Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #9 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso have beaten Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius 2-1, locking in their Champions slot as the fourth team from EMEA.

This victory finalizes the EMEA points leaderboard, with Vitality coming in fourth, just over Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #29 tomaszy Tomás Machado marteen Martin Pátek . Their semifinal opponents Heretics, alongside FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder and 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 , round out the EMEA convoy heading into Seoul next month.

The match almost seemed to go Heretics' way, after they kept Vitality's comeback at bay in map one. The Golden Hornets came back from a 9-3 deficit into overtime, only to lose 14-12 due to stellar plays from Boo in the final rounds of the map.

It was Sayf 's Sunset performance that kept Vitality alive in the match, as he carried the team to a 13-10 victory with an ace midway through and a ridiculous slide kill to close out the map, giving Heretics their first loss on the map in 10 matches.

New Neon, everybody.

Bind closed everything out in favor of the Golden Hornets. The first half was a tightly-contested affair, even despite benjyfishy 's Sheriff ace, but Vitality let a comeback slip through and Heretics reached overtime. There, Kicks dealt the finishing blow in a Gekko 1v1 against RieNs that booked the bees' tickets to Seoul.

Sayf felt like the catalyzing force behind Vitality's victory. The Swede put the team on his back with 27 kills, a 1.42 rating, nearly 300 ACS, and eight multikills on Sunset alone. The performance was a step above anyone else's on Icebox and unmatched on Bind, even by himself.

His Sheriff isn't clean, it's the cleanest.

Vitality's victory marks a new age for the Golden Hornets. Despite debuting on the scene in early 2021, the team has never qualified to a LAN event and have only attended LOCK//IN, where the bees won just a single match.

This year wasn't exactly the best for Vitality either up until this point: the team missed the VCT EMEA Stage 1 playoffs, placing last in their group, and failed to reach the playoffs of Kickoff prior to that. Now they are back, in form, and ready to make their international debut.

There was no better way for Vitality to end their LAN drought than to qualify for Champions, where a fourth world champion will undecidedly be crowned. But before they can do that, they have to go through the EMEA wringer.

Vitality rejoin the server tomorrow, at 6 p.m. CEST, against FUT or FNATIC.