VCT EMEA is back with the first week of Stage 2. All the top teams from Stage 1 managed to find victory as expected, but nearly every match could have ended in an upset for the underdogs.

Here are the results of this week's matches:

Eight of the twelve teams showcased their new roster changes this week, and 10 players made their first ever appearance on the VCT EMEA stage, with several more making their return after a brief hiatus.

One of the more anticipated rookies was ComeBack , joining Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Rank #41 starxo Patryk Kopczynski bipo Taranvir Singh marteen Martin Pátek GLYPH Conner Garcia Minny Patrik Hušek from the dominant tier two Turkish team BBL PCIFIC BBL PCIFIC Inactive . Off the back of their new star duelist, Gentle Mates were poised to deliver a convincing 2-1 victory against FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #10 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak KROSTALY Okan Alaçam baha Baha Gözmen AtaKaptan Ata Tan , but the returning Turkish Champions winner cNed put a wrench in those plans. On map three, the M8s let slip a 6-12 deficit, and despite a monstrous 34 kill performance from their IGL Minny , FUT completed the comeback to win in overtime.

The only upset that saw its way to completion this week was GIANTX GIANTX Europe Rank #2 Cloud Kirill Nehozhin grubinho Grzegorz Ryczko westside Miłosz Duda Flickless Karel Maeckelbergh ara Hanceriuc Eduard-George 's win over Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #13 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu . The Kickoff champions continue to tumble down the rankings, as their new pickups were unable to fix the team's increasing dysfunction. GIANTX, on the other hand, are finally starting to pick up steam, with grubinho 's pickup bolstering the two rookies they added at the end of Stage 1.

KOI KOI Inactive 's three new additions also improved the team from their less than ideal start to the year. However, going toe to toe against the consistent force of Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #7 purp0 Semyon Borchev wayne Wayne Chang MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak with their new weapon of trexx , they were still met with defeat.

Finally, Natus Vincere Natus Vincere Europe Rank #12 sociablEE Volkan Yonal Filu Dawid Czarnecki Shao Andrey Kiprsky Ruxic Uğur Güç hiro Emirhan Kat and their new Duelist alexiiik stomped Apeks Apeks Inactive . The ascension team is on their third roster iteration, but has still yet to find a win in the league.

The other four teams that didn't make roster changes were also EMEA's four representatives at the Esports World Cup, and were matched up against each other for week one. Fresh off their EWC win, Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #5 Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish ComeBack Berkcan Şentürk Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius faced off against BBL Esports BBL Esports Europe Rank #3 Crewen Ali Eren Sargin Lar0k Yusuf Kaan Kanber Loita Utku Kart Rosé Eren Erzan lovers rock Umut Pekdoğan and got absolutely blasted on map one. BBL got up to an 11-0 lead before Heretics mustered their first round, and easily closed out the map. However, Heretics held strong and brought it to map three, which absurdly started off with three aces in a row.

benjyfishy , Wo0t , and Jamppi get consecutive aces.

After the insane start, Heretics stabilized as Wo0t took control of the game, taking their lead up to 12-6. BBL tried to repeat the feat of their Turkish brethren FUT, but their comeback stopped just short of overtime, losing out the final round to lose the map 13-11.

To end the week, FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #1 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn Alfajer Emir Ali Beder , the reigning EMEA champions, returned home after a second place finish at both Masters Toronto and the EWC to face off against Karmine Corp Karmine Corp Europe Rank #24 Avez Hazem Khaled SUYGETSU Dmitry Ilyushin . While the kings of EMEA came out on top as per usual, Karmine Corp made them sweat for it. Map three came down to the wire, and the MENA representative Avez was frying for KC. However, Chronicle clutched up at the last moment, ending the series with a 13-11 win on Icebox.

EMEA will continue next week with the following matches: