Day one of the 2026 EMEA Stage 2 playoffs saw the teams from the upper bracket of the play-ins taking down the seeded teams from the group stage. Enterprise Esports Enterprise Esports Europe Rank #1 MAGNUM Martin Penkov iluri Ilari Puranen Lime Jacob Foster paTiTek Patryk Fabrowski kozzy Denis Stefan Aionitoaei claimed a major scalp with a 2-1 over Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #2 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Niko Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu to keep their run going, while FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #6 s0pp Efe Tur xeus Doğan Gözgen yetujey Eray Budak KROSTALY Okan Alaçam sociablEE Volkan Yonal mounted a 9-3 comeback on map one versus Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #14 purp0 Semyon Borchev nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Kicks Kimmie Laasner to win 2-0.

Enterprise continues blistering run with major win over Vitality

After carving an undefeated path through the play-ins, Enterprise faced a new challenge in a Vitality squad that earned fourth at Masters London and the Group Alpha second seed in the group stage.

EP selected Summit, which had been Vitality's permaban throughout the group stage, for the first map. With it being Vitality's first time showing Summit, they took EP by surprise with a resounding 10-2 defense. Chronicle 's Chamber in particular posed serious issues for EP as he farmed picks with the Operator in Mid, while Jamppi on Phoenix found crucial kills in Vitality's retakes.

A second pistol for Vitality made the lead an insurmountable 12-2. EP held out until round 19, where Chronicle won a bizarre knife duel to take it 13-6. The Chamber player ended the map with 22 kills and 322 ACS.

The second map was the first instance of Abyss in the VCT circuit since its recent return to the map pool. Both teams opted for double-Duelist looks with Harbor, although Vitality included a Vyse while EP forwent a Sentinel entirely in favor of an Astra.

EP controlled the first half after kozzy found a 4K to win the round two eco, starting an economic snowball that led them to an 8-4 lead. That lead quickly dissipated to an 8-8 draw, however, as EP struggled to fend off Vitality's repeated B splits, soon leading to Vitality taking the lead 11-9. After a timeout, EP dug their heels in, finally shutting down Mid and holding onto A to narrowly win 13-11. kozzy was unleashed on Jett with a 30/19/4 KDA, seven first bloods, and 225 ADR.

Lotus was the most one-sided map of the three. EP dominated from start to finish as MAGNUM and iluri could do no wrong, racking up five clutches and five 3Ks between them for a 9-3 attack half. They then won their first pistol of the entire series to make it 11-3 and end it in a statement 13-4. MAGNUM racked up 20 kills in 17 rounds as Vyse, while iluri followed just behind with 18 on Skye.

Now in the upper semifinals, EP are one win away from Barcelona and two consecutive wins away from earning a coveted spot at Champions Shanghai. Their next test will be against Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #7 dos9 Zhumagali Dastan LewN Burak Alkan Avez Hazem Khaled SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin N4RRATE Marshall Massey tomorrow, Aug. 21. Meanwhile, Vitality will play Fire Flux Esports Fire Flux Esports Europe Rank #3 batujnax Mehmet Batu Özaslan hezacoil Berkay Doğar Kachoww Samet Arıcı DeadInk Utku Onur Aydin reazy Kaan Ürpek in an elimination match on Saturday, Aug. 22.

FUT defeats Team Liquid 2-0 to advance in upper bracket

The second match of the day pitted the only tier one team to make it out of play-ins in FUT against the Group Omega second seed in Team Liquid.

FUT's pick of Haven, contrary to the norm on Haven, was a tale of two defenses. Liquid steamrolled FUT at first, shutting down B and winning every duel for an 8-0 start that FUT salvaged to a 9-3 score.

Liquid won the second pistol but FUT managed to win a force buy on defense to make it 10-5. From there, Liquid found themselves in a similar position to the one they put FUT in; their only round for the rest of the map was a kamo ace as FUT rode the momentum all the way to a 13-11 win in regulation.

Liquid's pick of Summit was FUT's first time playing the map. Both sides went for double-Duelist lineups without Sentinels; Liquid opted for Viper in its stead while FUT went for an unorthodox Breach pick. Liquid had another good start with a bonus conversion to go up 4-0, but FUT this time responded with solid shutdowns to make it a much more competitive 6-6 half.

The second half began with an insane 4K by yetujey to win FUT the pistol. From there, FUT abused the B site to get up to match point with a 12-7 lead; Liquid managed to make it competitive, but a Breach and Neon ultimate combination proved too much to handle as FUT eventually closed it out 13-11. s0pp topped the scoreboard with an impressive 25/14/3 KDA and 295 ACS.

FUT's victory sets up another Turkish derby as they will collide with BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #4 Crewen Ali Eren Sargin Lar0k Yusuf Kaan Kanber Loita Utku Kart Rosé Eren Erzan lovers rock Umut Pekdoğan for the sixth time this year in the upper semifinal tomorrow. Liquid will fight for their tournament lives against Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt Europe Rank #5 musashi Alessio Xhaferi azury Luca Sammer Jamelinho213 Ryad Bentot Fizzy David Figueiredo MONSTEERR Ondřej Petrů in the lower bracket on Saturday.