Team Heretics outlasts Team Vitality to finally claim EMEA title

Team Heretics Team Heretics Europe Rank #1 koshmaras Martynas Namikas Wo0t Mert Alkan RieNs Enes Ecirli benjyfishy Benjamin David Fish Boo Ričardas Lukaševičius defeated Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #4 Jamppi Elias Olkkonen PROFEK Dawid Święć Derke Nikita Niko Sirmitev Chronicle Timofey Khromov Sayonara Ștefan Mîtcu 3-2 in the grand final of EMEA Stage 1 to claim the regional crown.

From a 0-2 group stage start to a blazing lower bracket playoff run, Heretics redeemed their second place woes within the VCT at long last and earned a title in their sixth grand final appearance.

Both teams traded blows in the grueling five-map nailbiter; Vitality won Breeze 13-10, Heretics eked out Lotus 15-13, Vitality took Pearl 13-7, and Heretics won Split 13-11 and Haven 15-13.

After leveraging their double map ban advantage to take away Fracture and Ascent from their opponents, Vitality selected Breeze for the first map. Heretics took an early lead on their attack, exploiting the A site and an initial ultimate advantage to go up 5-1. That lead later narrowed to 7-5 off the back of Heretics time troubles and strong Vitality retakes.

Heretics held onto the lead for a little longer, extending it to 10-7. Nevertheless, Vitality's attack eventually overwhelmed them as the hornets strung together the last six rounds for a 13-10 win. Chronicle was unstoppable on Viper with a 25/16/6 KDA and 331 ACS.

Lotus was back-and-forth from start to finish. Both teams took their fair share of wild rounds, from a Jamppi ace in round three to a full Heretics eco win in round 14.

Finding themselves in a 12-11 4v2 situation, Vitality looked primed to take the win. However, they overstepped ahead of their own Vyse ultimate in the retake, enabling RieNs and Boo to force overtime. Heretics seized the opportunity and ground out overtime to a 15-13 victory.

As Heretics' recent permaban, Pearl heavily favored Vitality. Vitality immediately demonstrated their comfort on the map, locking out Heretics with a dominant 10-2 defense; Heretics won a pistol and a bonus in the second half to make Vitality sweat, but a timeout from PAL put them back in control as they took the map 13-7. Chronicle and Derke combined for 37 total kills and 20 rounds.

Split was the fourth map. Propelled forward by a pistol win and two clean 1v1 wins in a row from Boo versus Derke, Heretics again held a slight 7-5 lead at halftime. A major eco round win in round 16 and some strong site holds helmed by benjyfishy on Vyse took Heretics to 12-9; Vitality finally broke through the A setup the push Heretics to the limit, but Heretics held strong to close it out in regulation 13-11.

Everything came down to Haven. The entire map was a highlight reel—both squads displayed resilience and individual brilliance, from a koshmaras 1v3 to win the round 2 eco to a Boo 1v2 in round 12 to a ridiculous PROFEK thrifty 1v1 in round 16, but it was Wo0t who stood above everyone else with an unbelievable Jett performance. The Turkish Duelist pulled off a perfectly played 4K in the second pistol and an outrageous knives 4K later in the half to bring Heretics to 11-6.

Vitality, down but not yet out, mounted a steady comeback. Round by round, they punished Heretics' A pushes and won chaotic teamfights on the sites all the way to overtime.

As the threat of another second place finish knocked at Heretics' door, benjyfishy emerged as the hero, pulling off a 1v2 at 13-13 to drag Heretics across the finish line 15-13. Wo0t ended the brawl with 27 kills for a server-high 96 across the series.

With this win, all five Heretics players including koshmaras, who played his first VCT match less than six weeks ago, lift their first VCT trophy. Moving forward, Heretics will take a well-earned break in the form of a bye to the Masters London playoffs, while Vitality, felled at the final hurdle, will have to go through the Swiss stage.