Today's day of EMEA Kickoff saw the first two of the 2025 Champions teams hit the stage for the first time. However, both Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Unranked Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish ComeBack Berkcan Şentürk Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius and GIANTX GIANTX Europe Unranked Cloud Kirill Nehozhin grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George ended up getting taken down by their opponents, Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Unranked sociablEE Volkan Yonal Filu Dawid Czarnecki Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat and Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Unranked starxo Patryk Kopczynski bipo Taranvir Singh marteen Martin Pátek GLYPH Conner Garcia Minny Patrik Hušek respectively.

Team Heretics falls from grace in loss to Natus Vincere

The first match of the day pitted the new NAVI against the tried and tested Team Heretics. The latter team was returning after a top six finish at Champions, now on their third season with the same core. New Duelist player ComeBack , who had dominated the tier two league for the past year, was an exciting addition to the team. Unfortunately for Heretics, today was NAVI's day to shine.

The match started on Bind, where NAVI's Turkish duo of Ruxic and hiro shone, each putting up 20+ kills on the map. They were able to neutralize Heretics' attack, leading to an 8-4 score on their defense. NAVI started the second half even better, winning the pistol and bonus round to bring about an 11-4 lead. It was only then that Heretics was able to start stringing some rounds together, but it was too late, as NAVI managed to close out the map 13-10.

The next map was Haven, where Heretics was able to bounce back. RieNs put up a vintage performance, shredding through NAVI with the Odin. They found a dominant 9-3 attack half to start the map, but wasn't able to close it out cleanly. NAVI started to bring it back in the second half, winning five rounds in a row to bring the gap down to just one round. Heretics managed to eek out a low-buy round to stabilize, and the teams traded rounds back and forth until Heretics eventually closed it out 13-11.

This brought about the final map of Split, which NAVI utterly dominated. Ruxic, who normally plays the Controller role, was allowed to let loose on Chamber, and shut down Heretics on defense. hiro also once again put up a star performance, and together, held Heretics to just three rounds. Unlike their opponents, however, they were able to cleanly close out their lead, and quickly won the map 13-6, taking down the EMEA titans.

Gentle Mates mount a vicious comeback to 2-0 GIANTX

Gentle Mates have continued their revenge arc today with a second win in Kickoff, this time taking down the recent Champions attendees GIANTX. Having ended the 2025 season hot, with a run to top two in EMEA and top eight at Champions, GIANTX ran it back with the same roster this year. The stability did them well in the off-season, winning the incredibly competitive Project Blender tournament, where Gentle Mates were eliminated in the round of 16.

The start of the first map matched expectations, as GIANTX quickly got off to a 4-0 lead on Pearl. However, Gentle Mates quickly proved that they were actually the better team on the half, dominating the rest of their attack side to reach a 7-5 score at halftime. The only additional round that GIANTX won came off the back of a 1v2 clutch from westside .

It looked like M8 was going to run away with the map after winning the pistol in the second half, but grubinho shut down their momentum with a 4k on the second round eco. The rest of the map was neck and neck the entire time, with the teams eventually tying up the score at 10-10. Gentle Mates, however, quickly put an end to the affair, successfully retaking the A site three times in a row to win the map 13-10.

GIANTX looked like they were going to rebound in map two to take the series the distance, as after winning the pistol round, spiraled out of control. Their attack half was unstoppable, allowing only two rounds to their opponents, ending the half with an eight round lead.

All GIANTX needed was three rounds to close out the map, but Gentle Mates decided to give them none. Two aces, a 1v2, everything was going the way of the M8s, allowing them to complete a flawless comeback to sweep GIANTX in a 2-0.

The results of the day's matches unexpectedly places NAVI against Gentle Mates in the upper semifinals, while two of the strongest teams from the end of last year fall to the middle bracket early.

The first week of EMEA Kickoff will conclude tomorrow with FNATIC vs. BBL and Team Liquid vs. Team Vitality.