Heretics knock FUT out of playoffs, advance to lower final

Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius defeated 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 2-0 in the lower round of the EMEA Stage 2 playoffs and have advanced to the lower bracket final against Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #9 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso .

FUT have been eliminated from playoffs and will represent EMEA as the region's fourth seed at Champions via circuit points. This result comes as a disappointment for the Turkish squad considering their entrance into the playoffs as the first seed with an 8-2 record in the regular season.

Coming into this match, Heretics held a dominant 8-0 map record against FUT in 2024. Both teams' losses in the upper semifinals raised the question of which team would bounce back first on FUT's map pick of Abyss, the map's first appearance in VCT EMEA.

Los Niños kicked off the first half of Abyss with a 6-1 score by dominating the sites on attack, but FUT brought it back to 6-6 after a timeout from Gais . The second half was a back and forth clash that culminated in a 13-10 victory for Heretics off the back of multiple close retakes. While no one player took over the server, RieNs and Wo0t distinguished themselves with a combined 33 assists and respective ratings of 1.39 and 1.26, reflecting strong teamplay from the side of Heretics.

“We just played our game, played our strats, and we won. That's all,” Wo0t said of Abyss in the post-match interview.

For the second map, Heretics selected their home field of Sunset despite suffering their first loss on the map in months the day before. The map opened with yet another clutch-filled 6-6 first half, where Boo 's impressive 1v2 against yetujey and AtaKaptan in round 8 was almost immediately countered by a 4K from yetujey in round 10.

Both duelists spearheaded aggressive plays for their teams throughout the map, but it was often the support players who made the difference. AtaKaptan was in strong form, with 23 kills and 280 ACS on Omen, but Boo's three clutches took Heretics over the line. RieNs continued to serve the team reliably with 17 kills, topping the scoreboard for the series with a 1.26 overall rating.

Sunset remained on a razor's edge until the very end; Heretics managed to avoid overtime in the final round by sending MiniBoo 's Neon Overdrive ultimate through top mid to catch FUT's defenders off-guard.

Heretics' victory sets up an early rematch between them and Vitality, the team that beat Heretics on Sunset and sent them to the lower bracket just a day ago.

“I think it's good to lose because we can learn about how other teams counter us,” Wo0t said of yesterday's loss. “We just learn what's our mistakes, what's our gaps, so we just try to fix it.”

Heretics will find out if their fixes can make the difference against Team Vitality on Friday, July 19 at 6 p.m. CEST as they battle for glory and a higher seed at Champions. The victor will earn the right to challenge FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder in the grand final on Saturday.