M3C advances to playoffs despite loss to Team Liquid

M3 Champions vs. Team Liquid

This match was of great importance in the context of upcoming rivalries. If M3 Champions won this game, they would be assured of promotion from the second place, but defeat meant that the fate of their promotion would depend on the outcome of the BIG vs. BBL Esports match. In the role of favorites M3C could put the fact that in the last two games the Russian team was better and defeated their rival twice. This match, however, had a different scenario. The game started on Icebox, where both teams felt quite comfortable so far. The beginning of this match was really evenly matched, as M3 Champions players started with winning the pistol round, but quickly Team Liquid players responded in the second round. Despite the Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin' very good form, however, M3C ultimately failed to make a close call on their rival. A huge difference in this match was the brilliant form of Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen, who as Chamber had 25 eliminations, including 8 first bloods. On the other hand in M3 Champions as Chamber played Nikita "d3ffo" Sudakov, who played very average, having only 10 eliminations, of which he gained 3 first bloods, however 4 times he gave up his life first.

Guild Esports vs. Natus Vincere

The match between Natus Vincere and Guild Esports was of little importance, as Guild, regardless of Team Liquid's win against M3 Champions, were assured of advancing to the playoffs from first place, as the team led by Jose Luis "koldamenta" Aranguren proved to be better than SAdil "ScreaM" Benrlitom in the third round of the VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 2 - Challengers - Main Event. Natus Vincere, on the other hand, also had no chance of making the playoffs, so this was just a game to end the split in good spirits, and for Guild it was just a warm-up for the knockout stage. The first map in this game was Icebox, which was a Guild pick. The European team decided to make some experiments in their draft, and the biggest surprise was Leo "Leo" Jannesson, who decided to pick Reyna, at the expense of Sova. The first half of this clash was really tight, as it ended with Guild leading by 7-5, but after the change of sides Natus Vincere didn't lose a single round, which finally translated to NAVI's victory on Icebox by the score of 13-7 on the map chosen by the opponent.

The second map was Breeze, which historically is a very good map for their rivals, making it possibly a bit of a surprise. Guild, identical to Icebox ended the first half with a 7-5 lead and again Natus Vincere was a completely different team after the change of sides and they won five rounds in a row. This time, however, Nikita "trexx" Cherednichenko and Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel in particular decided to take matters into their own hands. The Russian and Swedish duo was effective enough to turn the game around and eventually Guild Esports won Breeze by a score of 13-11. The decisive map in this game was Haven, where Guild played really well from the very beginning and the first half ended with them leading 8-4. The pistol round after the switch was also won by Guild players, but then NAVI woke up. Mostly thanks to Kirill "Cloud" Nehozhin, who played an amazing map. The match became very close, but no one on Haven was able to match the Russian, who on the third map of the match had 30 eliminations, including 5 first bloods, and his ACS was 380. In the end NAVI won the third map by the score of 13-11, and the whole game by the score of 2-1.

VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 2 - Challengers - Main Event

Guild Esports

1

X

2

Natus Vincere

Group B, Best of 3 - June 11, 2022 - 2:00PM

7

Icebox

13

13

Breeze

11

11

Haven

13

Guild Esports

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Sayf

1.09

219

58/39/10

+19

1.49

76.1%

151.5

28%

45%

5

6

koldamenta

1.02

201

45/47/27

-2

0.96

83.6%

124.1

24%

83%

5

1

trexx

1.02

223

48/52/18

-4

0.92

70.6%

144.0

26%

75%

15

5

Leo

0.92

203

44/52/24

-8

0.85

73.3%

128.6

13%

35%

6

11

Russ

0.72

126

32/51/28

-19

0.63

60.0%

80.5

24%

29%

4

10

Natus Vincere

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

Cloud

1.24

259

59/51/22

+8

1.16

76.7%

177.4

30%

60%

12

8

Duno

1.23

247

54/42/28

+12

1.29

82.2%

165.0

22%

67%

6

3

zeddy

1.10

223

52/48/24

+4

1.08

79.2%

152.3

25%

50%

5

5

7ssk7

0.82

178

43/44/9

-1

0.98

70.3%

117.0

23%

41%

9

13

dinkzj

0.75

134

33/42/21

-9

0.79

63.3%

92.9

25%

14%

1

6

BIG vs. BBL Esports

The match between BIG and BBL Esports was a very important one, as until the last game of the group stage it was uncertain whether BIG or M3 Champions would ultimately advance to the playoffs. Everything was in the hands of the German team, if they would win this game, they would advance. If the Turkish team won, then M3C would advance. This very important game started on Ascent, which was BIG's choice. A week before on the same map they managed to beat M3 Champions, and before this match BBL lost this map twice, so we could put the team led by Niels "luckeRRR" Jasiek as a favorite. Such predictions were completely wrong, as BBL started very well in this map with four rounds in a row. The second half was completely dominated by the Turks, who didn't lose a single round, which ultimately translated into a fairly easy victory for BBL Esports with the result of 13-6 on their rival's map. This meant that BIG was in a poor position in this match, and advancing to the playoffs was becoming an increasingly difficult challenge.

On Haven, which was the second map in this match, BBL started almost identically to Ascent by winning four rounds in a row. This time BIG put up more resistance, and after those few lost rounds they started to play much better and eventually won the first half by the score of 7-5. Despite numerous first bloods scored by BIG players, in the later stages of the round they were unable to exploit their advantage, which BBL Esports took advantage of brilliantly. With great play from Ali Osman "AsLanM4shadoW" Balta and Hüseyin "aimDLL" Kabişteke, the Turkish team won the self-selected map by a score of 13-10 and the game ended 2-0. This meant that for BIG it was the end of their adventure in the VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 2 - Challengers - Main Event and they occupied the last place in Group B, while BBL moved up to fourth thanks to this victory. As a result of this result, M3 Champions will advance to the playoffs from the third place from group B, where they will face Acend and the winner of this match will face Guild Esports. The match between the VCT 2021 - Stage 3 - Masters Berlin - Playoffs winners and the World Champions will take place on June 17.

VCT 2022 - EMEA - Stage 2 - Challengers - Main Event

BBL Esports

2

X

0

BIG

Group B, Best of 3 - June 12, 2022 - 2:00PM

13

Ascent

6

13

Haven

10

BBL Esports

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

AsLanM4shadoW

1.55

299

46/27/14

+19

1.70

72.5%

193.5

36%

30%

3

7

aimDLL

1.07

193

32/24/12

+8

1.33

74.3%

127.1

32%

33%

2

4

pAura

1.00

200

30/22/11

+8

1.36

83.9%

127.4

26%

83%

5

1

TURKO

0.94

198

29/25/10

+4

1.16

87.0%

123.7

44%

25%

1

3

QutionerX

0.79

189

25/34/12

-9

0.74

76.4%

125.4

20%

44%

7

9

BIG

player

Rating

ACS

K/D/A

+/-

K/D

KAST

ADR

HS%

FBSR

FB

FD

luckeRRR

1.05

205

28/33/18

-5

0.85

76.4%

134.6

31%

71%

5

2

Obnoks

0.97

206

31/32/2

-1

0.97

62.5%

145.4

33%

75%

3

1

AslaN

0.95

180

25/33/16

-8

0.76

69.5%

111.6

38%

80%

4

1

musashi

0.85

187

25/33/11

-8

0.76

71.2%

124.3

27%

42%

5

7

Twisten

0.70

168

23/31/6

-8

0.74

68.1%

109.0

26%

50%

7

7