ACEND has risen to the occasion. the team overcame Team Heretics in a stellar five-map series to win VCT EU Masters One. The international roster has denied the First Strike champions a chance to repeat and cemented its own status as the hottest team in Europe.
The VCT EU Masters final between Team Heretics and ACEND was one of the best series ever seen. Image via Riot Games.
The series was an outstanding back-and-forth affair, with each team taking both of their map picks to set up a final fifth map. On map four, Icebox, ACEND found itself down 9-6 facing elimination. But it won six of the next nine rounds to force overtime, where they prevailed in just two rounds. ACEND produced heroic play after heroic play on map five, Ascent. The team took a 9-3 halftime lead after their attack side. Dominant performances from Mehmet Yağız “cNed” İpek and Santeri “BONECOLD” Sassi led the way for ACEND. They held off a Heretics comeback 13-11.
Team Heretics made terrific use of its six-man roster throughout the entire finals. It swapped out a different player on each of the five maps. Not known for frequenting a double-duelist composition, the team broke it out twice in the series, utilizing the Reyna-Raze combo on both Split and Icebox. Their duelist and Reyna main Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas had another standout performance across the series. He lead in combat score for his team across all five maps.
The grand finals was a breakout showcase for ACEND’s Jett main cNed, who was outstanding the entire series. A dominant Jett has been a key theme in North America, and we finally got to see it shown off in Europe. ACEND entered Masters after just forming its new organization after ditching the Raise Your Edge banner after qualifying via Challengers.
Champions and VCT Points
With only two spots available at Masters 2 for the EMEA region (Europe, Turkey, CIS combined), earning these VCT points are pivotal towards qualification to Champions. In the first and second place, ACEND and Team Heretics earn 100 and 70 VCT points, respectively. The semifinalists Guild and FunPlus Phoenix each earn 45. In 5th/6th place, NiP and DfuseTeam each earn 20, and Ballista and Alliance each earn 10.
