Europe, Turkey, and CIS Closed Qualifiers 2 Recap

The winners of the second qualifier, G2 Esports, OG LDN Utd, BBL Esports, and Natus Vincere are ready to take the battle against their opponents!

G2’s season started with huge roster changes with Aaro "hoody" Peltokangas and Johan "Meddo" Renbjörk Lundborg joining in. After benching Oscar Cañellas "m1xwell" Colocho, G2 Esports got back in shape and started their VCT 2022 - Europe - Stage 1 - Closed Qualifier 2 run with a 2-1 win over Babos Gaming. Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas stepped up with a 1.25 rating with Sova in three maps.

As G2 reached the upper bracket semi final, they faced TENSTAR for a chance to qualify for the grand finals. The series started with TENSTAR’s 13-10 win in Split; however, G2 managed to complete a 2-1 comeback after two straight wins on Ascent and Icebox. The Lithuanian star nukkye was the star of the series once again with a 1.20 rating and 244 ACS.

The upper bracket finalists EXCEL and G2 Esports competed to qualify for VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event. In the first BO5 of the tournament, G2 caught a 2-0 lead easily but EXCEL fought back in the third game to keep their hopes alive. However, Wassim "keloqz" Cista had a dominant 25-kill Jett performance in the last game to get his team a ticket to the upper stages.

Unlike G2 Esports, LDN UTD’s journey began from the lower bracket. They won their first two games against Rebels Gaming and TENSTAR to reach the lower bracket semi-finals. Lukas "feqew" Petrauskas’s Jett performances came in handy for the Lithuanian side as he had 1.34 and 1.23 ratings respectively.

It looked like LDN UTD’s real struggles were going to start in their lower bracket semi-finals matchup against Team Vitality but they upset the French team with confidence. The Lithuanian player feqew stepped up for his team once again score-wise but LDN’s game style and plans were the real heroes in the matchup.

To qualify for EMEA Challengers 1, LDN UTD swept EXCEL in fashion. This time, Michał "MOLSI" Łącki had the spotlights on him with a monstrous 72-kill performance in three maps. The Polish player had a 1.61 rating.

Turkey’s most famous team, BBL Esports, had many ups and downs during VCT 2022 - Turkey - Stage 1 - Closed Qualifier 1 and VCT 2022 - Turkey - Stage 1 - Closed Qualifier 2. With Melih "pAura" Karaduran joining in, they had a better roster on paper and they proved their worth in the second qualifier. BBL took down Thunderbolts Gaming but failed to get past FUT Esports in the upper bracket semi-finals.

Their first match was against Galakticos, a fairly-new roster and they took a 2-0 win to go up against Surreal Esports in the lower bracket semi-finals. Despite facing a hard 13-5 loss on Icebox in the opening map, BBL managed to bounce back to win the series, 2-1. Ali Osman "AsLanM4shadoW" Balta had important performances during clutch moments.

BBL Esports reached the lower bracket finals and competed against Fire Flux Esports, Emre "STERBEN" Demirci’s latest stop. Just like in previous stages, Aslan carried his team on his shoulders and BBL secured a 2-0 win over their strong opponents. To join SuperMassive Blaze in EMEA Challengers 1, BBL took down Futbolist after four tense games. AsLanM4shadoW had the best statistics on his team, holding a 1.32 rating and 259 ACS to close out the series.

The winner of VCT 2022 - CIS - Stage 1 - Closed Qualifier 2, Natus Vincere, are the latest member of the EMEA Challengers 1 competitors. Their upper bracket run didn’t go along as they lost an important BO3 against 5MOKES. However, Na’Vi fought their way back up to the grand final by eliminating Dobeg, KPI Gaming, and Tactical Five respectively.

As the final day came, Natus Vincere had to go up against 5MOKES to take revenge. Unlike their first match in the upper bracket semi-finals, Na’Vi secured a one-sided win, sweeping their opponents to qualify for the big league. Yaroslav "Jady" Nikolaev stepped up for his team with a 1.58 rating, 273 ACS, and 65 kills in three maps.

With the closed qualifier 2 from the regions completed, this is what the groups look like heading into EMEA Stage 1 Challengers.

Group A:

Group B:

EMEA Challengers 1’s starting date is February 11, you can follow all the updates here.