Heretics put away FUT 3-1 to secure grand final against Vitality

Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #3 koshmaras Martynas Namikas Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius defeated FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #7 s0pp Efe Tur xeus Doğan Gözgen yetujey Eray Budak KROSTALY Okan Alaçam sociablEE Volkan Yonal 3-1 in the EMEA Stage 1 lower final.

After a close 15-13 Haven went the way of FUT, the rest of the series was a crushing stomp by Heretics, with FUT only winning eleven total rounds across Lotus, Ascent, and Breeze. This win extends Heretics' head-to-head record against FUT since the beginning of 2024 to 8-0.

FUT's first pick of Haven was both teams' first time on the map since week three of the group stage. Since then, both teams made a slight adjustment to their compositions, with Wo0t moving from Phoenix to Jett and xeus moving from Phoenix to Waylay.

FUT started strong, demonstrating a dynamic 8-4 defense blending together early aggression with clean retakes. A double pistol win extended their lead to 10-4. However, Heretics began to bring it back, pulling out eight out of the next nine rounds with similar methods to take it to 11-11 and then 12-11 for themselves.

Right when it seemed that Heretics were about to complete the comeback, yetujey came alive with a stunning 1v4 to force overtime. He didn't stop there, dragging his team over the line with a 2v5 ace in the final round to win 15-13.

Heretics bounced back in a big way on Lotus. Starting on the defense side, they overwhelmed FUT with forward fights and mounted an economic snowball to take a 9-3 lead. A double pistol sealed the map with no hope of a comeback for FUT as 11-3 turned into 13-4. Wo0t was in demonic form as Raze, ending with a 23/13/5 KDA, 384 ACS, and a 1.58 rating.

The next map, Ascent, had been a stronghold for both teams so far in the playoffs, with Heretics being 3-0 and FUT being 2-0 on it. FUT had the upper hand for a brief moment after winning the first pistol, but things fell out of their hands as Heretics took it from 4-4 to 8-4 in the blink of an eye.

Heretics calmly closed out the rest of the map, conceding two more rounds before taking the win 13-6. RieNs topped the board with 20 kills and 302 ACS, while Boo trailed just behind with 19 kills and 273 ACS.

Breeze was the most one-sided map of them all. Heretics showed off with an utterly dominant attack despite their double-Sentinel Chamber-Sage lineup, steamrolling to 11-1 and then 13-1. FUT's only round came from a full eco win. RieNs outdid even Wo0t's Lotus statline with a outrageous 22/6/4 KDA, 418 ACS, and 2.39 rating; the next in line was Wo0t with 16 kills and 309 ACS.

RieNs ended the series with a 71/47/26 KDA, 273 ACS, and a server-high 1.39 rating. koshmaras also had a standout performance in his first VCT best-of-five, going 73/51/23 with 16 first bloods.

FUT exits the tournament in third place and will begin their Masters London run in the group stage. Heretics will face Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #1 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Niko Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu for the first time this year in the grand final tomorrow for the London first seed and the EMEA trophy.