Fighting for their Kickoff lives,
GIANTX
GIANTX
Europe
Rank #148
purp0
Semyon Borchev
Cloud
Kirill Nehozhin
runneR
Emil Trajkovski
westside
Miłosz Duda
tomaszy
Tomás Machado
and
Karmine Corp
Karmine Corp
Europe
Rank #166
saadhak
Matias Delipetro
Avez
Hazem Khaled
Elite
Efe Teber
SUYGETSU
Dmitry Ilyushin
marteen
Martin Pátek
clashed in the first of the event's elimination games. The three-map series played out on Karmine Corp's Bind, GIANTX's Lotus, and the decider map Fracture.
Though it's early, Bind has been one of Karmine Corp's strongest maps to open 2025. A 13-2 win over
Natus Vincere
Natus Vincere
Europe
Rank #16
ANGE1
Kyrylo Karasov
Shao
Andrey Kiprsky
Ruxic
Uğur Güç
hiro
Emirhan Kat
koalanoob
Gianfranco Potestio
in their opening match and a 13-9 win in a loss to
Team Vitality
Team Vitality
Europe
Rank #2
trexx
Nikita Cherednichenko
Derke
Nikita Sirmitev
Kicks
Kimmie Laasner
Sayf
Saif Jibraeel
Less
Felipe de Loyola Basso
seemed to suggest they would make the most of it before it left the map pool.
Running a team composition centered around in-game leader saadhak 's Deadlock and Elite 's Vyse, KC faced their toughest test yet on the map, being pushed to overtime thanks in large part due to tomaszy , who played for KC last year. However, with the game on the line, it was one of the players who replaced tomaszy who took the spotlight.
A low HP 1v2 clutch to seal the map by Elite.In their opening match loss against
BBL Esports
BBL Esports
Europe
Rank #19
Jamppi
Elias Olkkonen
sociablEE
Volkan Yonal
PROFEK
Dawid Święć
vakk
Vakaris Bebravičius
stand-in
LewN
Burak Alkan
, GIANTX picked and lost Lotus, failing to take advantage of the attackers' advantage on the map. In this match, that would be different. This would be different against KC. They opened the match on defense, and entered halftime with a 7-5 lead, and did what BBL did to them by finishing the job on attack. A server-leading 22 kills from
Cloud
, including a dazzling ace, helped GIANTX to a 13-8 win to force a third map.
The series going to a third map meant both teams would return to Fracture for the first time since the 2022 season. After holding an 8-4 halftime lead and giving up a run of five straight rounds to their opponents, GIANTX won five of the final six rounds to close the map and the series 13-9.
Revenge is served thanks to a final gut punch from tomaszy.The 2023 EMEA Kickoff champions are out, meaning a new champion will be crowned. Despite winning five pistol rounds and four bonuses, Karmine Corp failed to contain the likes of purp0 , who had a match-high 56 kills, and former player tomaszy. Karmine Corp's plan to reach Champions Paris has started out with a stumble, meaning work is to be done before they begin play at EMEA Stage 1.
GIANTX will go up against the winning team between
Team Liquid
Team Liquid
Europe
Rank #10
paTiTek
Patryk Fabrowski
kamyk
Maks Rychlewski
nAts
Ayaz Akhmetshin
Keiko
Georgio Sanassy
kamo
Kamil Frąckowiak
and
Apeks
Apeks
Europe
Rank #3
florescent
Ava Eugene
hype
Tautvydas Paldavicius
MOLSI
Michał Łącki
AvovA
Auni Chahade
batujnax
Mehmet Batu Özaslan
, needing four straight wins to qualify for Masters Bangkok.
The next matches of EMEA Kickoff are: