Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #29 saadhak Matias Delipetro Avez Hazem Khaled Elite Efe Teber SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin marteen Martin Pátek and Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #13 Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner CyvOph Clement Millard Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso have been sent home in the EMEA Stage 1 playoffs following the first day of eliminations. Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #30 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat koalanoob Gianfranco Potestio and FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #8 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan qRaxs Doğukan Balaban move forward and will await the losers of tomorrow's matches in the next round of the lower bracket.

NAVI comes out on top over Karmine Corp in all-out brawl

This match was the first meeting of the stage between two teams with turbulent records after NAVI suffered a brutal 2-0 loss to BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #9 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal PROFEK Dawid Święć LewN Burak Alkan MAGNUM Martin Penkov yesterday. Things started on Karmine Corp's undefeated pick of Icebox, where both sides continued using the no-duelist Omen compositions that brought them success in the past.

The beginning of Icebox was all Karmine Corp as they opened with a 7-1 lead. NAVI struggled to fend off the opposition's site hits and consistently dropped early picks, but managed to claw it back to 8-4 at the half off the back of heroics from hiro .

The second half mirrored the first, this time with Karmine Corp struggling to respond to NAVI's site hits as NAVI brought it back to par at 10-10. Chaotic rounds led to overtime, where Karmine Corp finally managed to close out the map 14-12 to continue their undefeated streak. marteen was a standout performer, racking up 26 kills and 163 ADR on Omen.

The second map was Split. NAVI easily took a 9-3 lead on their attack, with koalanoob 's entry frags opening up sites, Shao shutting down any hopes of a retake, and hiro claiming yet another impactful 1v3 clutch in round 11. Karmine Corp mounted a comeback, winning six rounds in a row, but Ruxic made a bold play in the final round, teleporting behind the opposition with his Omen ultimate and finding three. Both of NAVI's Controllers in Ruxic and Shao dominated with 26 kills apiece and 295 and 272 ACS respectively.

Ascent was the decider. This was NAVI's first showing on the map after they stopped first-banning it in Week 4, and they chose a double-Sentinel composition featuring Yoru, Deadlock, and Tejo. On the other side, Karmine Corp adopted a standard Sova-KAY/O composition after a weak double-Duelist showing against FUT previously.

The first half was fairly close, with Karmine Corp winning multiple economic disadvantage rounds, but NAVI ended the first half with a 7-5 lead on their attack despite the defensive nature of their composition. It seemed like NAVI were in position to win the match easily after converting the bonus in the second half, spurring them to a 12-7 lead, but Karmine Corp clawed all the way back to 12-11 before falling at the final hurdle, and NAVI won the map 13-11. hiro toyed with his opponents throughout the map with his Cypher utility, ending with 23 kills to only 14 deaths.

With this win, NAVI survives elimination and will face the loser of FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder versus Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #6 paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak Serial Maikls Zdanovs on Sunday. Karmine Corp are home early, demanding an elite performance from the French organization in Stage 2 if they still hope to qualify for Champions Paris.

FUT kicks Vitality out of Stage 1 in dominant fashion

FUT and Vitality last met in the upper bracket semifinal of Kickoff earlier this year. Since then, both teams have fallen a long way down in the standings, with the loser guaranteed to rank only in the top eight of the region after FUT placed fourth in Kickoff and Vitality placed fourth at Masters Bangkok.

FUT opened the series on Fracture, a map Vitality hadn't played since Bangkok. The first half was back-and-forth; after a 4-1 start for FUT, Vitality brought it back to a 6-6 half with simple executes and sharp shooting. CyvOph in particular found 14 kills, four of which were first kills, in the first half alone.

The second half, however, was all FUT. The Turkish squad won six rounds in a row on their attack, sprinting towards a 13-7 win. AtaKaptan and yetujey put up stellar numbers, the former ending with a KDA 17/9/8 and the latter with 18/11/6.

The second map was Split, where Vitality switched to a double-Duelist composition with Derke on Raze and Sayf on Yoru. FUT picked up right where they left off, easily shutting down Vitality with nine rounds in a row after dropping the pistol round. Vitality struggled to find success anywhere on the map, investing two timeouts and ending their round win drought only in round 12 to end the half 9-3 in FUT's favor.

Vitality prolonged the map slightly with a second pistol, but it was a futile effort and FUT closed out Split 13-6 in a statement win for them after a shaky showing versus FNATIC yesterday. They will face the losers of Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #2 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius versus BBL on Sunday, while Vitality have been eliminated in what marks the end to a disastrous stage for a team that came in with sky-high expectations.

The EMEA Stage 1 playoffs will continue tomorrow, where two of the region's Toronto representatives will be determined.

• Team Heretics vs. BBL Esports (upper bracket semifinal)
• Team Liquid vs. FNATIC (upper bracket semifinal)