VCT 2022: EMEA Stage 1 Quarter Finals Recap

After two entertaining games, M3 Champions and Team Liquid have qualified for the VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event Semi Finals. G2 Esports and Guild Esports will continue their journey from the Lower Bracket.

M3 Champions vs Guild Esports

In the opening map of the VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event Quarter Finals, Guild Esports picked Fracture to make a strong start to the first series of the day. The European representative managed to find its rhythm in the first half while on the attacking side. After 12-rounds of action, Guild Esports had the lead with a score of 8-4. Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko made the difference with Raze in his hands, holding a 2.6 K/D on top of the 1.55 rating. The Russian player carried the attacking strategies of his team with 4 first bloods to his name. On the other side, Bogdan "sheydos" Naumov and Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin had impressive performances on Sage and Cypher to defend bombsites, securing four rounds for their team before going into the second half. M3 Champions started the second half with a 3-round winning streak. Despite the dominance of the Russian roster, Guild Esports managed to pick up three rounds to reach the 12-round mark. However, M3 Champions stopped making mistakes and executed their attacking strategies very well, mainly thanks to their first-half stars. trexx’s 27-kill Raze performance wasn’t enough as M3C closed out the game in 24 rounds, 13-11 to take the lead in the series.

The Russian representatives picked Bind as the second map of the series. The competition started with both teams winning three consecutive rounds to tie the game in the beginning but M3 Champions found a little gap in the seventh round to secure the first serious lead in the second map. M3C won five more rounds in the first half and secured a huge advantage with a score of 8-4. Just like the first game, sheydos and nAts were the top performers for the Russian representative. Leo "Leo" Jannesson had a magnificent Sage performance to keep his team in the game. M3 Champions demolished Guild Esports in the second half, ending the map after a 5-2 second-half win. Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel had a poor performance with Raze in his hands, securing only 7 kills in the end and holding a 0.55 rating.

VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event

M3 Champions

2

X

0

Guild Esports

Upper Bracket Quarter Final, Best of 3 - March 22, 2022 - 3:00PM

13

Fracture

11

13

Bind

6

M3 Champions

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

sheydos

1.57

301

47/26/14

+21

1.81

81.7%

191.1

17%

63%

5

3

nAts

1.21

231

38/29/10

+9

1.31

71.2%

154.3

23%

29%

2

5

Redgar

0.98

162

27/28/12

-1

0.96

72.3%

106.2

36%

75%

3

1

Chronicle

0.84

180

23/29/17

-6

0.79

70.2%

125.1

17%

33%

2

4

d3ffo

0.63

180

21/34/8

-13

0.62

77.0%

122.7

17%

32%

6

13

Guild Esports

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

trexx

1.31

272

42/27/8

+15

1.56

72.3%

187.1

24%

64%

7

4

Leo

1.08

224

32/31/13

+1

1.03

80.2%

145.3

18%

80%

4

1

Russ

0.83

180

27/31/6

-4

0.87

65.5%

125.4

30%

50%

3

3

koldamenta

0.82

147

21/34/24

-13

0.62

73.2%

86.7

20%

38%

3

5

Sayf

0.81

177

24/33/13

-9

0.73

75.9%

132.5

16%

64%

9

5

Team Liquid vs G2 Esports

In the collision of two European giants, Team Liquid picked Split as the first map of the series. Surprisingly, Team BRNWOWZK1 failed to defend the bomb sites in the first half and lost five rounds, winning seven in return. Despite having the lead, G2 lost its advantage in the first half mainly because of Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen’s superb Chamber performance. The Finnish star grabbed 15 kills in the first half, whilst none of them were first bloods. The one-man show of Jamppi got Team Liquid in the game and the European team finished the job in the second half after winning the remaining rounds with a score of 8-2. TL closed out the first map as Jamppi kept on hitting his shots, also with Dom "soulcas" Sulcas and Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom’s help.

Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom picked Jett after some time as we were used to seeing the “One Tap God” with Skye and Sage mostly. Moreover, his brother, Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom picked Chamber and it was mainly on the Benrlitom brothers to carry the firepower load in the second map of the series, Icebox. Despite Team Liquid’s lead, G2 Esports answered back rapidly but Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom tried his best to unlock G2’s defense in the second half. The competition was very close as Team Liquid ran but G2 Esports followed. Both teams won back-to-back rounds with Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen’s insane performance in the last round, Team Liquid forced overtime to keep their sweep hopes alive. However, G2 Esports managed to close Icebox in the overtime to force another map in the series.

We have seen many shifts regarding agent picks on the side of Team Liquid and this time Jamppi picked Jett on Haven. G2 Esports started the map with confidence and won consecutive rounds to have an advantage before the second half. However, Team Liquid managed to pick up extra rounds thanks to some individual efforts and got the advantage before going into the second half. The first half ended with a 6-6 tie, despite Jamppi’s poor 2-kill Jett performance that could have cost them the series. G2 Esports’ attacking strategies didn’t work as Liquid answered almost all of them perfectly. The Benrlitom brothers stepped up in the second half to carry their team to victory. Nivera made two great starts to the last two rounds by picking up two kills before falling down. With the Belgian player behind the wheel and in full control, it was a fairly easy second half for the side of Team Liquid. TL closed out the series after winning the second half with a score of 7-2.

VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event

G2 Esports

1

X

2

Team Liquid

Upper Bracket Quarter Final, Best of 3 - March 22, 2022 - 5:20PM

9

Split

13

15

Icebox

13

8

Haven

13

G2 Esports

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

AvovA

1.05

202

54/43/15

+11

1.26

71.1%

131.8

36%

31%

4

9

Meddo

0.96

196

52/48/15

+4

1.08

71.7%

141.8

29%

36%

4

7

hoody

0.96

206

48/52/22

-4

0.92

72.3%

143.0

31%

57%

13

10

nukkye

0.87

208

45/54/21

-9

0.83

72.7%

145.6

19%

50%

9

9

m1xwell

0.66

152

38/54/7

-16

0.70

68.3%

102.8

25%

33%

2

4

Team Liquid

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Nivera

1.28

254

63/45/15

+18

1.40

75.4%

158.7

28%

74%

17

6

soulcas

1.15

239

55/51/27

+4

1.08

79.3%

158.5

21%

60%

6

4

ScreaM

1.12

230

58/49/17

+9

1.18

71.9%

159.2

44%

58%

7

5

Jamppi

0.82

169

44/45/13

-1

0.98

72.0%

107.9

35%

39%

7

11

L1NK

0.70

127

31/47/23

-16

0.66

69.3%

93.7

27%

25%

2

6

Semi Final Matchups

• Fnatic vs M3 Champions 4:00 PM CET / 8:00 AM PST on 3/23
• FunPlus Phoenix vs Team Liquid 7:00 PM CET / 11:00 AM PST on 3/23

G2 Esports and Guild Esports’ lower bracket run will start on March 24, after the semi-final games. The losers of the semi finals will face them to reach the Lower Bracket Semi Finals.