The second season of VCT EMEA has concluded, setting the stage for Champions Seoul qualification. Due to the inclusion of Kickoff at the beginning of the year, teams played one round-robin throughout the year, split into two stages. This allowed Stage 2 to integrate both groups into one league table, of which the top-six overall would advance to playoffs.

FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan cNed Mehmet Yağız İpek qRaxs Doğukan Balaban and Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius both earned top seeds, avoiding the single elimination portion of the bracket. Alongside Heretics, three teams return to playoffs for the third time this year: FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #29 tomaszy Tomás Machado marteen Martin Pátek , and Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #18 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky . Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #9 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso round out the top-six, after only losing once to group leaders FNATIC in the second half of the year.

Three teams maintained hopes until the end

Playoffs entry came down to the final day of the season, with three different teams relying on the results of the last two matches, NAVI vs. Gentle Mates and Vitality vs. Karmine Corp, to punch their tickets to the knockout stage.

Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Rank #21 K4DAVRA Thomas Johner needed a victory against NAVI to stay in contention, while Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #22 nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak were hoping for the same result for an opportunity at playoffs. A Gentle Mates victory could potentially end in a five-way tie between teams with a 4-6 record, which meant the final game of the season would confirm the final two playoff teams.

NAVI needed to win the series, but were coming into the match with a five-game losing streak. The team had failed to win a single map since their Stage 1 playoffs match against Team Heretics, and their year was on the line.

The team opted for a return to their signature roles, with Shao on initiator and ANGE1 on controller. This decision helped them take their opponent's map pick, Sunset, but they lost Ascent 13-8. In the end, a close win on the decider map secured NAVI a spot in playoffs and eliminated both Gentle Mates and Liquid from Champions contention.

Rookies surprise, Derke dominates

In terms of rating, a handful of newcomers and returning players joined the usual suspects towards the top of the table. Last-minute FNATIC pickup hiro appeared among the top ten, while KOI KOI Europe Rank #42 grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko sheydos Bogdan Naumov 's rookie controller grubinho showed up fifth overall.

Despite a negative record in the stage, a second KOI player, sheydos , entered the ten highest-rated players, with a 1.17 rating. This marks his first top-ten placement in an EMEA regular season since 2022.

By far the standout player was Derke , who topped the region in terms of rating, ACS, KD ratio, ADR, and KPR. In fact, he was the only primary duelist player to feature in the top ten players in terms of rating, with Sayf and cNed barely missing out at 11th and 12th, respectively.

VCT EMEA 2024 Stage 2 Regular Season results

Due to the circuit point system for Champions qualification, the cutoff for which teams made it to the Stage 2 playoffs was determined by their overall regular season results, not just their Stage 2 performance. The top-six teams from the regular season have a chance to qualify directly to Champions 2024 via the EMEA playoffs, as well as a last opportunity to earn points and qualify as the region's fourth seed.

Here is how each team performed in Stage 2:

Group Alpha:

Group Omega:

Here are the overall regular season results for VCT EMEA 2024:

Due to the circuit point system, FNATIC have already qualified to Champions. They can still qualify through the knockout stage and earn a higher seed, but, should they not win any games in playoffs, no team can place outside the top three while earning more points than them.

Playoff preview

The VCT EMEA 2024 Stage 2 playoffs begin on July 15, with the first matches being single elimination games. Those two matches are between the third to sixth seeds from the regular season, starting with:

The two winners in the knockout round will then face off against Heretics and FUT in a four-team double-elimination format.

Team Heretics and FUT Esports received a bye due to their performance. As the top two teams in the tournament, they will need to win a single match to qualify to Champions. Should either of them fail to win a match, they will need FNATIC to place in the top three to qualify via circuit points.

With eight championship points, Karmine Corp need to either reach the top three or for the three teams above them to qualify via playoffs.

Lastly, Team Vitality and Natus Vincere need to win two matches in order to make Champions. They will face off against each other in the single elimination portion of the bracket, meaning the winner will need another victory to make Champions, while the loser would be directly eliminated.

Coverage

Coverage for the 2024 EMEA playoffs will continue on VLR.gg. Pick ‘ems are open until July 15, 17:59 CEST, while a live match ticker and statistics will be updated throughout the remainder of the event.