On the penultimate day of play in VCT EMEA Kickoff, Gentle Mates Gentle Mates Europe Rank #7 starxo Patryk Kopczynski bipo Taranvir Singh marteen Martin Pátek GLYPH Conner Garcia Minny Patrik Hušek downed FNATIC FNATIC Europe Rank #2 crashies Austin Roberts Boaster Jake Howlett kaajak Kajetan Haremski Veqaj Sylvain Pattyn Alfajer Emir Ali Beder at the end a dazzling reverse sweep to punch its ticket to Masters Santiago as EMEA's second seed.

Once again, it was the marteen show for Gentle Mates, only this time, it ended with jubilation. The Czech Duelist, one day after shattering Jamppi 's EMEA Bo5 kills record, shattered not just ZmjjKK 's international Bo5 record, but also srN 's 124-kill record, finishing the series with 126 kills.

In the map ban process, Gentle Mates banned Breeze, and FNATIC banned Pearl. The 3-2 win came with FNATIC winning Abyss 13-10, Corrode 16-14, and Gentle Mates winning Split 13-6, Bind 14-12, and then won Haven 14-12.

Play started on M8's pick of Abyss. The day before, they lost on the map 14-12 after leading 10-5. The map has been a dominant one for FNATIC thus far in 2026, as it has dominated FUT Esports FUT Esports Europe Rank #12 xeus Doğan Gözgen MrFaliN Furkan Yeğen yetujey Eray Budak KROSTALY Okan Alaçam qRaxs Doğukan Balaban and Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #5 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu on it. Like it did against BBL, M8 started the map hot, seizing a 6-2 lead to start, but found the score tight by halftime.

A heroic pistol round helped FNATIC snowball a strong start to its own attack half, winning the first five rounds thanks to heroics from kaajak . FNATIC claimed the map 13-10 to stay undefeated on the map in 2026.

The series then moved to FNATIC's pick of Corrode, where Gentle Mates no doubt had flashbacks of its series against BBL. Corrode was the final resting place of yesterday's Upper Final, though this bout was much more tightly contested. While M8 stuck with its double-Duelist, double-Controller comp, FNC ran with a solo Waylay double-Initiator comp, with KAY/O and Sova.

M8 got out to yet another fast start, claiming a 6-1 lead. Once again, though, FNATIC bounced back. Despite dropping the pistol round to start the second half, FNATIC staged a comeback from down 10-4, even reaching 12 before M8.

Gentle Mates forced overtime, where the playbook went out the window. While defense was the far more dominant side during regulation, both teams did not miss a beat on attack early on. Two sets of attacking wins were exchanged, which ended with FNATIC finally claiming a defense round to end the map.

Now just one map away from qualifying for Master Santiago and flushing the worry of another best-of-five series, FNATIC moved into Split, but nothing could have prepared them for marteen. The Duelist's reputation now precedes him after the performance he had in the upper final, but on Split, his shooting led the way. After a back-and-forth three maps to open the series against BBL, Split was the map that opened the floodgates for M8. That was the case once again, though with a slight twist.

Split was the map that marteen started to slow down in the Upper Final, but in the Middle Final, it was the map he began to heat up. After recalibrating its economy from a thrifty following a pistol round win, Gentle Mates and marteen stormed back to win six straight wins to end the half, entering halftime up 8-4. The Yoru player had a game-high 13 kills to that point, but he only got better from there.

Gentle Mates gave FNATIC a taste of its own medicine, winning a thrifty round off of a FNATIC pistol as part of a dominant defense half. Any attempt at a FNATIC comeback was thwarted by the man himself. In just seven rounds, marteen picked up 15 kills to end the map with a 28/9 K/D, leading M8 to a 13-6 win on the map.

On Bind, a return to the status quo saw the match return to tight margins. With bipo on Waylay and Alfajer on Raze, Gentle Mates won the early chaotic battle. Out of the gates, the Mates claimed a 7-2 lead, led by bipo, who had 17 kills by halftime. FNATIC, in true FNATIC fashion, did not go down without a fight, clawing back three crucial rounds to end its defense half down just 7-5.

An M8 pistol round was matched with a FNATIC thrifty, which the European giants used to claim the lead soon after with a 4-0 run. M8 managed to settle things soon after, resulting in a 9-9 deadlock, only for FNATIC to reach series point soon after. With their backs against the wall, the Mates fought from down 12-10 to force overtime, where marteen re-assumed his role as the most dangerous player in the server, as a triple kill in the attack round was pivotal in helping M8 to a 14-12 win in overtime to force a fifth map.

Already with 103 kills to his name, marteen was once again in prime position to add his name to the history books. On Haven, a clash of comps promised an explosive finish to yet another instant classic Bo5 series. FNATIC went with its iconic Omen-Viper-Killjoy comp, while Gentle Mates went with their own usual Haven comp, with bipo on Neon, Minny on Cypher, and starxo on Sova.

Early on, the map was as back-and-forth as it could be. M8's run of three straight rounds starting with its first buy round was the longest run that either team went on in the first half, which ended with M8 up 7-5. M8 won three of the first four rounds of the second half to hit double digits and threaten to close things out, but a sudden barrage of thrifty rounds from both sides sent the map into chaos.

FNATIC used serious momentum that it gained from winning lower buy rounds to win four straight rounds and claim series point for the second time, but M8 again came back from the dead to force overtime.

M8 played with some serious composure in overtime, playing well with each other to close out the first, defending round, and then put FNATIC on the back foot to win its attacking round in quick fashion, capping off the reverse-sweep with a 14-12 win.

marteen ended the series with a 1.41 rating and a world-record 126 kills at +43, including a 23-11 record in first bloods. bipo and Minny finished with 93 and 91 kills as well, with Minny going 17-13 in first bloods. Against his former colors, Veqaj had 103 kills in the losing effort, while Alfajer had 96 as well.

Up next

The Gentle Mates party will continue at Masters Santiago, while FNATIC has just one more chance to qualify. The EMEA giants will go up against Team Liquid Team Liquid Europe Rank #8 purp0 Semyon Borchev wayne Wayne Chang MiniBoo Dominykas Lukaševičius nAts Ayaz Akhmetshin kamo Kamil Frąckowiak in the Lower Final, a matchup that it leads 6-2 in the partnership era.

VCT EMEA Kickoff will wrap up tomorrow with the following match:

• FNATIC vs. Team Liquid (Lower Final)