Gentle Mates qualifies for the Ascension EMEA playoffs

The group phase of the Ascension EMEA ended last night. Of the ten teams from the European VCLs still in the running, only four remain! And among them, we are delighted to find Gentle Matesthe last French team in the competition, qualified for the play-offs.

Gentle Mates qualified directly for this group stage by winning the VCL France against Mandatory. The team had to play its first matches against European teams that it is not necessarily used to meeting. But the team of Squeezie, Brawks and Gotaga proved more than up to the challenge. Whereas in the VCL they seemed to be a collection of individual talents, the M8s showed their true colours for the first time. a highly coordinated team.

This cohesion enabled them to fly through the matches against Team Falcons (MENA) and Case Esports (VCL Spain). The Gentle Mates hit the ground running at the start of each map, winning 7 of the 8 pistol rounds played, while taking the eco as well as the bonus round afterwards. A great start which their opponents never managed to catch up with. Gentle Mates won their match against the Falcons on 13-9 and 13-7, while they beat Case on 13-5 and 13-11.

Things started to get a little complicated against Fokus and their rivals Apeksboth from the VCL North East. Facing Fokus, the M8s once again hit hard from the start, winning the first 7 rounds of Split before concluding the map with a score of 13-7. But the trend was reversed on Bind, where Fokus managed to finish the first side on 10-2. Despite a fine comeback from the French team on the second side, Fokus ended up winning 13-9. On Lotus, the match was tighter than ever. The teams alternated series of 2-win rounds until extra time, when M8 finally won by a score of 14-12.

With 3 wins in this group stage, Gentle Mates was now assured of reaching the play-offs of Ascension. Fortunately, as their fourth and final match against Apeks highlighted the team's early difficulties.

Apeks won both its maps against Gentle Mates. This team is led by Enzoa French player who has played extensively with HyP before joining Fnatic. He is joined by two other former Fnatic players: Mistic and MAGNUMboth ex-Fnatic, as well as Shadowex-Vitality. On paper, then, Apeks has a very strong claim to the VCT EMEA, and was therefore quite a piece of work for Gentle Mates.

Although the final scores in the match between M8 and Apeks were fairly close, they showed that both sides were on the right track. a certain weakness in various phases of the game. On Haven, Apeks was able to win 10 rounds on defence, then it was M8's turn to win 9 on defence. On Ascent, it was once again the defence that largely dominated the proceedings. So much so that each of the 4 sides seemed to be one-sided.

The loss to Apeks did not prevent the M8s from qualifying for the Ascension play-offs, but seeding would depend on Apeks' final match on day 5. Apeks' win over Team Falcons forced the French to become Seed 2. They will then have to counter Acendthe first Valorant world champions who finished top of Group A. This match will take place Thursday 13 July, from 5pm.