EMEA's Kickoff middle bracket has begun, with Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #25 purp0 Semyon Borchev wayne Wayne Chang MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak and FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn Alfajer Emir Ali Beder both finding narrow wins against their opponents. Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #33 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan LewN Burak Alkan sheydos Bogdan Naumov Avez Hazem Khaled SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin and FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #21 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak KROSTALY Okan Alaçam baha Baha Gözmen AtaKaptan Ata Tan with their losses today drop to the lower bracket, now on the brink of elimination.

Team Liquid come out on top in mudfest against Karmine Corp

The first match of the day featured Team Liquid against Karmine Corp. The reigning EMEA champions had been knocked down a peg after losing to Team Vitality in the upper bracket, but look to re-establish themselves now with their full roster. wayne , who was missing last week due to visa issues, made his debut today, and helped Liquid win a messy 2-1 against KC.

Karmine Corp started the match out hot, completely shutting out their opponents on Abyss. Team Liquid struggled immensely to get on site on their attack half, getting picked apart by KC as they forced through choke points. KC ended the half with an 11-1 lead, one they quickly closed out for a 13-2 win.

Liquid found their footing more in map two, though it was still a very scrappy brawl between the two teams. They remained relatively even in the first half, but Liquid started pulling away on their defense half. MiniBoo in particular started coming alive, finding three 3ks that each won a round for his team. Off the back of this, Liquid were able to win the map 13-8, tying up the series.

The final map was Breeze, which played out in a very strange manner. Despite losing nearly every first engagement, KC found themselves up 7-1 off the back of several 3v5 conversions in a row. Bizarrely, they took a tactical timeout while winning by six rounds, which backfired, and led to Liquid managing to salvage a 4-8 score at the half.

By the time the second half rolled around, KC's luck had ran out, and the disadvantage situations they had been winning were no more. Liquid only lost two rounds on their comeback to win the map 13-10, and secured the series 2-1. Liquid's new player, wayne, finally came into form in map three after a shaky first two maps. Putting up a 1.59 rating on the map, he was a consistent, safe pair of hands for the team when things got dicey.

FNATIC squeak out a 2-1 over FUT

Two teams that were once at the top of EMEA both found themselves on the receiving ends of 2-0 batteries in the upper bracket. FNATIC were expected to easily bounce back against what was perceived as a relatively weak FUT, but what followed was an intense match for the ages.

The first map of Abyss looked completely hopeless for FUT. FNATIC was in complete control for their whole attack, with their slow style always finding them the advantageous site to hit. Even when FUT would find an advantage, critical oversteps would leave FNATIC with a way back into the round. The map was over fast, with FNATIC winning a statement 13-3.

It looked like Corrode was to be the same story as Abyss, as FNATIC dominated their defense, getting up to a 10-2 score by halftime. Not going down without a fight, however, FUT finally showed up and started to fight back. Their proactive defense left FNATIC looking silly on their attack side, and managed to bring it back all the way to overtime.

In overtime, the teams traded defense rounds back and forth, both struggling to find wins on attack. Eventually, however, it was FNATIC that crumbled first, and FUT managed to complete their comeback, taking the map 18-16. By the end of the map, both xeus and Alfajer both had 33 kills, but it was the former player that was able to bring his team over the line.

Following up the insanity of map two was another intense map on the decider of Split. The teams took turns streaking in the first half, eventually leaving FNATIC up 7-5. However, reality started to set in for the kings of EMEA when FUT took the pistol and bonus round of the second half. Up 9-7, the upset looked like it was coming to fruition. However, FNATIC stabilized, and started trading rounds two at a time. Neither willing to give more than an inch, overtime was inevitable.

The second overtime of the series started in FUT's favor, as they were first to reach match point. FNATIC responded back with a convincing win, and then took the lead themselves off of a 2v3 conversion. FUT managed to stay alive with a 2v4 of their own, but that was the end of their tank, as FNATIC closed out the match two rounds later, denying FUT the upset.

By the end of the long and hard-fought series, Alfajer had a monstrous 78 kills, just four kills out of reach of Aspas's kill record set just one year earlier.

While both matches were close, Liquid and FNATIC prevailed, and will move on to face each other in the next round of the middle bracket later this week. KC and FUT, on the other hand, are the first teams sent to the lower bracket, where one more loss will mean elimination.

EMEA's Kickoff will continue tomorrow with more middle bracket matches, featuring PCIFIC vs. GIANTX and ULF vs. Team Heretics.