Today's EMEA Stage 1 playoff games have concluded, and BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #6 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen sociablEE Volkan Yonal PROFEK Dawid Święć LewN Burak Alkan MAGNUM Martin Penkov and Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #9 penny Erik Penny paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin Keiko Georgio Sanassy kamo Kamil Frąckowiak Serial Maikls Zdanovs have come out on top over FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #13 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak AtaKaptan Ata Tan qRaxs Doğukan Balaban and Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #32 ANGE1 Kyrylo Karasov Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat . BBL and Liquid will face off next week with the final ticket to Masters Toronto on the line, while FUT and NAVI have been eliminated.

BBL maintains supremacy over FUT in Turkish derby rematch

The first match of the day was a rematch of the classic Turkish derby, with BBL having won their last record-breaking encounter three weeks ago. BBL had high hopes after a close loss against Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #3 MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius in the upper bracket, while FUT had momentum on their side after steamrolling Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #11 Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner CyvOph Clement Millard Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso .

BBL took the first map to Haven, a map FUT hadn't played since Kickoff. Unexpectedly, FUT brought out a composition featuring xeus on Chamber and qRaxs on Neon. The surprise factor proved difficult for BBL to handle, as a Thrifty win for FUT in round 7 set them up for a seven-round win streak and an 8-4 half.

Although FUT won the second pistol, BBL won a Stinger force buy to reclaim control. Paying little heed to the fact that FUT had two Sentinels, BBL claimed bombsites and won out their postplants to force overtime, but FUT were the ones to close out the map 14-12. Both Cyphers had stunning performances, with yetujey 's 30 kills just beating out MAGNUM 's 28.

On Split, BBL selected Raze, Tejo, and Breach after not having shown the map since Kickoff. PROFEK and sociablEE dominated the server from start to finish, picking up an ace apiece within the first six rounds. Even after two timeouts, FUT couldn't find any answers, and a 2v4 in BBL's favor in round 12 only added insult to injury for a 9-3 half that BBL converted to an easy 13-2. sociablEE racked up 18 kills and 177 ADR while PROFEK scored 14 kills and 196 ADR.

The final map went to Ascent, where these two teams famously fought all the way to a 25-23 conclusion the last time they met. FUT made one change since then, moving xeus over from Jett to Yoru. The first half was a brawl; FUT opened with a 5-3 lead, but BBL recovered with four in a row to take a 7-5 advantage. While it was still close, this time, BBL refused to let the map go to the lengths it did last time and shut down FUT's typical heroics to end it 13-10.

PROFEK was the MVP on both the map and the series, with a 23/14/10 KDA on Ascent and a 53/43/38 KDA and 1.56 rating for the series. With this win, BBL stands one game away from their first international qualification. FUT returns home and will miss out on Masters 2 for the first time in the partnership era.

Liquid shows resilience to defeat NAVI

This was the first matchup of 2025 between two staple EMEA squads. Liquid would seek redemption after the narrowest of losses to FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Chronicle Timofey Khromov Alfajer Emir Ali Beder yesterday against a steadily rising NAVI. The match kicked off on Icebox, where NAVI took advantage of Liquid's sluggish form to take an early 6-2 lead.

A timeout seemed to revitalize Liquid as they came back from 10-4 down to 11-9, scaling together onto the sites and taking initiative instead of allowing NAVI to have their way. Round 21 was the critical difference-maker for NAVI as they firmly punished Liquid's attempt to push into Snowman to get up to 12, eventually winning out the map 13-11. hiro continued to keep up his incredible playoffs form with 26 kills on Killjoy.

Liquid took the second map to Split. An eco win for them off the back of a nAts 3k in round 4 opened the way for a dominant 9-3 attack side. NAVI nearly won their force buy in round 14, but clean sprays from paTiTek 's Spectre put an end to that and Liquid won out 13-4. While every Liquid player showed flashes of brilliance, nAts stood a cut above with 21 kills to 10 deaths and 198 ADR.

The decider was Ascent, where both teams ran similar Deadlock-Cypher compositions. Things briefly looked dire for Liquid after a shocking stick defuse in round 2 gave NAVI an eco win, but they managed to brush it off and recover. Both sides refused to give in as hero plays rang out from both sides, with a 1v2 from Shao in round 11 immediately being one-upped by a 1v3 from Serial in round 12 to result in a 6-6 deadlock.

Many of the rounds continued to go down to the wire in the second half, but Liquid consistently looked just one step ahead and ended the map 13-8. paTiTek demonstrated strong impact throughout with 21 kills to 11 deaths and 172 ADR.

After a grueling weekend, Liquid are set to face BBL for a second chance at booking their tickets to Toronto.

“It's going to be a good game, and that's going to be a game to qualify for Toronto, so let's see who [deserves] to be there,” nAts said of the matchup in the post-match interview.

VCT EMEA will return on May 16 with the following matches:

• Team Heretics vs. FNATIC (upper bracket final)
• Team Liquid vs. BBL Esports (lower round 3)