Acend Acend Inactive ALIVE Gilad Hakim musashi Alessio Xhaferi pyrolll Artur Minin cullumx Nikolaj Cullum Andersen chiwa Egor Stepanyuk and Guild Esports Guild Esports Inactive dominated the opening round of Stage 1: EMEA Challengers' Group B, while FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu stand-in Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder managed to move past G2 Esports G2 Esports Inactive in a three-map series.

Group B of Stage 1: EMEA Challengers opened up with two great battles: Fnatic debuted with a win over G2 Esports, while Acend swept SuperMassive Blaze. BBL Esports and Guild Esports closed out the weekend with a 2-0 win for the latter.

G2 Esports vs. Fnatic (FNC 2-1)

Prior to this weekend, Fnatic had only won against G2 Esports once, in Stage 2 of 2021. After their roster revamp, G2 managed to take back-to-back 2-0 wins against Fnatic in Stage 3. This weekend, yet another new G2 roster walked into the server to take on Fnatic, who have only made one change.

Fnatic picked Icebox to start off the series and took an early 5-2 lead. G2 managed to fight back and take the half 7-5, but were only able to find one more round. Fnatic ran over G2 on their attacking side, quickly finding a 13-8 map win to start off their series.

G2's pick of Ascent followed. Fnatic quickly gained a 4-0 lead that ballooned to 9-3 at the half. However, as James "Mistic" Orfila recalled in the post-match interview, the 9-3 curse came down on Fnatic and the Žygimantas "nukkye" Chmieliauskas-led squad bit back and won 10 rounds in the second half to tie the series up with a 13-11.

“I think it might be first official jitters,” Mistic said in the post-match interview. “We weren't as calm as I thought we could have been. But we played well, especially on our defensive half, but when it came to the attacking side we fell short.”

The final map was Split, a map both teams had a recent shaky record on. G2 and Fnatic traded rounds for most of the first half, eventually tying it up, but that's when Fnatic stepped up to the plate. They lost the pistol, but went on to win the next five rounds to place themselves at 11-7. From there, it didn't take long until Fnatic closed out the series 13-8.

“There's definitely more that you haven't seen. In Champions, we didn't showcase a couple maps,” Mistic said. “Bind, Ascent… We still haven't shown Bind so people still need to look out for that. And we've had all this time to rework and implement brave, of course, so, if anything, we're stronger than ever right now.”

How can you not love Jake "Boaster" Howlett?

SuperMassive Blaze vs. Acend (ACE 2-0)

The second match in Group B is one that has been played out time and time again. From scrim partners to VCT opponents, SuperMassive Blaze and Acend have faced each other many times. These two last played against each other in Masters: Berlin's group stage, with Acend coming out on top both times.

SuperMassive Blaze picked Ascent, a map the previous roster was notably comfortable on, to start off the game. In the first half, Acend kept chasing an advantage they couldn't find. That ultimately led to a 10-4 scoreline in favor of SuperMassive Blaze, but once Acend got into the groove they recovered and managed to force an overtime, which they swiftly won 14-12.

“We just needed time to get into the momentum again,” Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt said regarding Ascent. “It's been so long since we've played and I feel like that didn't help us in the start of the game, but then everybody got warmed up and we just got super good calls rolling, hitting every shot… iot was nice.”

Bind was chosen as the second map, a map Acend has only lost six times out of 45 played since their inception. SuperMassive Blaze kept it initially close with a 4-3 scoreline, at which point Acend shut everything down and charged on to a 13-4 win that ended the series.

“We were surprised [that they left Bind open],” Aleksander "zeek" Zygmunt said in the broadcast interview. “Honestly, we expected an insta-ban for Bind and… I guess teams just don't learn. They pick it thinking they can counter-strat or something or that they're just better but it always ends up the same.”

Once Acend got going, they refused to stop.

BBL vs. Guild (GLD 2-0)

The final game of the weekend was between BBL and Guild. Both rosters underwent changes in the offseason, but, unlike BBL, Guild didn't keep their core and rebuilt a roster with only Leo "Leo" Jannesson and Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel.

“It's been a hard couple of months, I'll tell you that much,” Sayf said regarding the off-season preparation. “We trialed at least 14 players and that took time in itself but us as a team, when we finally finalized the roster, we've been playing every single day 5 praccs a day. I think we pracced more than any other team out there in EMEA right now. Our preparation has been on an extreme level, there is no time to rest for us. If we want to compete against the best, we've got to try and be the best.”

“Everyone does their homework. Everyone studies, whether it's in their free time or together,” Sayf said. “Everyone knows what we're going up against and everyone is prepared for what the enemy will do. That's pretty much what makes the difference for us.”

Their preparation was on full display in the first rounds of Breeze. Guild let up the first two rounds but it didn't matter, as they plowed their way to a 9-3 scoreline by halftime. BBL found three rounds on their attacking side, but Guild soon closed out the map 13-6.

The second map was a bigger challenge for Guild, much to Sayf's surprise. Guild managed to stay ahead for most of Haven, which they won 13-9.

“I thought it was going to be a quick 2-0. I wasn't expecting much,” he said. “I thought we'd 13-0 them on a map. If we had won both pistols on Breeze, then we would've had a 13-0. But, you know, we've got to get the groove in.”

Sayf is more concerned with their next match than he was with this one. Next week, Guild face off against Acend, the group B favorites. Sayf is convinced a win next week will make life much easier for his team.

Looking ahead

Three more matches of Stage 1: EMEA Challengers' Group B are set for the coming weekend. The first two games are scheduled for 7 p.m. CEST, while the final game on February 20 will be played from 4 p.m. CEST.

The second round of Group B will see the following games: