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 are the final EMEA representatives headed to Berlin after today's Stage 3: EMEA Challengers Playoffs matches.

The remaining teams will now play three days of matches to determine seeding and prize distribution heading into Berlin.

The first map between Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #23 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak and Gambit was hard-fought, with several clutches and tight rounds defining the early rounds of Split. Great plays from Igor "Redgar" Vlasov and Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin kept their team afloat. The round trades ended up favoring Liquid in the final stretch of the hour-long map, just edging their opponents out 13-11.

Ice. Cold. Hold.

The scoreline speaks for itself on Bind, with Gambit claiming a blowout 13-3 victory. "We just tried to do some things... experiment some Agents. We saw that my Astra was good on Bind, d3ffo was also really good on the Jett, he could take space on both sides, and after a few shots they just started to fear our Jett," Redgar said. Despite this, Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin's Viper made a difference, with a 352 ACS scoreline and 7 multi-kills and a clutch.

About nAts specifically, Redgar highlighted him as "one of the best. nAts was feeling a bit sick today but you saw him - it doesn't matter. He's just trying to kill them all."

The third map looked like another incoming blowout from the Gambit side, going up 9-3. In spite of this, Liquid started to chain together round after round, and the team quickly bounced back and even reached match point 12-11. It ended up going to overtime, where a lot of tense rounds culminated in a 16-14 win for Gambit, earning them a spot in Berlin.

While clutches defined mainly the first rounds of Split, the whole of Icebox was dominated by these clinical plays. Bogdan "sheydos" Naumov alone won three clutches across the map. Two great plays that let Liquid hang on were 2v4 retakes - the first was a part of their comeback, the second was during the OT they inevitably lost.

In the post-match interview, Redgar's voice was even raspy. "My voice is a bit out because I screamed too loud." He described the feeling as "deserved. It wasn't luck. We tried to do our best and we just won it. We had a pretty bad experience with Fnatic [in Stage 2], but now... we can do it."

One Gambit trademark across the series was calling for timeouts while they held great advantage. Redgar developed on the why. "We're trying to remember what they're doing on Defense and find the best solutions to win our pistol. We just don't want to rush ourselves because we have a good win streak and we just have to chill a bit. And after that, we'll just do our game, our playstyle, and win."

Now that they're Berlin-bound, the typical "who do you want to face?" questions come in for Gambit. "I just want to face all teams," said Redgar, despite nAts being hungry for Sentinels Sentinels North America Rank #3 N4RRATE Marshall Massey bang Sean Bezerra Zellsis Jordan Montemurro zekken Zachary Patrone johnqt Mohamed Amine Ouarid . "I really like to play against good teams."

Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #23 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak 's year in VCT is not over. The team is a lock for the Last Chance Qualifiers. They currently sit in third with 300 points, still theoretically capable of falling to sixth.

James "Kryptix" Affleck partook in both 2v4 retakes to keep his team afloat.

Next up, G2 had their last chance. After suffering a crushing defeat to Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Rank #21 skylen Asil Yalçın ip0TT Yiğit Karadeniz VenTT Emre Bozkurt OXMANN Aytekin Çakır umu7 Umut Pekdoğan , their next opponent was David "Davidp" Prins's Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin , who was one step away from completing a huge redemption arc. Cista "keloqz" Wassim said in the post-match interview that, in their loss to SuperMassive Blaze, "[they] just weren't here. The energy was down..."

keloqz pointed to one key person in their recovery after the upper bracket match. "It was really hard. We have very experienced players, like Mixwell . It helps a lot. With him, we can go really far and I think we can win Berlin."

Starting out on Icebox, after some tussle for the lead, Giants jumped ahead with six straight rounds. Despite attempts from G2 to hold back Giants' attacks, the map favored Giants 13-8 as they won the last four rounds. The second map, Bind, was once a gain a blowout victory. G2 took the win 13-3, handing Giants their fourth Bind loss in fourteen played maps since their most recent roster changes.

G2 made it look easy on Ascent, a map keloqz has claimed as his. And he certainly showed it. With a 2.7 KDA ratio and seven entry kills for the Frenchman, G2 made it look easy on Ascent with a 13-4 win to qualify for Berlin. "I don't know... we just played and we wrecked everyone. We're the best team, I think, to be honest," the Jett main said.

Regarding Berlin, keloqz gave a similar answer to Redgar. "To be honest, [I want to face] every team. I want to play everyone. Everyone is good, I like to play against good teams. So let's go. Let's go Berlin."

The typical G2 attitude came out as keloqz closed the series.

Giants's run in VCT is over. They only amassed 50 points throughout the circuit's entirety, leaving them in 12th place and out of the Last Chance Qualifier.

The final EMEA teams are now set. It'll be Acend Acend Inactive ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi pyrolll Artur Minin cullumx Nikolaj Cullum Andersen chiwa Egor Stepanyuk , Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Rank #21 skylen Asil Yalçın ip0TT Yiğit Karadeniz VenTT Emre Bozkurt OXMANN Aytekin Çakır umu7 Umut Pekdoğan , 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 who will represent the region in Berlin, the second ever international Valorant LAN. The remaining matches count only for seeding and prize, but they're still ever-important.

Tomorrow's seeding matches are the lower bracket semifinal and the upper bracket final. Gambit will face G2 first and Acend will play against SuperMassive Blaze after that, in one of the most anticipated and hyped up conflicts of EMEA.