FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #3 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius eliminated Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #23 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak and Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #20 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky from the VCT EMEA 2024 Stage 1 playoffs as well as Masters Shanghai contention.

This concludes the single-elimination portion of the tournament, with the remaining four teams fighting for three slots at Masters Shanghai.

Fnatic survive a close game against Team Liquid

Team Liquid started off the series by picking Ascent, leading to Fnatic picking Icebox, leaving the decider as Lotus.

The only difference between the two compositions was at the sentinel role, with Fnatic running Killjoy while Team Liquid ran Cypher. Starting on defense, Team Liquid came out swinging, winning pistols and playing very coordinately. Ending the half up 9-3, every player on TL had at least 10 kills, with Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin showing off his strength on his signature agent Cypher. Alas, the momentum swung back to Fnatic on their defense, with Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov stepping up. Fnatic got the map win 13-11, with Chronicle on KAY/O getting five first kills to lead the map above both Jett players.

Then came Icebox, a map Fnatic historically have dominated teams on. Their start was slow, especially considering that Team Liquid ran a rare comp. Across VCT, there has been a lot of experimentation for Icebox compositions, and TL ran Sage, Chamber, and Reyna. Fnatic also ran Sage, but they struggled to get past the defense that TL set up. In particular, Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen on Chamber was getting the first pick often, leading to many rounds Fnatic had to try and win down 4v5. Similarly to map one, Fnatic did come back to take the map to overtime with a strong defense of their own, but two quick round wins and a great performance from former Fnatic player Enzo "Enzo" Mestari led to a tied series and map three.

Lotus was the only one-sided map of the series, with Fnatic ending the half up 11-1. At that point, it was a formality. Finishing the map 13-5 and the series 2-1, both Leo "Leo" Jannesson and Chronicle were crucial to their perfect retakes and stalwart defense. The Fnatic of old were back for the final map, despite the slow starts that almost cost them the series on Ascent and Icebox.

Fnatic will face Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #31 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek in the upper bracket semifinals on May 9 to see who automatically qualifies for Masters Shanghai and who gets sent to the lower bracket.

Team Heretics shut down NAVI for the second time

Team Heretics gave NAVI a bit of déjà vu by preventing the latter from making it to international play in a sweep for the second time this year. This sweep was closer than the previous time at the EMEA Kickoff semifinals, where NAVI got stomped on Breeze.

There was no Breeze this time around, as Team Heretics picked Lotus and NAVI picked Split, leaving Bind as the potential deciding third map.

Lotus was tight from start to finish, with both teams having their moments. Pontus "Zyppan" Eek was the standout from NAVI on Raze, while Enes "RieNs" Ecirli on Breach was both fragging and setting up easy kills for his teammates. A 7-5 lead at the half for NAVI turned into a 13-11 map win for Team Heretics, mainly thanks to a strong attack half from Benjamin "benjyfishy" David Fish on Cypher. He helped take the pressure off of Dominykas "MiniBoo" Lukaševičius, who had a tough time getting first kills on their attack side.

Heading into Split, NAVI had another solid first half. They headed into their defense tied up 6-6, a solid attack half for a defense-sided map. Alas, one thing they weren't able to do was to put out benjyfishy, who continued his form from map one into a stellar map two. On Cypher, he topped the scoreboard with 28 kills but split it evenly between both halves.

Somehow, with a composition that allowed for both Omen and Raze to play aggressively, it was the Cypher that finished with three first kills, no first deaths, and 332 ACS. He managed to match Zyppan in first kills with six fewer deaths on the most defensive role in the game.

With this 2-0 win, Team Heretics will face 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 in the upper bracket semifinals on May 9. One team will qualify for Masters Shanghai and face the winner of Fnatic and Karmine Corp, while the other will face the loser for their final chance to make it to Shanghai.