and G2 will have another chance later this week to qualify for the LAN event in the third round of the lower bracket against Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Unranked paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak / forZe forZe Inactive SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin Art1st Vyacheslav Lyadnov Coffee Nikita Antsypirovich and Guild Esports Guild Esports Inactive / Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin , respectively.

Acend and SuperMassive Blaze still have to play up to three matches to determine the exact seeds going into Berlin.

"We were happy when we got Gambit instead of SuperMassive Blaze or G2. I think Gambit was the easiest team for us to play against," Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt recalled in the post-match interview. Acend's newest addition went on to say they'd been playing well against Gambit in scrims, giving them a much-needed confidence boost heading into their most important Valorant match ever.

Acend elected Bind as the starting map, one they've only lost three times since Stage 1: Challengers 3. Despite a shaky recent history, Gambit also have a tried and tested Bind and that carried them to an early 4-2 lead.

The teams kept trading rounds back and forth despite a tactical timeout from Acend on the ninth round. The timeout induced chaos on the B site, but only Acend walked away from it. By then, and thanks to a mastermind Patryk "starxo" Kopczynski 1v3 clutch, Gambit were shattered and gave up the map 13-7.

Although it was Santeri "BONECOLD" Sassi and starxo to carry their team throughout this map, Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov stands out with a 56% headshot rate despite his relatively lackluster 85 ADR.

Gambit again took an early lead, this time on Ascent, but were quickly shutdown. Acend took the lead, fueled by Mehmet "cNed" Yağız İpek's boldness. When his squad reached their sixth point, Gambit took a timeout to try and even things out, but were only able to win a round before the half closed.

Just your average cNed play, really.

Down but not out, Gambit took the second pistol of the game and jumped into the lead 8-7, at which point Laurynas "Nbs" Kisielius stepped in for a word with his squad. It resulted only in a tie, as Gambit soon took off, reaching match point. Acend took a second timeout, needing to win four straight rounds. They were only able to secure two of those four needed, as a second timeout from Gambit allowed them to prevent the comeback and to win Ascent 13-10.

Gambit started Icebox out right with another 2-0 scoreline, but Acend reeled them in and eventually took the lead on the final three rounds of their attacking side. Gambit failed to win rounds while attacking, placing Acend on course to a 13-5 win and booking their tickets to Berlin.

"I think everybody was hyping this match, so I think we gave a good show," zeek said. And a good show they put on.

Particularly on Icebox, cNed and zeek alone racked up nearly double the amount of kills as the rest of their team combined, each sitting at 25 and 24 kills, 374 and 358 ACS, respectively.

Acend have been on an uphill trend ever since the addition of zeek. Starting in early June, the team is yet to lose a match and have only dropped three maps counting today's, raking in 15 straight wins. Their EMEA campaign for Stage 3 looks as unstoppable as it did in Stage 1.

When asked by Yinsu Collins if they could be stopped, zeek replied ominously. "I don't know," he replied. "Maybe they can stop us."

Despite handing compliments to SuperMassive Blaze and G2, zeek stated "right now, we don't care, to be honest. We've got what we wanted. Now [the rest of the tournament's] just a formality. Of course we're going to play to win; we won't throw. No pressure on us now. We're going to try to smash everyone."

There was no hiding how much this meant for the Acend camp.

Happiness overflowed for the Acend flex. "How nice do you think it is? Everybody sees it on my face. I've never been happier than this," zeek said through a massive smile on camera. "I was working very hard and the offer from Acend was like rain on a hot day. I'm at a loss for words, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to everyone."

The second and final match of the day was between SuperMassive Blaze and G2, the other two teams with high seeds. Bind was a total blowout victory from the Turkish side, 13-4, giving no chances to G2 on their own pick. "We decided to play [this composition] in like 10 seconds. Batuhan "russ" Malgaç told us 'let's play this comp, we just played it and it was good.' It wasn't planned," Eren "Brave" Kasırga revealed in the post-match interview.

There wasn't much more left for G2 after that, dropping Ascent 13-5. In just over an hour, G2 were relegated to the lower bracket in a much more convincing fashion that what many expected.

"I can't explain it. It's an amazing feeling," Brave rejoiced on-stream. "I didn't even expect this. I expected a close match." Later on, his team bundled up behind him, jumping up and down in celebration of their qualification.

Against a team that'd been so hot in recent weeks like G2, one would expect much studying and preparation to take place. SuperMassive Blaze didn't really feel like it, though. "We didn't actually prepare that especially," Brave continued. "We just played our own game."

Brave's men still have to play two more matches before they can take time off before Berlin, and at least one will be against Acend on their way to the grand final. "We just play our own game. cNed is a dangerous player... but I don't think he will stop us."

Regarding Berlin, though, the team to defeat can only be one. "Sentinels. They're the best team, we want to defeat the best team."

Tomorrow, the EMEA Challengers Playoffs takes a day off. It'll return on August 18, though, with the two elimination matches mentioned at the beginning. Liquid will face forZe and Guild will go head-to-head with Giants. The winners will face Gambit and G2, respectively, for the two remaining spots in Berlin. The losers go home.