Fighting for their Kickoff lives, GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #18 purp0 Semyon Borchev Cloud Kirill Nehozhin runneR Emil Trajkovski westside Miłosz Duda tomaszy Tomás Machado and Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #123 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek clashed in the first of the event's elimination games. The three-map series played out on Karmine Corp's Bind, GIANTX's Lotus, and the decider map Fracture.

Though it's early, Bind has been one of Karmine Corp's strongest maps to open 2025. A 13-2 win over Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #22 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio in their opening match and a 13-9 win in a loss to Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #8 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso seemed to suggest they would make the most of it before it left the map pool.

Running a team composition centered around in-game leader saadhak 's Deadlock and Elite 's Vyse, KC faced their toughest test yet on the map, being pushed to overtime thanks in large part due to tomaszy , who played for KC last year. However, with the game on the line, it was one of the players who replaced tomaszy who took the spotlight.

A low HP 1v2 clutch to seal the map by Elite.

In their opening match loss against BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #15 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal PROFEK Dawid Święć vakk Vakaris Bebravičius stand-in LewN Burak Alkan , GIANTX picked and lost Lotus, failing to take advantage of the attackers' advantage on the map. In this match, that would be different. This would be different against KC. They opened the match on defense, and entered halftime with a 7-5 lead, and did what BBL did to them by finishing the job on attack. A server-leading 22 kills from Cloud , including a dazzling ace, helped GIANTX to a 13-8 win to force a third map.

Five of Cloud's 22 on Lotus.

The series going to a third map meant both teams would return to Fracture for the first time since the 2022 season. After holding an 8-4 halftime lead and giving up a run of five straight rounds to their opponents, GIANTX won five of the final six rounds to close the map and the series 13-9.

Revenge is served thanks to a final gut punch from tomaszy.

The 2023 EMEA Kickoff champions are out, meaning a new champion will be crowned. Despite winning five pistol rounds and four bonuses, Karmine Corp failed to contain the likes of purp0 , who had a match-high 56 kills, and former player tomaszy. Karmine Corp's plan to reach Champions Paris has started out with a stumble, meaning work is to be done before they begin play at EMEA Stage 1.

GIANTX will go up against the winning team between Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #25 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kamyk Maks Rychlewski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak and Apeks Apeks Europe Rank #2 florescent Ava Eugene hype Tautvydas Paldavicius MOLSI Michał Łącki AvovA Auni Chahade batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan , needing four straight wins to qualify for Masters Bangkok.

The next matches of EMEA Kickoff are: