The final leg of the VCT EMEA Promotion began yesterday. The six best Regional League champions and the two bottom VCT teams will play five match days to decide who will clinch the two spots up for grabs in the second stage of VCT EMEA.

Anonymo Esports Anonymo Esports Inactive belmonte Kacper Mordak xuss Tselmeg Tsolmon Stix Wojciech Chamielec grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko Katu Kacper Twórz and FOKUS FOKUS Europe Rank #20 hoody Aaro Peltokangas YaBoiLewis Lewis Hughes Mistic James Orfila al0rante Felix Brandl xuss Tselmeg Tsolmon found their debut wins. Rebels Gaming Rebels Gaming Inactive and Surreal Esports Surreal Esports Inactive Rosé Eren Erzan VenTT Emre Bozkurt vittoria macRue Arda Yıldız Crewen Ali Eren Sargin , yesterday's losers, are not yet out of the tournament and have a second chance in the lower bracket.

Rebels Gaming vs. Anonymo Mentos (AM 2-0)

After two Split wins in the Spanish Regional League, one of them in the grand finals, and one in their opening match of the VCT Promotion, Rebels picked the map to start off their first series. Their veto quickly seemed to backfire: flashy plays from the likes of Tselmeg "xuss" Tsolmon and Maks "kamyk" Rychlewski took Anonymo Mentos to an 8-4 scoreline at halftime.

Rebels were able to find the first two rounds, but a 1v1 clutch from kamyk kept his team in the game. Rebels scored two more points, going 11-8. Their opponents then reached match point, where another 1v1 clutch from kamyk, against Felix "lyNxi" Björklund, let his team find the first map win.

kamyk's Omen topped the charts on Split, with 335 ACS.

Anonymo carried all the momentum from the narrow streets of Split to the open spaces of Breeze. They started the second map with a 6-0 scoreline. Rebels weren't able to put many rounds together, finding just three before the half ended.

In the second half, Anonymo easily reached 11-3. But, with a broken economy, Alessio "musashi" Xhaferi managed to defend the spike from four enemies by himself with just a Sheriff. Anonymo didn't let musashi's heroics affect them, quickly replying with two rounds that rounded out the series with a 13-4.

In the second map only, kamyk reached a 100% KAST despite finishing fourth for his squad. Series-wide, though, he topped every metric for his team besides assists and first kills. The award for the latter goes to xuss, who drew first blood on 12 rounds out of 38 played.

Five shots, four kills. Near-perfect scenes from musashi.

FOKUS vs. Surreal Esports (FOKUS 2-1)

The second and final game of the day was played between FOKUS and Surreal, the DACH and Turkey representatives.

Starting on Bind, FOKUS established an early lead that they never got rid of. Barring a tied scoreline at 3-3, FOKUS spent the entirety of the map ahead. Surreal called two breaks, but the DACH representatives climbed to a 13-8 Bind victory.

Icebox started like any other map, with Surreal winning the first two rounds. Things quickly heated up. FOKUS charged back and chained five rounds together. However, Surreal bit back and punched their way to a 6-6 tie at halftime.

As the second half started, Maximilian "bucher" Bucher nearly put together an Ace clutch. He fell short, killed by Enes "RieNs" Ecirli and giving Surreal a good start to the second half. Soon after, Soner "jeyj7y" Eren Kent put in his own 1v1 clutch and kept the Turkish representatives climbing. After winning five straight rounds, Surreal held an 11-6 lead. RieNs shone again on an A retake, pushing three enemies back to place his team on match point. The following round, Surreal won the map.

So close, yet so far for bucher…

FOKUS found a strong start to the Breeze decider, going 4-1. They kept Surreal at bay with precise takes, leading to a 7-3 score. bucher gave his team the 8-4 half win by keeping his cool in a 1v2 situation against RieNs and jeyj7y.

FOKUS won the second pistol round of the map, but Surreal force-bought and stole the next two rounds. FOKUS bit back with two of their own, stopping an Ace clutch from Sermet "Masic" Demirerand taking them to 11-6. Surreal decided to full buy, finding two rounds. FOKUS then timed out and Jakob "JUGi" Hansen took down three players on an A defense, putting his team on 12-8. Surreal hung on for one more round, but FOKUS ended the match with a 13-9 win.

JUGi's aggressiveness put FOKUS on match point.

Looking ahead

The VCT teams will come into play tomorrow. Starting at 4 p.m. CEST, BIG BIG Inactive and Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Rank #31 skylen Asil Yalçın ip0TT Yiğit Karadeniz VenTT Emre Bozkurt Celasun Emir Celasun umu7 Umut Pekdoğan will each play a game against today's two winners. Whoever finds victory tomorrow will be one game away from the VCT, while the losers will have to go through the lower bracket.

Tomorrow's games are: