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

In the battle of the European and Turkish teams, Acend, Guild Esports, and Fnatic won their opening games. VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event’s Group B matches will continue on February 18.

Fnatic vs G2 Esports

Group B started with two European giants’ competition. Fnatic made a strong entrance to the series by winning the first map of their choice, Icebox. James "Mistic" Orfila stepped up with a clutch 22-kill Viper performance and he topped it off with a 1.48 rating and 282 ACS. Cista "keloqz" Wassim had the best rating on the G2 side with only a 0.95 rating. Fnatic closed out the first map with a score of 13-8.

G2 bounced back after a close Ascent game that ended 13-11. Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas stepped up for his team to force the third game with Sova. The Lithuanian played ended the game with a 1.52 rating and 293 ACS. On the Fnatic side, Martin "MAGNUM" Penkov had an upsetting Killjoy performance, holding a 0.35 rating and 89 ACS. G2 matched their opponents and forced another gamer to keep their hopes alive.

It was Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev, who showed his potential and mechanics to win the series for Fnatic. The Raze player held a 1.40 rating and 294 ACS to win the game. Fnatic had a wonderful attacking performance, outscoring their opponents by 7-2. Besides, they also held G2 at 6 rounds in the first half.

Acend vs SuperMassive Blaze

The competition started head-to-head as both teams won consecutive rounds on Papara SuperMassive’s pick, Ascent. Two Turkish Jett players, Mehmet Yağız "cNed" İpek and Baran "Izzy" Yılmaz had a duel and it resulted in cNed’s favor after 26 rounds. cNed held a 1.52 rating, 310 ACS and 1.61 K/D, smurfing on his opponents. However, Izzy’s 22-kill Jett performance was also a great effort but it wasn’t enough.

The second map was one-sided for the side of Acend. Despite winning the opening rounds, SuperMassive Blaze failed to keep up with the pace and won four rounds, all during the first half. Acend swept their opponents while on the defending side. Once again, cNed’s performance was on another level as he ended the game with a 1.52 rating and 321 ACS, playing Sage.

Guild Esports vs BBL Esports

The last series of Group B started with Guild Esports’s dominance on Breeze. The European team grabbed an easy 13-6 win over BBL Esports to start their journey strongly. Doğukan "QutionerX" Dural’s 17-kill Jett performance only brought them six rounds but Guild Esports’ team effort was on another level for sure. Almost all the players had similar statistics.

Lastly, Guild showed no mercy on BBL’s pick, Haven. Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko had a monstrous 26-kill Sova performance to close out the series in two games. Once again, Guild’s team efforts were much better which handed them the victory.

VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 1 - Challengers - Main Event will continue on February 18. You can find more information on events page