The third week of play at VCT EMEA Kickoff wrapped up with three Champions Paris attendees in action and only two surviving in the tournament's lower bracket.

Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #7 Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish ComeBack Berkcan Şentürk Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius snatched a dominant 2-0 win over Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #18 sociablEE Volkan Yonal Filu Dawid Czarnecki Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat , while Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #8 purp0 Semyon Borchev wayne Wayne Chang MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak topped GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #9 Cloud Kirill Nehozhin grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George in a back-and-forth three-map series that needed overtime.

Team Heretics shuts the door on Natus Vincere's Kickoff campaign

In a "blink and you'll miss it" series, Team Heretics put an end to Natus Vincere's Kickoff hopes, dropping just nine rounds across two maps as part of a dominant sweep. The series was a rematch from the pair's earlier meeting in the second round of the earlier bracket, which resulted in a 2-1 NAVI win, but Friday's clash showed two sets of completely different teams.

The series opened on TH's pick of Haven, a map that it has played four times and won three times so far in Kickoff. Meanwhile, NAVI was 1-1 on the map, having lost on it to TH earlier.

Both teams sparked no surprises with their agent comps. While NAVI played with its usual Omen-Viper, double-Controller comp, TH stuck with the potent double-Duelist comp that brought out the best in sharpshooters ComeBack and Wo0t . This year, TH has found most of its success on that side of the map, winning just under two-thirds of its total rounds on the map on the attack side.

NAVI chose to start on attack, and that decision appeared to pay dividends early. A pistol round win turned into a bonus round conversion helped NAVI storm out to an early 3-0 lead, but the tides turned soon after. A run of three straight TH rounds, sparked by a round win on a low buy, helped TH catapult into an 8-4 lead.

While coordinated retakes or maintaining control over the map could be tabbed as the reasons for TH's success on defense, the difference ultimately was physical: Team Heretics were the better shooting team on this day. After picking up what could have been a pivotal pistol round for NAVI, Team Heretics began driving the nail into the coffin, continuing what it warmed up to in the first half by dropping just one round on attack en route to a 13-5 win.

NAVI's pick of Breeze was set to be the second time the team played the map, following a 13-6 win over FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn Alfajer Emir Ali Beder just two days before. Team Heretics, meanwhile, were yet to play the map in 2026, and had plenty of tricks up their sleeve.

A unique double-Sentinel, solo-Viper comp welcomed NAVI into the server once all ten players got into the server. W0ot, on Chamber, had the green light to take forward angles with the Operator, which became synonymous with his hands in the half. Seven of his 13 kills on the map were with the Operator. Meanwhile, in-game leader Boo was on Sage, which gave the team plenty of delay utility while also providing players like W0ot with unpredictable off-angles.

TH ended its defense side up 8-4, and after picking up its third pistol round of the series, looked to close things out quickly. On attack, Sage acted as an additional Controller, cutting off areas of sites to shut down and delay retakes, while the Operator again was dusted off as part of slow-roll attacks.

Team Heretics looked a level above Natus Vincere on this day, redeeming themselves from their earlier 2-1 loss by closing out Breeze 13-4 and sweeping NAVI to send them home.

ComeBack was far and away the strongest force behind Team Heretics' technical prowess across both maps. He finished with match-highs of 46 kills and a 364 ACS, while benjyfishy tallied an additional 38 kills with a game-high 1.70 rating.

Team Liquid survives in back-and-forth three-map win over GIANTX

In a matchup between two of EMEA's Champions Paris attendees, GIANTX and Team Liquid went blow for blow in a series that looked like it may have gone either way at any given moment. While GIANTX enjoyed a breakout end to its 2025 season, Team Liquid was playing to keep its streak of international event appearances after making all three last year.

The series started on Team Liquid's pick of Breeze. Both teams went with a Viper-Omen double-Controller comp, but GX opted for a double-Initiator comp while the Duelist-happy TL opted for double Duelists.

While GIANTX picked up the pistol round to open the map, a Team Liquid thrifty round threw a wrench into the GX economy. TL used that momentum to win five straight rounds as part of a strong first half, which it ended leading 9-3.

TL won the pistol round to open the second half, which spelled the beginning of the end on Breeze. GX managed one round on defense, but that was all it could manage as Team Liquid dominated in a 13-4 showing. MiniBoo excelled on Neon, picking up 19 kills while posting a 5-1 record in first duels.

GIANTX's map pick of Pearl promised to be an interesting one. Just a day earlier, Pearl was the scene of the crime for Team Liquid's narrow 14-12 overtime win over ULF Esports ULF Esports Europe Rank #11 audaz Soner Ekiz d3mur Demir Boğa sturNN Eren Oduncular nekky Anıl Dağdeviren Favian Enes Yiğiter . Earlier in the competition, Liquid also clinched a 14-12 win over Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #5 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu on the map. With plenty of film on the map and Liquid choosing to roll with its usual comp, GIANTX rolled out its double-Initiator comp and dominated from the get-go.

After suffering a 13-0 loss just two days earlier, GIANTX looked to snap up its own shutout victory. Starting on attack, nothing Liquid did seemed to stick. While a pistol round rolling into a bonus round was the norm, GIANTX seemed to have a hold on Liquid no matter what it did. Ultimate cycles lined up, but GIANTX, without fail, shut Liquid down. It wasn't until almost the end of the half that Liquid finally managed to get on the scoreboard, avoiding a shutout in the half and ending it down 11-1.

GIANTX won the second-half pistol, which prompted force-buys from Liquid. At the strike of midnight, Liquid appeared to have some life breathed into it, resulting in a run of five straight rounds, though that was as far as it could get.

After both teams dominantly won their map picks, the decider map of Bind promised chaos. Both teams went for the meta Brimstone-Viper smokes pairs, but the similarities were few and far between. Team Liquid fielded a double-Initiator comp with Gekko and Skye with Waylay as the solo Duelist, while GIANTX went with its usual heal-heavy Skye-Sage comp that had Raze as its solo Duelist.

With both sides opting for one Duelist, the attacking side was brought into question for both teams. GIANTX managed just four rounds on attack, putting the pressure on the MiniBoo-led Liquid. GX opened its own defense side with some dominance, closing the gap to eight rounds apiece right out of the gates, forcing a timeout from Liquid.

A change in approach, with Liquid mixing in a few slower defaults with an Operator in nAts' hands, resulted in three straight rounds for the attackers. However, struggles for the attacking side of the map returned soon after, as Liquid let up three rounds to bring the teams to an 11-11 tie. Overtime followed soon after, and the issue that plagued both teams in regulation continued in OT.

Neither team could find a win on the attack side, with four straight defuses coming through for the defenders, albeit by slim margins at times. The attack-side Operator from nAts was tried in overtime again as well, but to no avail. Eventually, Liquid's winning attack round came with nAts the first man down, and the surviving players forced to walk through mollies just to get onto the site.

MiniBoo had arguably his best performance to date in a Team Liquid jersey, dropping 54 kills as part of a trio of Liquid players that dropped at least 50 across three maps. nAts and wayne had 50 of their own, with the former having the highest rating in the server at 1.21. westside led the way for GIANTX with a match-high 56 kills, but it wasn't enough to keep the 2025 Stage 2 Cinderella alive in Kickoff.

Up next

A battle between brothers now takes place in the lower bracket's semifinals as MiniBoo and Team Liquid go up against Boo and Team Heretics.

VCT EMEA Kickoff will continue next week with the following matches:

• Team Heretics vs. Team Liquid (Lower Round 4)
• FNATIC vs. Team Vitality (Middle Round 4)
• Gentle Mates vs. BBL Esports (Upper Final)