Team Liquid win the inaugural VCT EMEA Season; deliver Fnatic their first loss in 2023

All players on Team Liquid were firing on all cylinders to defeat the European juggernauts Fnatic, marking the end of Fnatic's flawless run throughout this VALORANT competitive season.

The grand final

At the beginning of the year, both Team Liquid and Fnatic, together with Natus Vincere were touted as EMEA’s big 3. The expectation was that all 3 would impress at LOCK//IN based on their outstanding player quality. However, Team Liquid all but impressed, with Team Secret beating them in dominant fashion, with "communication problems" hampering the team massively. These problems were still present during the opening weeks of the regular season, with them losing to Team Vitality and Fnatic in the opening matchups.

The rise of Team Liquid is beautifully characterised by their performance in the playoffs. From struggling against Team Vitality, to confidently beating Natus Vincere in the next round. After pressure or nerves having dropped due to them qualifying for Tokyo, they played a close match against Fnatic, before defeating FUT Esports 3-0 in the Lower Final, cementing themselves as a top 2 team in EMEA. Still, nobody would’ve expected Team Liquid to beat Fnatic in the Grand Final after the latter’s dominant showing throughout the season.

Despite Team Liquid showing massive improvement throughout playoffs, question marks can and will be placed around Fnatic’s performance, as their final few matches didn’t seem as convincing as they had been at LOCK//IN and during the regular season. In-game leader Jake "Boaster" Howlett and coach Jacob "mini" Harris have been quite open about the complacency the team has faced since the start of their dominant run. These issues have become so apparent that mini even shared to be "happy" the team got punished. A worrying sign just before the first ever Masters event in the current system, as mental issues can be the hardest to iron out in a professional environment.

These problems were most notably displayed by Nikita "Derke" Sirmitev and Timofey "Chronicle" Khromov, who had no trouble top-fragging across multiple series earlier in the season. In the grand final, though, neither found it difficult to simply get going and couldn’t keep up with the firepower Team Liquid put on display. After the game, Chronicle mentioned an illness as the main cause for his poor performance together with it being an all-round unlucky game for him. Emir "Alfajer"Ali Beder, however, seemed to be immune to any kind of pressure, continuing his series of amazing performances from the last couple of weeks.

And while the players on Fnatic were scrambling to put up good performances, everyone on Team Liquid had their moments of brilliance; IGL Igor "Redgar" Vlasov had been struggling during the regular season to perform well himself, but during the Grand Final he was unleashed, getting the most first kills of his team while playing Controller agents. The same can be said for Dom "soulcas" Sulcas, who has, ever since qualifying for Masters Tokyo, been unshackled from any pressure.

Where, during the regular season, Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel was the man putting up some amazing stats, Team Liquid now look like a team where everyone can pull their weight, similarly to how Fnatic have shown during the course of the regular season.

2023 VCT EMEA Champions:

• Igor "Redgar" Vlasov
• Elias "Jamppi" Olkkonen
• Ayaz "nAts" Akhmetshin
• Saif "Sayf" Jibraeel
• Dom "soulcas" Sulcas
• Emil "eMIL" Sandgren

EMEA’s chances at Masters Tokyo

Even though Fnatic will be devastated to not have won the regional title, they are still reaping the rewards of their VCT LOCK//IN-win. Due to their win over LOUD at the start of the year, 2 EMEA teams are seeded directly into the playoffs at VCT Masters Tokyo, of which the advantage cannot be understated. Both Team Liquid and Fnatic can already start preparing for the final stages of the tournament, while most other teams have to first worry about making it out of the group stage. Not only do they have an advantage at Masters Tokyo itself, they also stand a very good chance of making Champions, due to them starting later in the tournament than their European compatriots, FUT Esports and Natus Vincere. The three best placed EMEA teams at Masters Tokyo will earn a spot at Champions in Los Angeles, with the fourth-placed team having to go through the Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ).

FUT Esports and Natus Vincere, the third and fourth seed respectively, thus have to play through the group stage at Masters Tokyo. When it comes to NAVI, this won’t frighten them too much, as the core of that team (ex-FunPlus Phoenix) won Masters Copenhagen after starting in the group stage and being on the brink of elimination several times. FUT Esports, however, will need to come prepared to avoid an early exit, with the competition even stronger than they have ever faced. Having said that, their convincing series-win over NAVI and map-win against Fnatic in the playoffs should give them enough confidence to closely match up with the best in the world.

Looking forward towards VALORANT LCQ

Even though most fans will be looking forward to Masters Tokyo, a majority of EMEA teams is already preparing for LCQ, their only qualification route towards Champions in Los Angeles at the end of the year. Both Team Vitality and Giants Gaming will be gutted to not have made Masters Tokyo, but will be confident they can beat most other teams competing with them at LCQ. Their chances will be even bigger if an EMEA team takes home the title in Tokyo, as that then gives their region an extra spot at Champions, meaning two teams advance from LCQ. It is no question as to what teams the other EMEA teams will be rooting for in Tokyo.