The defending VCT EMEA Kickoff champion Karmine Corp will not be making it to Masters Bangkok as the team has been eliminated in the Lower Bracket Round 1.
The French organisation lost to GIANTX in a close 2-1 series. Meanwhile, NAVI was eliminated from the competition by Fnatic, with the last map of the three-game series entering overtime.
The winners have now advanced to Lower Bracket Round 2, where both teams will be looking to avoid elimination once again on January 30th.
Despite struggling at the beginning, GIANTX managed to push the first map, Bind, to overtime. Nevertheless, Karmine Corp still snatched the map away by putting 14-12 on the board.
The second game saw GIANTX secure a comfortable 13-8 win on Lotus, forcing the series to go to the final map, Fracture.
GIANTX dominated in the first half as the scoreline reached 8-4 in its favour; however, the French organisation didn’t just give up easily as Karmine Corp won five back-to-back rounds in the second half to take the lead. Still, GIANTX won five of the next six rounds to close the map by 13-10 and the series by 2-1.
“I feel really happy because I think we showed how we play in scrims for the first time. I think we showed that we have a lot of potential and value in our team,” said GIANTX player Tomás ‘tomaszy’ Machado on VALORANT’s official broadcast.
He further expressed his feelings on defeating Karmine Corp, his former team. “I will not lie, of course I’m happy to beat KC because they didn’t want me for next season and of course it means a lot for me. But I don’t really care because when I was playing, I was not thinking about that.”
In the other series, Fnatic started strong, winning the opening map, Pearl by 13-9, but NAVI responded by dominating 13-8 on Fracture.
In the climax, Haven reached overtime even though NAVI looked comfortable in the first half. However, Fnatic bounced back and took the map away by 15-13.
GIANTX and Fnatic still have a long road ahead, as only the top two teams from EMEA Kickoff will qualify for VALORANT Masters Bangkok.
