Courtesy of user Ok-Pie4219 (source)
Hey, since there are no posts at all about EMEA Masters on this Subreddit I figured out I would write a bit about it and introduce the Format and Groups aswell as giving a short recap for Day Number 1.
The Format
The 2025 EMEA Masters Spring takes place in a GSL Group Stage Format. Meaning 4 Teams Face Up in a Double Elimination Format with the Top 2 Qualifying and Grand Final not being played, since both would be qualified for the Knockout. Group Stage are B03 Fearless.
That means the 32 Qualified Teams are put in 8 Groups of 4.
Each Team is assigned a one of 4 Pots based on how they Placed in their region aswell as how the region placed in previous years. Each group consists of one team from Each Pot playing Double Elimination.
The 16 Advancing Teams are then put in a Single Elimination Best of Five Fearless Draft Gauntlet based on where they got out of Groups.
The Groups
The Groups were drawn after the NLC Final and resulted in the following groups.
Group A:
- Collossal Gaming (Italy #1,) vs Fog Esports (Arabia #2)
- Karmine Corp Blue (France #2) vs ULF Esports (Turkey #3).
Group B:
- Boostgate Esports (Turkey #2) vs Gamespace Mediterran College (Greece #2)
- Crvena Zvezda (Balkan #1) vs Gentle Mates (France #3)
Group C:
- Geekay Esports (Arabian #1) vs Gamblers Esports (Italian #3)
- Zennit (Benelux #1) vs NORD Esports (NLC #2)
Group D:
- CGN (Germany #1) vs MCON (Benelux #2)
- Flame Hard (Portugal #1) vs ESUBA (Czechia/Slovakia #2)
Group E:
- BK ROG (France #1) vs For the Win (Portugal #2)
- BIG (Germany #2) vs Heretics Academy (Spain #3)
Group F:
- FC Barcelona (Spain #1) vs Axolotl Esports (Italy #2)
- Los Ratones (NLC #1) vs Kaufland Hangry Knights (Germany #3)
Group G:
- Team Phantasma (Greece #1) vs GnG Amazigh (Arabian #3)
- Zero Tenacity (Poland #1) vs Misa (Turkish #2)
Group H:
- Nightbirds (Slovakia/Czechia #1) vs Partizan (Balkan #2)
- Giant X Academy (Spain #2) vs StormMedia (Poland #2)
Now out of these Groups the Groups of Deaths are Group E and Group F while the Group of Lifes are Group H and Group D. With the first Day of Action featuring Round 1 of Group A, D, E and H this is how it went down.
Group A:
Group A started with the match between KC Blue and ULF Esports which is a match between two Teams in the BIG 4 but Karmince Corp arent the Kings of Europe for nothing and were able to dispatch ULF Esports with former Major Region players Gori and Chasy in two clean 32 Minute Victorys. In the later match Italians Hope Collosal Gaming took on the favorites of FOG Esports from Arabia and this one started if closer with Game 1 being a 38 Minute fest of plays that Collosal was able to take home.
With an Upset looming the Arabian Team with LEC Legend Zanzarah showed their resilience and came back in the series only dropping two kills in an absolute stomp of 28 Minutes before taking Game 3 even faster in just 25 Minutes. That means FOG Esports will face KC Blue in the Advancement match while Collosal will play ULF Esports in the Elimination match.
Group D:
While Group A had clear favorites in each of those two matches, the first match of Group D was a lot harder to call as Flame Hard from portugal took on ESuba from Czechia. Flame Hard managed to take the first game in 29 Minutes but Esuba responding in 31 Minutes with the second Game. The deciding Game of the series was an absolute thriller with the Portuguese being in the lead for a lot of it. But in the end Esuba managed to reclaim the Gold Lead while the nexus Turrets where falling winning a 35 Minute Battle to secure their Game in the Advancement Match,
There they will face the German #1 Team CGN around Streamer and multiple Server #1 Jungler Agurin, who showed no problems dispatching the Benelux Team MCON choosing a slower style than in the German finals but still ending their games in under 30 minutes with over 15k Gold ahead.
MCON and Flame Hard will therefore fight for elimination.
Group E:
The Match of the day was the first match in Group E between BIG from Germany and Los Heretics from Spain with both teams being multiple times EMEA Masters participants aswell as both not meeting expectations at the last EMEA MAsters aswell as their own regions. Considering the best French Team also in their group this was a series that could define their tournament and BIG wasted no time in Game 1 being dominant from start to the end, despite some good defending of Heretics.
The second Game started a lot closer with Heretics establishing a 3,5K Gold Lead. However BIG strenghts of coordinated Team fighting showed as they quickly secured two picks on RIN and Kaiser before taking baron and reclaiming the lead. From there it only took a single engage as ex LEC Player Limit found the Rakan Engage onto both of Heretics carried. Not missing a beat the followup from Berlin was great and in an instant the carries were deleted and 4 players dead. BIG manages to use these death timers to push all the way from outer to nexus turrets winning game number 2 and the series.
Seriously rewatching this Game on a highlight channel is something I can only reccomend, that last teamfight was amazing from BIG.
The second series of the day also had some Drama as the Portuguese For the Win Esports were late for their match vs BK ROG from France causing them to forfeit Game 1 and losing their bans for Game 2. The French around ex LEC Players Szygenda and Doss took full advantage of this winning in under 28 Minutes, dropping only two kills to face BIG. mean For the Win needs to try to recover in the elimination match vs Los Heretics who are burning to get a series win under their belt.
Group H:
I previously mentioned that people would see Group H as the Group of Life, the teams will probably disagree as both series became absolute bloodbaths. Nightbirds from Slovakia took Game 1 vs Partizan Sangal in 34 Minutes but got reverse swept in two grueling 40 minute matches.
Meanwhile if GIANT X was expecting an easy match against Polish Second Seed StormMedia they would soon realise they were mistaken as the Poles Took Game 1 Dominating the rift. Unfortunately the reverse sweep trend would continue in group H as a close Game 2 was won by the Spaniards.
The Final Game of the day would be a weird one as at 24 Minutes both teams were dead even when StormMedias Toplaner frajgo teleported into the midlane. The ensuring skirmish was won by the superior teamfighting composition of Giant X who with their Jinx were able to take down three and run down the middle lane taking down the Nexus in just 25 Minutes with only a 4K Gold Lead.
Therefore the favorites got out with a scare while the Polish Team definetely showed that they want to get that second seed.
GiantX Pride vs Partizan in the Advancement Match and Nightbirds vs Storm Media in the Elimination Match.
Tomorrow the Group Stage will resume with the remaining 4 Groups playing out. I am sure we will see the Los Ratones Post Match Threads on the frontpage but other than that the most exciting Games will be the ones in Group G especially Team Phantasma vs GnG Amazigh. This is just 4fun and turned out a bit longer than expected because I am sad that theres no talk about this tournament.
