Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #169 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek and BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #19 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal PROFEK Dawid Święć vakk Vakaris Bebravičius stand-in LewN Burak Alkan found their second wins of the season during the fourth week of the VCT EMEA, which was mired in three-map matches.

FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #4 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , despite still having a postponed match, are sitting unbeaten at the top of the standings. Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #17 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio , after an early stumble, have retained their win streak and are now 5-1 in the standings.

Week 4

The fourth week of the VCT EMEA saw exclusively 2-0 wins, among which the first win of BBL. Their comfortable win over Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #1 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso saw BBL climb above Karmine Corp and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #2 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius , who lost to Natus Vincere and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #12 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak , respectively.

Week 4 finished a match short, as a bout between KOI KOI Europe Rank #30 grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko sheydos Bogdan Naumov Filu Dawid Czarnecki flyuh Xavier Carlson soulcas Dom Sulcas and FNATIC was delayed to Week 5. The second matchday of the week featured only one game, where Giants Gaming Giants Gaming Inactive Redgar Igor Vlasov Fit1nho Adolfo Gallego nukkye Žygimantas Chmieliauskas hoody Aaro Peltokangas Cloud Kirill Nehozhin handed FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan qRaxs Doğukan Balaban their second loss in EMEA.

Week 5

Day One:

Featuring just one match as per usual, the fifth week of the VCT EMEA kicked off with the Giants and Liquid brands clashing for the first time in over a year and a half. Unlike previous matches, which also featured radically different squads, the two teams went back-and-forth this past Wednesday.

On Liquid's Ascent pick, neither team could grow a significant lead. The gap hit its largest point in the second half, when Giants were up 9-6, but Sayf and nAts quickly worked on closing that gap by sharing four significant multikills in the following rounds. Giants eventually slotted the final three rounds for a 13-11 win.

An equally-close Icebox followed up, with another 7-5 half leading to a 13-11 win. Sayf found his second ace of the day and put Liquid on top this time, as he took down 28 overall — 20 in the first half alone — across seven opening kills. nAts, soulcas , and Jamppi stepped up in the second half, where Liquid found five retakes that triggered the decider.

Unlike previous matches, which played out the full 24 rounds of regulation, just 23 rounds were played on Lotus. Nevertheless, Giants and Liquid spent the map neck and neck and were never separated by more than three rounds. Liquid ultimately took the 13-10 win, thanks to a third stellar showing from Sayf and nAts' trademark lurks.

Liquid and Giants multikills Every Giants and Liquid player had a highlight during their match

Day Two:

Team Heretics' first foray into Haven this year came as the team was 0-5 in the standings. They were the first team to reach the fifth week winless, while BBL were on a rise; after a four-loss streak, the Turks found a 2-0 over Team Vitality the week prior. This match, however, would be no easy feat and the two kept bouncing rounds off each other.

After some back-and-forth, the first half reached a 6-5 score in favor of BBL. Heretics resorted to clutches and multikills in four of their five points, but were unable to fully tie up the half after a 1v1 from Brave put BBL up 7-5. His team was never able to distance themselves too much from Heretics, as the game evolved to a 7-7 tie and, later, 12-12. In overtime, BBL hit their opponents with a quick one-two, letting a 1v1 from Brave finish off the map in his team's favor.

The expectations for BBL were uncertain heading into Lotus, since the team had avoided the map entirely so far. Despite Heretics already having two matches on record, they quickly found themselves 4-1 down. A 4K from zeek gave his team a burst of life, which led them to tying the half. Two 4Ks from BBL handed them a 10-7 lead, which quickly died off when Heretics chained six rounds for a 13-10 lead.

The final map was rough ground for either team. Heretics brought out the same Harbor-Viper comp that put them 13-5 over Karmine Corp, but found just two rounds across the map this time.

QutionerX , after two quiet maps, showed up on Icebox with a 1.3 KPR and nearly 200 ADR. His 20 frags added up to nearly a third of his team's total kills on Icebox.

AsLan on the VCT EMEA stage BBL look fired up for the second half of the season. (Photo by Hara Amorós/Riot Games/LVP)

A renovated KCorp squad joined the server against KOI, showing a rebuilt form. They went 11-1 up against a KOI squad which has struggled to make a mark since their opening win against NAVI. koldamenta 's men seemed on the verge of building back after switching halves, but the insurmountable deficit spelled a quick 13-6 end to the map.

KCorp left Ascent open despite never winning it, prompting KOI to pick it. This was one of the two maps the latter found against NAVI, but neither team found a commanding enough lead in the first half. sheydos and trexx showed up in the first half despite a 6-6 tie, and the rest of the team came alive on defense. Of KOI's seven significant multikills, five came in the second half, paving the way for a 13-8 win from them.

The Haven decider was the first time either team played the map since LOCK//IN, and the two showed different comps this week. KOI were able to keep their opponents at bay for most of the first half, winning all of their rounds by running down the clock or retaking sites. KOI went 7-5 up, but dotted just four rounds in the second half. The Frenchmen won seven retake scenarios and fully recovered for a 13-11 win, their second in VCT EMEA.

Day Three

The final day saw the only 2-0 results of the week, as frontrunners FNATIC and NAVI finally took the stage. The former played FUT, who struggled against Giants in Week 4, while the latter played a Vitality squad that gave BBL their first win the week prior.

Both of FNATIC's maps against FUT suffered a similar fate. The Turks were able to put up a strong fight during the first half, even going 5-3 up on Icebox, but were totally shut down in the second half despite attempting to tip the odds with a new comp. FUT managed five rounds on Icebox, but FNATIC replied with 10 straight. On Lotus, they found four in the first half, but were put to rest once FNATIC got on defense.

Alfajer put up 23 kills in the first map against his countrymen, averaging 225 damage per round and ultimately reaching an unrivaled 1.87 rating. FNATIC cooled off on the second map, as the players remained within 0.45 rating of each other with Boaster on top of the standings.

After having to prise Split from Giants in the first week, NAVI opted for a different composition in hopes of an easier run. Vitality's map pick backfired early on, as their opponents went 9-3 up on defense despite 17 frags from Twisten . The Golden Hornets picked up the pieces on defense, building back to an 11-10 deficit. NAVI eventually took the two rounds they needed for a 13-10 win.

BONECOLD maintained his team's Fracture comp. NAVI kept their Yoru-based comp, but opted to bring in KAY/O for Fade. Despite being on their opponents' pick, Vitality came out with an early 4-2 lead. NAVI's cohesive play let them chain five rounds and go up 7-5 by halftime. ceNder kept Vitality in play despite their continued struggle, but NAVI clawed their way to a 13-10 win that ended the match.

Looking Ahead

May 3

  • Team Vitality vs. FNATIC

May 4

  • FUT Esports vs. Karmine Corp
  • KOI vs. BBL Esports

May 5

  • Natus Vincere vs. Team Liquid
  • Giants Gaming vs. Team Heretics