Team Liquid and FUT Esports To Miss Masters Madrid

Household names in the EMEA scene, FUT Esports and Team Liquid, have been eliminated from the VCT Kickoff tournament. The two teams no longer have a chance to qualify for the first big international event, VCT Masters Madrid. 

cNed Goes Missing When Needed

After being dropped from the star-studded Natus Vincere roster, cNed, one of the most-known Duelists in the world, joined FUT to play with fellow countrymen. Overall, the Turkish roster had some notable names and seemed solid on paper.

After losing to Team Heretics in a shock upset, FUT had to battle through the lower bracket, taking out GIANTX in a close series. The Turks were tasked to face Karmine Corp for a spot in the Play-ins. Coming into this matchup, FUT didn’t look too great, but were still favored to win.

Right off the bat, FUT’s map pick of Lotus became one of the most entertaining matches of the event. The two teams could not be separated. Both halves went 6-6 and the game was sent into overtime. After both teams traded Attacker-side rounds, the match required seven overtimes before Karmine Corp finally closed the map 20-18.

It was a very close game with 38 rounds played, but cNed, who is supposed to be FUT’s star player, could only manage 18 kills and had 32 deaths on Raze. It’s not even an assumption that the world champion underperformed. Getting two or three more kills could have been the determining factor for FUT to win the map. 

Fortunately, FUT could mentally reset and sweep KC’s map pick of Bind 13-4 after lights-out performances from qRaxs and AtaKaptan. Though he wasn’t really needed, cNed finished the game as the bottom-fragger for the second time this series.

In the decisive third map, Sunset, cNed finally woke up and displayed the performance everyone expected from a player of his calibre. Despite getting 22 kills, cNed’s efforts were not enough to stop Karmine Corp from taking the map 13-7 and the series alongside it. Still, if cNed joined the server earlier, it should have been a 2-0 victory for FUT.

With this loss, FUT Esports was eliminated from VCT Kickoff, while Karmine Corp reached the Play-ins stage.

This defeat against Karmine Corp means that our journey at EMEA Kickoff 2024 ends early.

We’d like to thank our players for their proud performance, and all our fans for their endless support in the venue, watch party or at home.

FUT will come back stronger! 🫡#FUTWIN |… pic.twitter.com/q6qB0fly9x

— FUT Esports (@FUTesportsgg) February 25, 2024

Team Liquid Drop The Ball

The second-best EMEA team of 2023 decided to do a complete overhaul of their Valorant roster, swapping three players. With Jamppi and nAts being the two players to survive the purge, ex-Fnatic players Enzo and Mistic were brought in. The final piece of the puzzle was Keiko, a promising talent.

Team Liquid’s new roster debuted successfully after a 2-0 victory against KOI. However, it wasn’t the cleanest of victories, as the new recruit Keiko had to immensely overperform to push Team Liquid past the first hurdle. 

The boys in blue were tasked with real opponents, Natus Vincere, in the winner’s match. With a subpar performance in their previous match, Team Liquid was not expected to win the series against Na’Vi, and the results proved it. Team Liquid went down 0-2 after consecutive 13-7 losses. As a result, Team Liquid was set for a rematch against KOI for the final Play-in spot. 

Team Liquid looked like they were in good shape after taking an 11-9 lead on KOI’s map choice of Sunset. However, KOI managed to string four rounds in a row to steal the map with a 13-11 victory. On Sunset, veteran nAts finished the game with 7 kills.

The second map, Icebox, was an incredibly back-and-forth display from both teams. Eventually, the map went into overtime where Team Liquid could clinch the win to tie the series. Keiko played a crucial part in the victory, with 7 first bloods on his Jett.

Unfortunately, Team Liquid’s run ended in the final map, Split. KOI took a massive 10-5 lead after winning the second pistol round, but Liquid could post 5 straight after a solid defense. However their comeback efforts were for naught, as KOI could win the final three rounds required to eliminate Team Liquid from the Kickoff tournament.

After winning the EMEA regional league in 2023 over Fnatic, arguably the best team of the year, Team Liquid made a Group Stage exit, which should be unacceptable for such a storied organization.

1-2 VS KOI

Sorry, tried so hard and so disappointing.
Need to work harder and be prepared for the league.

Hurts so much to not be able to go spain and first masters.

See you guys soon and thank you a lot everyone for support, means a lot#LetsGoLiquid

— Liquid Jamppi 🇫🇮 (@Jamppi_) February 25, 2024

The guys will be sent back to the drawing board and have ample time to prepare for the next tournament.

Header: Team Liquid