VCT EMEA Challengers Stage 1 Main Event - Week 2 Group B Recap

VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event’s second week is behind us now with Fnatic and Guild Esports dominating Group B with two wins in a row.

Acend vs Guild Esports

Guild Esports looked really strong before coming into the tournament and they also made a strong start to the group stage. However, they faced their first “serious” opponent this week, which is Acend. The series started with Acend’s 13-11 Split win. The duelists, Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt and Mehmet Yağız "cNed" İpek carried their teams in the first game of the series.

Despite facing a close loss that could ruin players’ mentals, Guild Esports didn’t even care about the first game and played the second with fresh minds. As a result, they won the second map, Breeze, with a score of 13-9 to force another game. Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel’s 21-kill Jett performance decided the winner as he also held a 2.10 K/D. Santeri "BONECOLD" Sassi struggled against his opponents.

Guild Esports showed dominance on Fracture and won the map 13-4. Acend had no answers for their opponent’s moves. Guild Esports players had similar statistics as they put on a show to close out the series in three maps. On the other side, BONECOLD once again struggled but this time he only had a 0.14 rating, 55 ACS, and 0.20 K/D. The Finnish player had one of the worst games of his career.

Fnatic vs BBL Esports

Fnatic’s VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event journey started with a win over G2 Esports and their dominance continued against BBL Esports. Starting with Icebox, Fnatic secured an easy 13-6 win to start the series strongly. Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev’s 23-kill Jett performance made the difference as the Finnish player held a 1.69 rating and 1.64 K/D. On the BBL’s side, Doğukan "QutionerX" Dural tried his best but it wasn’t enough.

BBL Esports had a better showing on Ascent again with QutionerX stepping up with the help of Hüseyin "aimDLL" Kabişteke. However, Andrew "braveaf" Gorchakov’s Sova was unstoppable. The Russian player finished the map holding a 1.42 rating, 291 ACS and a 1.44 K/D. Fnatic closed out the series with a 13-10 Ascent win. Apart from braveaf, the Astra player, James "Mistic" Orfila had an impressive performance to help his team get their second win in the group stage.

SuperMassive Blaze vs G2 Esports

After losing against their biggest rivals, Fnatic, in the first week, G2 Esports bounced back with a 2-0 sweep over Papara SuperMassive. SuperMassive started Split on the defending side, securing eight rounds to take advantage before the second half. However, G2 Esports had an impressive performance during the second half, outscoring their opponents with a score of 9-1. G2 won the first map after 22 rounds, Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas smurfed the game with a 1.72 rating, and 353 ACS.

SuperMassive Blaze picked Haven to force another game in the series. They looked decent in the first half, winning seven rounds and held a small advantage. This time, Aaro "hoody" Peltokangas stepped up for the European side with a 23-kill Breach performance and a 1.64 K/D. G2 Esports secured the win after a 13-10 Haven victory. The European team got their first win of the group stage but the Turkish teams are still without a single win.

Group B’s third week will begin on February 26. You can find more information about the tournament on the events page.