Fnatics and Heretics advanced to face Pacific opposition Paper Rex and Gen.G as the semi-finals were set at EWC 2025. Heretics suffered through a significant delay during the last series of the day, before dispatching BBL Esports handily.
Fnatic will face Paper Rex in the semi-final of Valorant’s EWC tournament, in a replay of the Toronto Masters Grand Final. Paper Rex defeated Fnatic 3-1 in Toronto, to claim the international trophy; however, Kajetan ‘kaajak’ Haremski was not afraid of the prospect of the rematch, citing his team’s tendency not to lose twice in a row to the same opponents.
EMEA clashes
With the four EMEA teams playing each other, Fnatic v Karmine Corp was the first of the EU contests. Fnatic outlasted KC in a 2-0 victory.
While both maps were deeply competitive, Fnatic played a series indicative of their style. Slow, methodical and constrictive, they kept the mental resilience from opening deficits on both halves of Sunet to kill KC’s momentum. Recovering from two map points down, they took the map 14-12.
On their map pick of Ascent, there were no such scares as their Attack half delivered a 6-2 record to close out the map 13-7.
Technical difficulties at EWC delay Team Heretics vs BBL
Benjamin ‘David ‘benjyfishy’ Fish and his Team Heretics roster were made to suffer a tech pause that lasted well over two hours in Riyadh.
Heretic took Ascent 13-3, but Haven saw the stream cut off and lose audio for large portions. The map was suspended at 8-3 to Heretics. At first, the stream reverted to the ‘stream starting’ video, showing the Saudi Arabian landscape, before over half an hour of black screen.
In truth, the game was hardly worth restarting. Heretics simply continued to dismantle BBL Esports. While BBL will hate how their tournament ended, the international tournament was a hugely successful one for the organisation, which has rarely stepped foot out of regional competition.
Defeating Sentinels and DRx to unexpectedly top the group, Heretics showed they still have lessons to learn at international Valorant.
NA hopes ended at EWC by APAC region
NA were the second region eliminated, following China who failed to get a team through the group stage. Sentinels and NRG were both dispatched 2-0 in uncompetitive fashion.
The Sentinel’s Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro complained of sickness following the loss, perhaps contributing to their 13-4 map one loss to Paper Rex. The American roster was outgunned and outmatched from the first moment of the contest.
Whether that is because of illness or simply shows the level they are at, it is a shame Sentinels could not carry on the form that saw them escape the group stage.
NRG will be especially disappointed, having won their group, defeating Heretics 13-4 in the process. Sadly there was little hope against Gen.G to be had following a 13-6 defeat on Sunset that saw Gen.G win all but one round in the second half of play.
Kim ‘t3xture’ Na-ra gleefully crushed NRG’s key, until it broke and scared the Korean player.
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Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.
