On May 17, the two best teams in EMEA, Fnatic and NAVI, fought to see who would get the top seed in their VCT region. Fnatic, the LOCK//IN champions, came into the series undefeated, and they kept it that way with a 2-0 win. NAVI was looking to get revenge on the team who eliminated them from the pre-season tournament, but they couldn’t get over the high hurdle that is Fnatic.
This puts Fnatic at a perfect 9-0, while NAVI end the regular season with a record of 7-2. Since Fnatic won, the positioning at the top of the table remains the same, with Fnatic as the top seed and NAVI in second.
Starting off on Lotus, the agent select was surprisingly diverse, with nine different agents chosen.
The first half showed just how close this series could be. Both Fnatic and NAVI exchanged rounds, ending at the half tied 6-6. Yet it was the duelist diff that led to the map victory for Fnatic, who ended up winning the map by a score of 12-9. Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev on Raze was tied in the lobby for most kills at 21, while his counterpart on NAVI, Mehmet “cNed” İpek on Jett, ended the map with only 6 kills.
Related: Only one VALORANT team remains undefeated in VCT, but their greatest test is yet to come
Split started with Fnatic taking the lead, unlike Lotus where NAVI got the first three rounds in a row. The Yoru pick from NAVI’s Kyrylo “ANGE1” Karasjov came back to many fans enjoyment, but Fnatic were prepared for it. As the first half of the map went on, Emir “Alfajer” Beder on Cypher was keeping sites on lockdown on the defense side, dealing with any schemes Ange1 and his Yoru were planning using his trips and camera to their full usage.
Fnatic entered the half up 8-4, and NAVI needed to show a different side of themselves on the attack side to make a comeback in this map and series. A won pistol on the attack side put NAVI down six rounds, and it was too big of a hill to climb. The final score was 13-8, and Fnatic put another 2-0 over NAVI on their 2023 match history.
Fnatic and NAVI will have to wait for the regional playoffs to see who they match up against, and if they will have a chance to face each other again.
