Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #19 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky managed to avoid a disastrous 0-2 start to their VCT EMEA season, scraping by for a 2-1 victory over Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin . Later in the day, Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #31 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek and BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #40 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal chiwa Egor Stepanyuk PROFEK Dawid Święć LewN Burak Alkan got their first taste of the stage, with the French team taking victory in a closely contested 2-0.

(Photo by: Hara Amorós / Riot Games / LVP)

Natus Vincere vs. Giants Gaming (NAVI 2-1)

NAVI's season did not start in the way they had perhaps hoped. The Masters Copenhagen winners found themselves on the losing end of a 14-round overtime against KOI KOI Europe Rank #45 grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko sheydos Bogdan Naumov Filu Dawid Czarnecki flyuh Xavier Carlson soulcas Dom Sulcas on Monday, resulting in a 2-0 loss against the Spanish org. Another Spanish org, Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin , awaited them two days later. They too were coming off of a 2-0 loss, as recently crowned LOCK//IN champion FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder got the better of them.

In a test of endurance, NAVI walked away with a 13-7 win on the final map, which ended up being the only one-sided map all day. The series lasted nearly four hours from start to finish as NAVI and Giants duked it out in several long overtimes, totalling 12 extra rounds across the series.

Even in regulation, the teams were closely matched. Giants opened strong with a 4-0 start on Icebox, but NAVI responded with four of their own. After both teams picked up a pair of rounds each, the score stood level at halftime. NAVI earned themselves a lead in the second half despite losing the pistol round, and ANGE1 's squad got to map point first at 12-10. However, Giants kept their cool, picked up the last two rounds, and secured overtime.

In overtime, the squads found themselves stalemated, with both sides trading defensive rounds back and forth. In round 32, nukkye finally managed to break the deadlock, taking three scalps and securing his team a 17-15 victory. The Lithuanian had been a star for Giants all game, putting up 30 kills and a 1.46 rating.

Despite losing the first two rounds, NAVI took control of the second map with a six-round streak. Giants regained their footing a little in the second half, but faced a 7-5 deficit at halftime nevertheless. The teams were evenly matched in the second half, but NAVI got to map point first at 12-10 thanks to their previous advantage. However, like on Icebox, Giants were strong in these dying moments of regulation and secured overtime on map two.

Giants drew first blood in overtime, but NAVI showed resilience by taking three rounds in a row and securing a 15-13 victory on Split. For the Ukrainian team, this was only their first map win in VCT EMEA, and it was thanks to a team effort on the scoreboard. All five NAVI players were within three kills of each other, with Shao , Zyppan and cNed all sharing the top spot at 20.

NAVI decided they had seen enough overtime and closed the series out in regulation on Pearl. The first half was nonetheless as close as the rest of the series had been, with no team being able to string together more than two rounds, and NAVI only eking out a slight 7-5 advantage. In the second half, NAVI broke away at last, winning six of eight attacking rounds to take a 13-7 victory and the series win.

For both NAVI and Giants, the super week now draws to a close. Despite a difficult loss on Monday, NAVI recovered and now sit midtable with a 1-1 record. However, they were just one Split overtime round away from starting the season without a map win, which would have been less than ideal for the LOCK//IN semifinalists.

Giants currently occupy the bottom spot in the table with a 0-2 record. However, there's no reason to sweat just yet for the Spanish org, as they got two difficult fixtures out of the way against the two highest-placing EMEA teams at LOCK//IN in FNATIC and NAVI.

Karmine Corp vs. BBL Esports (KC 2-0)

Unlike the first two teams of the day, who both already had a game under their belt, Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #31 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek and BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #40 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal chiwa Egor Stepanyuk PROFEK Dawid Święć LewN Burak Alkan saw the stage of the new Berlin-based studio for the first time today. KCorp came away with a 2-0 win, but they were pushed to the limit by BBL as the game lasted deep into the night.

The Benrlitom brothers, ScreaM and Nivera , lead by example on the server. They had more kills and ACS than anyone else, but perhaps most impressively, they both went +10 in first engagements, together winning nearly half of all first duels in the series.

BBL managed to win both pistols on the first map, but they needed a bigger advantage to win out on Icebox, as the teams went neck-and-neck through the first half. Karmine Corp put up a good streak of five rounds in the second half, getting themselves to map point at 12-9, but BBL fought back in three rounds to secure overtime.

In overtime, one man really stepped up for BBL. AsLanM4shadoW , who had gotten just six kills in regulation, delivered when his team needed him most. Time and time again, Karmine Corp would get to map point, and AsLan would pull out some heroic play to keep his team in the game, starting with a 2v5 between him and Turko. He followed that up with three kills in round 28, two in round 30, and four in round 32. By round 36, on Karmine's 9th map point, the French squad had finally tamed the lion, and no Aslan miracles could save BBL from a 19-17 defeat.

BBL gave everything to try to win Icebox, which meant the tanks were empty at the start of Split. Karmine Corp cruised to a 9-3 half, and when they won the second pistol round as well to make it 11-3, it looked all but over. However, BBL found a new gear in the second half, and they started to claw back, winning eight of the next nine rounds. BBL had closed the gap to 12-11, but KCorp wanted to avoid another overtime at all costs. With a beautiful utility combo, they flushed out two BBL players on site for a successful retake, closing out Split 13-11 and taking the series.

Karmine Corp now sit at a 1-0 record, and they'll hope to make it two for two against Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius on Friday. BBL play their second match on Friday as well, and a difficult fixture against FNATIC awaits them.

Looking ahead

EMEA's super week has now passed the halfway mark, but there are still plenty of matches to be played as the league table starts to take shape.

Tomorrow's games are:

• Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #23 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak vs. FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban
• KOI KOI Europe Rank #45 grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko sheydos Bogdan Naumov Filu Dawid Czarnecki flyuh Xavier Carlson soulcas Dom Sulcas vs. Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #9 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso