Team Heretics knocks out GIANTX in all-EMEA showdown

The lower bracket at Champions Paris continued with an EMEA-on-EMEA matchup between Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #9 koshmaras Martynas Namikas Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius and GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #23 westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George Jesse Adam Čtvrtníček neT Michael Bernet .

These two teams previously met three times in VCT EMEA, with all three encounters going the way of the more experienced Heretics. This time, on a much grander stage, after both teams suffered 2-0 losses just yesterday, Heretics won the battle of resilience 2-1 to end GIANTX's year.

The series kicked off on GIANTX's map pick of Ascent, which had been a strong map for them in the group stage. They opened with a pistol but lost the eco round immediately after, giving way to a torrent of six rounds in a row for Heretics as they locked down both sites. GIANTX scraped together a couple of rounds, but the half was out of their hands, ending 8-4.

The second pistol went the way of Heretics, promising a swift end to the map as Los Niños closed it out 13-4. RieNs in particular put up an unbelievable performance on Sova all map, winning multiple crucial rounds almost on his own in both halves including a Stinger 4K on the bonus in round 15. Statistically, the Initiator scored a 23/8/4 KDA, 224 ADR, and a 1.84 rating.

The next map was Lotus, where Heretics continued to lean into their unique Deadlock-Chamber composition. The map was another stomp, but it turned out to be a stomp for GIANTX. They masterfully took advantage of their opponents' weak points around the map, disrespecting the Deadlock utility, rooting out the Chamber, and bowling Heretics over just about everywhere they went to win seven consecutive rounds for a 9-3 lead at the half.

Much like Heretics in the first map, GIANTX sprinted to a win with a pistol and bonus for an even more dominant 13-3 victory. Every player on GIANTX put up numbers, but ara 's entries were a key piece of the puzzle, the Raze recording 5-0 in first kills to first deaths and 183 ADR.

While the first two maps were as one-sided as they could've been, Bind was a slugfest. After not having played the map since Week 4 of Stage 2, Heretics opted to copy the KIWOOM DRX KIWOOM DRX Korea Rank #5 yong Kim Ho-yong (김호용) MaKo Kim Myeong-gwan (김명관) free1ng No Ha-jun (노하준) HYUNMIN Song Hyun-min (송현민) Flicker Kim Tae-hee (김태희) BeYN Kang Ha-bin (강하빈) patented Waylay-Yoru composition versus GIANTX's Gekko and Deadlock.

The start of the map favored GIANTX, who at one point led 5-2 after winning a fourth pistol in the series and shutting down Heretics' attempts to enter the sites. After a Heretics timeout, the rest of the half was back-and-forth, pitting GIANTX's proactive pushes around the map against Heretics' quick reactions. In the end, GIANTX held fast to a slight 7-5 lead.

Round 17 was the start of a string of frenzied rounds that all kept going the way of Heretics, featuring two consecutive full stick defuses from Boo in rounds 17 and 18, a Seize-Orbital Strike combination that caught GIANTX but also took the life of MiniBoo in round 19, and a low buy 2v5 attempt from Cloud and westside in round 21 that RieNs managed to deny.

Thriving in the chaos, Heretics came out on top, winning Bind 13-9 and eliminating their EMEA compatriots from the tournament.

After the match, Boo cited experience as a key factor to Heretics' resilience in the final map. “Crazy game, but…we just kept believing, and I think that's why we won,” he said.

GIANTX's year will come to an end in the top eight of Champions, marking a tremendous turnaround for them after they finished Stage 1 in the bottom four of EMEA just five months ago. Heretics will continue to fight for their lives in the lower bracket on Sept. 29, where they will face the loser of FNATIC versus Paper Rex.