By Lea Maas
It was a great day at VALORANT Champions 2025 for EMEA fans as both Fnatic and Team Heretics secured a spot in the playoffs.
Following today’s matches, T1 and MIBR still have the chance to qualify for the Playoffs by winning next week’s separate decider matches.
Team Heretics Leaves T1 Behind
After defeating VCT Americas giant G2 Esports, Team Heretics continued its Group Stage dominance today. The VCT EMEA fourth seed confidently won its Group D winners’ match against Pacific’s third seed T1 2-0.
The series began on Lotus with a clash of T1’s double-duelist team and Heretics’ double-sentinels composition. After a convincing pistol-round win from T1, Heretics swiftly reclaimed control of the map on its defence. T1 found itself punished and slowed down by powerful utility combinations. Even if the Pacific team could get a plant down, it was frequently overwhelmed by Heretics’ decisive site retakes as the EMEA closed out the half 8-4 up.
In the second half, Heretics won the second pistol round to expand its lead. Moreover, the EMEA roster continued to showcase solid plans which changed depending on the state of the game and enemy win conditions. At map point, T1 made a final stance before ultimately falling to a 2v1 clutch by Enes ‘RieNs’ Ecirli to send Team Heretics 1-0 up (13-10).
RieNs’ teammate, Mert ‘Wo0t’ Alkan, stood out across both halves on Lotus. Gearing his Chamber with Operators and Outlaws, Wo0t achieved a kill-death ratio (KDA) of 23/14/3 and 178 average damage per round (ADR).
On Sunset, T1 had a better start with three successful B bursts. However, once Team Heretics adjusted to its opponent’s pace, the EMEA squad strung together six consecutive rounds. T1’s attack-side calling made site stacking easy for Heretics, as the Pacific team rarely applied pressure on multiple parts of the map or destroyed Heretics’ passive info-utility.
After an even 6-6 half, T1 won its third pistol round of the series. Although the team displayed better proactivity and flexibility on its defence, numerous close rounds concluded in Heretics’ favour. Even consistent multi-frags from Kim ‘Meteor’ Tae-oh could not stop Heretics from stealing its map pick 13-11 and walking away victorious.
Fnatic Secures Comeback Against MIBR
For the second series of the day, EMEA’s third seed Fnatic faced off against VCT Americas’ fourth seed MIBR.
Despite a dominant start from MIBR, it was the UK-based esports organisation that ultimately came out on top 2-1.
Apart from an initial pistol round win, Fnatic was on the back foot for the entirety of Bind. On defence, the EMEA roster lacked cohesion and lost the majority of gun duels. Despite showing some tactical weaknesses and communication errors, MIBR ended its attack 7-5.
This momentum only grew stronger in the second half. MIBR was thoroughly prepared for Fnatic’s mid-rounding tendencies on the attack to deny its site pivots. Meanwhile, Fnatic looked indecisive when it couldn’t draw out any MIBR players or defensive utility. Winning every single defence round, MIBR stole Fnatic’s map pick 12-5.
On MIBR’s map pick, Abyss, both teams struggled on B-site defence. As the teams preferred to play for B retake rather than defending on site, players from both teams were not in a position to gain value from their Cyphers’ on-site kill-trapwires. Similarly, Abyss saw both rosters win attack pistols and convert bonus rounds afterwards.
However, unlike MIBR, Fnatic could bounce back from its shaky 5-7 defence thanks to a near-flawless attack half. Despite the anti-strats MIBR deployed based on Fnatic’s Waylay/Breach combo, which was previously shown on Abyss, the Americas squad could not deny its opponent’s decisive site executes.
Moreover, in-game leader (IGL) Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett had another impressive performance on Abyss. His prowess with the attack Operator helped Fnatic secure the map 13-7.
The series concluded on Haven, where both teams chose the Viper/Omen combo popularised by Pacific’s Gen.G.
Instead of Gen.G’s defence Viper wall for A and B, Fnatic successfully used a C-to-mid wall. Locked out of C and B, MIBR moved its attack attempts over to the A site. However, the team never broke the enemy Killjoy turret on C, allowing Fnatic to easily stack A.
Following MIBR’s rough 4-8 attack half, the Brazilian organisation lost the second Haven pistol round and seemed doomed to go down.
However, it was then Fnatic’s turn to struggle with its site hits and be punished by a lonely C turret. It took heavy ult investment as well as a 1v3 clutch on seven HP by Timofey ‘Chronicle‘ Khromov to close out the map 13-10 and book Fnatic’s place in the playoffs..
The Elimination Matches Begin
As a result of today’s matches, Team Heretics and Fnatic join yesterday’s winners, Paper Rex and NRG, in the Playoffs bracket.
However, T1 and MIBR must win the group’s decider matches next week to remain in the tournament.
T1 will face the winner of G2 Esports vs Dragon Ranger Gaming on September 22nd, while MIBR will play against either Bilibili Gaming or RRQ on the same day.
In the meantime, VALORANT Champions moves into its first round of elimination matches tomorrow.
The day will commence at 2 PM BST with a best-of-three (BO3) series between Group C’s Team Liquid and EDward Gaming. Afterwards, Group A’s XLG Esports and Sentinels will fight for survival at Champions.
All upcoming games at VALORANT Champions will be broadcast via VCT’s official YouTube and Twitch channels.