Rebels Gaming Rebels Gaming Europe Rank #207 and Surreal Esports Surreal Esports Inactive Rosé Eren Erzan VenTT Emre Bozkurt vittoria macRue Arda Yıldız Crewen Ali Eren Sargin survived the first round of elimination in the EMEA's VCT Promotion tournament today, knocking Papara SuperMassive Papara SuperMassive Europe Rank #34 sterben Emre Demirci skylen Asil Yalçın hiro Emirhan Kat CyderX Caner Demir Celasun Emir Celasun SouhcNi Ibrahim Sağır Izzy Baran Yılmaz and Anonymo Esports Anonymo Esports Inactive belmonte Kacper Mordak xuss Tselmeg Tsolmon Stix Wojciech Chamielec grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko Katu Kacper Twórz out of the tournament.

Stage 1: EMEA Challengers attendees SuperMassive Blaze were dismantled by Rebels on Icebox and Haven, destroying the Turks' chances at coming back to the VCT next Stage. Meanwhile, Surreal eliminated Anonymo Mentos from the tournament after a lengthy 2-1.

SuperMassive Blaze vs. Rebels Gaming (RBLS 2-0)

For the second match in a row, Rebels were awarded with the first map pick. The Spanish Regional League champions chose Icebox, a map they've only lost twice since the start of the year. Rebels' dominance wasn't any different this time.

SuperMassive Blaze found only four rounds across the map, three of them largely thanks to individual plays: a 4K from Göktuğ "XiSTOU" Canciğer got his team on the board, while a 3K from Eren "Brave" Kasırga and a 1v2 from Baran "Izzy" Yılmaz got the Turks two more points. Rebels showed impressive strength on Icebox, winning the map 13-4 and moving to their opponent's pick.

While the result might make it look dull, SuperMassive Blaze made the game exciting.

The second map proved to be much more exciting than the first. After a 2-0 start, SuperMassive Blaze lost their lead to two consecutive clutches from Ilya "vo0kashu" Ushakov and Guillaume "GatsH" Kalka, respectively, tying the score at 2-2. Rebels jumped ahead momentarily, but a 1v2 from Caner "CyderX" Demir kept the score at 3-3. On round seven, Alessio "musashi" Xhaferi picked off three to place his team ahead once more, from where the team took off to a 7-3 scoreline. SMB bounced back in the closing stages of the first half, with another clutch from CyderX leaving his team at a 7-5 disadvantage.

SMB won their third round in a row by taking the defending side pistol round, but weren't given any breathing room. Rebels quickly reached 11-7. SMB were able to get just one more round in, before another 1v1 from vo0kashu put his team on match point, afterwards winning the map 13-8.

As he's done in all but one of his VCT EMEA Promotion games, musashi topped the scoreboard for his team across the match. Notably, he ended the match with a 39% headshot rate and 7 first kills, tied for second with Izzy despite not playing any duelist agents. Conversely, SuperMassive Blaze's uncharacteristic performance saw XiSTOU as the only player to not finish with a negative KD.

Skill? Skill.

Anonymo Mentos vs. Surreal Esports (SR 2-1)

The second match featured only Regional League teams. The East and Turkey representatives in Anonymo Mentos and Surreal Esports, respectively, went head-to-head to find out which of the two would be the first to go home. The series started on Breeze and Anonymo seemed comfortable on their pick, taking a 5-1 lead.

Sebastian "snikk" Kamiński took down three to save the seventh round of the game, putting his team at 6-1. Surreal recouped several rounds before the half ended, heading into their attacking side at an 8-4 disadvantage. Masic and snikk came out swinging into the second half. The former got a 1v3 clutch on the pistol round, further reducing the round gap. After Surreal won one more round, Anonymo got their hands on rifles and snikk handled three on A, putting his team back in the game.

Masic tried to keep it tight, pushing his team to 9-7 after killing three, but Anonymo still hit double digits at 10-7. Surreal manage to take several rounds from Anonymo, breaking their opponent's economy in the process. On round 20, Enes "RieNs" Ecirli electrocuted two players to death with his Shock Bolts, then spraying two down on the A site to tie the result at 10-10. Soon after, Surreal gained the lead 11-10, with Emir "Alfajer" Ali Beder killing three in the process. But Anonymo didn't give up, taking the map into overtime and shutting it down 14-12.

Masic's laser-precision was key in keeping Breeze close.

Anonymo found another good start, this time on Icebox, winning the first four rounds. Surreal replied, winning the next seven straight rounds to secure superiority in the first half. Anonymo managed to find their fifth point, ending the half at 7-5, but Surreal kept the momentum up in the second half and quickly hit double digits.

But Anonymo weren't out of the game yet. The team had newfound life in them and climbed to 11-8, when Surreal reached match point. Anonymo won one more round, placing the score at 12-9. In the final round, Masic's Jett stormed onto the B site and knifed down 5 players in quick succession, closing out the map in style.

Surreal started Haven in devastating fashion — they shot up to a 9-2 lead in the first half, just dropping the final round of their attacking side. Anonymo ramped up their activity in the second half of the game, scoring 10 multikills on their attacking side. That translated into several round wins that narrowed the gap down to just 10-9. Calculated plays in the latter stages of the game — including a 1v1 from Alfajer — gave Surreal their first VCT Promotion victory.

Despite Surreal coming out on top, the stats show today's match was a close and bloody battle for both sides. Only two players on each team came out with a positive KD, with Surreal's superiority clearly visible when it comes to ACS and KAST. The team averaged 209 ACS and a 75% KAST.

There's something about that Turkish aim that just hits right…

Looking ahead

The first Stage 2 VCT slot will be filled tomorrow. BIG BIG Inactive and FOKUS FOKUS Europe Rank #27 Matrixx Iljas Amagow SEIDER Mathias Seider al0rante Felix Brandl YaBoiLewis Lewis Hughes DisisJohn John Gabrido will play the upper bracket final, with the winner taking one of the two slots available. BIG have the chance to keep their slot, while FOKUS have the chance to steal it. Whoever loses will have a second chance in the lower bracket final. The second round of elimination will also be played.

Tomorrow's games are: