VCT EMEA returned in 2025 with Kickoff's opening matchups. Day one saw BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Unranked Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal PROFEK Dawid Święć vakk Vakaris Bebravičius stand-in LewN Burak Alkan and Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Unranked saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek taking their first wins of the season and moving on to face off against FNATIC FNATIC Europe Unranked crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder and Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Unranked trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso , respectively.

BBL Esports vs. GIANTX

Heading into this season, BBL (7th overall in 2024) underwent a full rebuild, while GIANTX GIANTX Europe Unranked purp0 Semyon Borchev Cloud Kirill Nehozhin runneR Emil Trajkovski westside Miłosz Duda tomaszy Tomás Machado (9th overall in 2024) opted to keep only two of their 2024 players, Cloud and purp0 . Unfortunately for BBL, visa issues meant their sentinel player, chiwa , was unable to attend the series, and will be replaced by vakk for the time being.

GIANTX chose to inaugurate VCT EMEA 2025 with Lotus. The series started off close, with a tied scoreline by halftime, but BBL quickly sealed the series 13-9 after reclaiming the lead and winning five rounds in a row.

Haven, BBL's preferred map during the off-season, followed the Turkish org's opening map win. GIANTX maintained control throughout the first half, but a slight stumble on their attack meant they needed a six-round streak to win the map 14-12 and send the series to a decider.

The decider map, Pearl, put momentum back in BBL's favor. With the first two aces in VCT EMEA this year, courtesy of Cloud and sociablEE , and sociablEE's Chamber taking over the map, BBL won Pearl 13-5 and scored their first victory in Kickoff.

sociablEE put up a dominant performance on the decider

The result means BBL will next play against FNATIC, while GIANTX descends to the lower bracket, awaiting the result of the upper quarterfinals for their opponent.

Karmine Corp vs. Natus Vincere

Ahead of the 2025 season, both teams chose a near-complete rebuild, with Karmine Corp keeping marteen and the coaching staff, while Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Unranked ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio kept evergreen duo ANGE1 and Shao .

Abyss kicked off the second series of the day. NAVI compensated for a rough start with a clinical attack side, taking their map 13-10 thanks in part to koalanoob , who ended the map with 24 kills, and hiro , who earned a 1.44 rating in the second half.

Karmine Corp took revenge in the second map, as their Yoru-led double-sentinel composition completely shut down NAVI's Bind and sent the series to a decider after KC's 13-2 win.

The French organization continued their performance heading into the decider, Lotus, keeping their opponents at bay. NAVI debuted Tejo, showcasing interesting ideas alongside Sage, but KC was quick to identify the more untested aspects of the composition and adapt, ultimately winning the map 13-6 and their opening series 2-1.

Avez made his international debut by top-fragging the series

The victory pits Karmine Corp against Team Vitality in the upper bracket, while NAVI is now in the elimination portion of the tournament.

VCT EMEA Kickoff will continue with the following matches: