Fnatic took down Vitality to reassert their VCT EMEA supremacy, winning 2-0 in Week 2 of EMEA Stage 1 groups and moving to a 2-0 record.
Elsewhere, Team Heretics fell to Team Liquid in Martynas ‘Koshmaras’ Namikas’s Tier 1 debut, following the sudden benching of Berkcan ‘ComeBack’ Şentürk.
Boaster gets the best of his former Fnatic teammates
The matchup was highly anticipated, with Europe’s most dominant force in Fnatic taking on their departed star Timofey ‘Chronicle’ Khromov. The two had also met in Kickoff, with Fnatic taking the win, but this time was different.
The match was effectively the first time this year that both teams had met with their full rosters, as Vitality had to wait for their academy graduate Ștefan ‘Sayonara’ Mîtcu to reach his 18th birthday.
That happened in the offseason, allowing for the two rosters to clash on even terms, but again it was Fnatic who got the best of their regional rivals.
Unusually, Jake ‘Boaster’ Howlett became the man of the hour in the overall tight-fought contest. In such matches, it is the clutch fact that so often becomes the determining factor, something Fnatic’s IGL delivered in spades.
Boaster provided high impact on Split, joining Emir ‘Alfajer’ Beder as the highest-rated player on the map in the 13-11 victory, before a memorable Breeze also saw a highlight for the veteran IGL.
The Brit took a 1v2 postplant clutch against his former teammates Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev and Chronicle, outbraining Chronicle with an unexpected stick of the spike.
The back-and-forth affair continued to a 13-10 conclusion in Fnatic’s favour, as the recently re-signed Kajetan ‘kaajak’ Haremski starred in the victory.
Despite losing both maps, Chronicle showed his overall class in the series, delivering a 41/31/15 KDA in the series, top-fragging on the server.
Heretics lose on Koshmaras VCT EMEA debut
For Team Heretics, it was a third consecutive loss in VCT, bridging their final defeat at VCT Kickoff and their Week 1 Stage 1 loss to NAVI, which prompted the immediate roster change.
The extremely sudden change of personnel was described by Neil ‘neilzinho’ Finlay as a “fundamental disagreement after the NAVI game in how we see the game as a team and the fundamentals that have been established in this team from day one.” Adding, “He does not fit in this roster.”
ComeBack agreed with the verdict in his own post regarding the departure, stating, “Our playstyles and approaches to the game were complete opposites, and at this point, parting ways was the right decision for both sides.” (translated)
The result was Koshmaras’ immediate move to Team Heretics. The Lithuanian shares a national link with his new IGL, Ričardas ‘Boo’ Lukaševičius, but more importantly, is understood to be more in line with Heretics’ team needs.
With only a few days of practice, Heretics managed to run Liquid relatively close on their own map pick of Pearl 13-10 before Liquid took their own pick of Bind 13-8.
While some grace will be given to Heretics as they attempt to integrate Koshmaras, fans will not want to see the roster sacrifice the whole season. The roster is still, at its core, the ambitious project that won EWC 2025 and finished runners-up at Champions 2024.
Heretics move to 0-2 in Group A with FUT, Gentle Mates, and Karmine Korp presenting opportunities for the roster to recover in EMEA Stage 1.
Can Heretics turn their season around? Discuss that on our Discord!
For more Valorant news, see the details of VCT’s 2027 revamp.
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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