The first wave of European VCT qualifiers has come to an end, placing four more teams in Stage 1: EMEA Challengers.
2022's VCT format is going to unite several teams from the three European subregions into one long league-style tournament. Four teams,
Acend
Acend
Inactive
ALIVE
Gilad Hakim
musashi
Alessio Xhaferi
pyrolll
Artur Minin
cullumx
Nikolaj Cullum Andersen
chiwa
Egor Stepanyuk
,
Gambit Esports
Gambit Esports
Inactive
Redgar
Igor Vlasov
Chronicle
Timofey Khromov
d3ffo
Nikita Sudakov
sheydos
Bogdan Naumov
nAts
Ayaz Akhmetshin
,
Team Liquid
Team Liquid
Europe
Rank #12
paTiTek
Patryk Fabrowski
kamyk
Maks Rychlewski
nAts
Ayaz Akhmetshin
Keiko
Georgio Sanassy
kamo
Kamil Frąckowiak
, and
FNATIC
FNATIC
Europe
Rank #4
crashies
Austin Roberts
Boaster
Jake Howlett
kaajak
Kajetan Haremski
Chronicle
Timofey Khromov
Alfajer
Emir Ali Beder
, have been invited.
Guild Esports
Guild Esports
Inactive
,
BIG
BIG
Inactive
,
Papara SuperMassive
Papara SuperMassive
Europe
Rank #23
skylen
Asil Yalçın
ip0TT
Yiğit Karadeniz
VenTT
Emre Bozkurt
OXMANN
Aytekin Çakır
umu7
Umut Pekdoğan
, and
FunPlus Phoenix
FunPlus Phoenix
Inactive
SUYGETSU
Dmitry Ilyushin
Zyppan
Pontus Eek
ANGE1
Kyrylo Karasov
Shao
Andrey Kiprsky
ardiis
Ardis Svarenieks
were the first to qualify for the event.
Europe
Europe had two EMEA Challengers slots up for offer, the most among its sister regions. One for the winner of the upper bracket and another one for the winner of the lower bracket.
None of the four invited teams got off to a good start.
Alliance
Alliance
Inactive
won a map, but still lost the series 2-1 to BIG.
G2 Esports
G2 Esports
Inactive
,
Team BDS
Team BDS
Inactive
bramz
Bayram Ben Redjeb
, and
TENSTAR
TENSTAR
Inactive
Br0die
Jack Emmott
KRAY
Calum Knight
Polvi
Niko Polvinen
xms
Alexandre Forté
doma
Domagoj Fancev
all lost their opening matches too. Guild Esports ended up dominating the upper bracket. On their way, Guild bested TENSTAR,
Rebels Gaming
Rebels Gaming
Inactive
, who were the only team they dropped a map to, and
Team Vitality
Team Vitality
Europe
Rank #2
trexx
Nikita Cherednichenko
Derke
Nikita Sirmitev
Kicks
Kimmie Laasner
Sayf
Saif Jibraeel
Less
Felipe de Loyola Basso
, who they beat 3-0 in the grand final to qualify first.
In the lower bracket, Alliance eliminated G2 in a shocking 2-1 win that provoked a sudden change in the latter's lineup. BDS were knocked out by TENSTAR, who were in turn eliminated by BIG in the second round of the lower bracket. Alliance won their second lower bracket match against Rebels and went on to face BIG in the lower bracket semifinal.
In that semifinal, BIG found a 2-1 win to advance to the final. The final bout of the tournament between Team Vitality and BIG resulted in a 3-0 win for the latter, who earned themselves the second European slot in EMEA Challengers.
Turkey
Turkey's Challengers 1 only had one slot open for the pan-European tournament, dedicated to whoever won the grand final.
Unlike in Europe, the invited Turkish squads actually found success and were present in every round of the tournament. The only team to be eliminated in the first round was Zero Zone, at the hands of
Galakticos
Galakticos
Europe
Rank #145
DESTRUCT1VEE
Hakan Lekesizer
Bard0lf
Emir Çinkılıç
sterben
Emre Demirci
MOJJ
Buğra Kiraz
qw1
Konuralp Şahin
glovee
Burak Yıldırım
. The upper bracket was completely dominated by SuperMassive Blaze, who reached the grand final without losing a single map in three games against
Zero Zone
Zero Zone
Inactive
ThePrimerio
Doğukan Meriç Karduz
Nirenu
YANKAS
Yusuf Yankaş
,
BBL Esports
BBL Esports
Europe
Rank #20
Jamppi
Elias Olkkonen
sociablEE
Volkan Yonal
PROFEK
Dawid Święć
vakk
Vakaris Bebravičius
stand-in
LewN
Burak Alkan
, and
Fire Flux Esports
Fire Flux Esports
Europe
Rank #140
JN3v1cE
Emre Bekçe
musz3kk
Cihan Göçer
Docent
Kadri Vatandaş
kabzi
Mert Oal
influx
Kaan Taşkın
.
In the lower bracket, BBL Esports, also an invited team, were forced to eliminate
Galatasaray Esports
Galatasaray Esports
Europe
Rank #33
WerlasS
Metin Ünal
Baransel
Baransel Nasırcan
Padisah
Onur Dönmez
PhuRME
Yagiz Efe Baygut
Touven
Can Eryıldız
JrayN
Ferhat Yılmaz
and Galakticos, who previously eliminated
FUT Esports
FUT Esports
Europe
Rank #8
xeus
Doğan Gözgen
MrFaliN
Furkan Yeğen
yetujey
Eray Budak
AtaKaptan
Ata Tan
qRaxs
Doğukan Balaban
, to reach the lower bracket final. Fire Flux didn't let them through with a 2-0 win, earning a rematch with SuperMassive Blaze with an EMEA slot on the line. Much like in the upper bracket final, SuperMassive Blaze dominated the game and took a 3-1 win to reach the EMEA Challengers.
CIS
Just like Turkey, the CIS region only had one slot available for EMEA Challengers.
CIS was the only sub-region where all of the invited teams won their opening matches. The first of these to be eliminated was
One Breath Gaming
One Breath Gaming
Inactive
minse
Vladislav Kuzminykh
zeddy
Nikolai Lapko
, who fell to
FunPlus Phoenix
FunPlus Phoenix
Inactive
SUYGETSU
Dmitry Ilyushin
Zyppan
Pontus Eek
ANGE1
Kyrylo Karasov
Shao
Andrey Kiprsky
ardiis
Ardis Svarenieks
in the second round of the lower bracket. FunPlus Phoenix knocked out the invited 5MOKES squad in the semifinal to reach the final.
In the upper bracket, Natus Vincere were the first team to advance to the grand final off a near-perfect run against
B8 Esports
B8 Esports
Inactive
Nunmeister
, One Breath Gaming and
KPI Gaming
KPI Gaming
Europe
Rank #223
zeddy
Nikolai Lapko
l0udly
Marius Žilinskas
7ssk7
Artur Kurshin
Destrian
Tomas Linikas
golack
. The latter faced FunPlus Phoenix in the lower bracket final for the second time in the tournament. The first time these two faced each other, KPI took a surprising 2-0 win. This time, KPI couldn't repeat the result and were handed a 2-0 defeat in the lower bracket final.
In the grand final, Natus Vincere were approaching a clean 3-0 sweep, but FunPlus Phoenix forced a fifth map, which they won 13-3 to secure a slot in EMEA Challengers.
Looking Ahead
Tomorrow, the second wave of VCT qualifiers begins across Europe. Europe has two more slots, while CIS and Turkey each have one for the pan-European event.