VCT 2024 EMEA Kickoff Predictions: Favorites, Dark Horses & Early Exits

Here are our VCT 2024 EMEA Kickoff predictions, guessing the winners, favorites and more

The 2024 EMEA Kickoff is the second regional league event since the Valorant franchise. This time, 11 teams will be competing for spots in Masters Madrid and Champions points.

Most teams have undergone significant roster changes, while only a few have kept their squad intact. As a result, it’s only natural to expect a power shift. With that being said, let’s predict the favorites, underdogs and early exits of the EMEA Kickoff.

VCT 2024 EMEA Kickoff Predictions: Winner

While we love to make bold predictions on the side of the underdogs, we are going with the safest pick by predicting FNATIC to dominate this event.

FNATIC

• Timofey “Chronicle” Khromov
• Jake “Boaster” Howlett
• Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev
• Leo “Leo” Jannesson
• Emir “Alfajer” Beder
• Chris “Elmabuddy” Tebbit (Head Coach)

The most obvious pick for the winner of the EMEA League would be FNATIC. Looking back at their 2023 season, there's no doubt that FNATIC was the most consistent team in the world. They lifted trophies at LOCK//IN and Masters Tokyo and had the longest win streak out of any other teams. Winning two out of three global VCT events and showing an incredible run in the EMEA League landed FNATIC on our best team of 2023 list.

As expected, the kings of EMEA did not bring any change to their roster, and we will be seeing the same starting five. However, world-class coach Jacob “mini” Harris stepped down from the head coach position to now assistant coach.

FNATIC having the highest seed in the Kickoff means they will only need to have three consecutive victories to win the league and we have seen them enjoy win streaks that were much longer in 2023.

VCT 2024 EMEA Kickoff Predictions: Other Favorites

Other than FNATIC, these two are our favorites to secure the top spots of the event:

NAVI

• Kyrylo “ANGE1” Karasov
• Andrey “Shao” Kiprsky
• Pontus “Zyppan” Eek
• Dmitry “SUYGETSU” Ilyushin
• Ardis “ardiis” Svarenieks
• Erik “d00mbr0s” Sandgren (Head coach)

While NAVI faced disappointing losses in international events, they had a dominating performance in the EMEA League last year with Mehmet “cNed” Yağız İpek as their Duelist player. For 2024, the former Copenhagen-winning FPX core has returned, with ardiis coming back to the team from his journey with North America’s NRG.

While cNed was an exceptional player for the European squad, having an old member that you won Masters with has the possibility to increase NAVI’s morale and performance. We are expecting this squad to secure one of the top three spots, even qualifying themselves for the upcoming Masters.

FUT Esports

• Furkan “MrFaliN” Yeğen
• Eray “yetujey” Budak
• Ata “AtaKaptan” Tan
• Mehmet “cNed” Yağız İpek
• Doğukan “qRaxs” Balaban
• Eray “Gais” Sarikaya (Head coach)

The Turkish squad had an impressive performance last year, securing spots in both Masters and Champions in their first year of competing alongside tier 1 teams. This year, they have brought one of the best Turkish players in the world to their roster. With cNed, the performance of this squad is expected to improve.

VCT 2024 EMEA Kickoff Predictions: Dark Horses

While the expectations will be low for this team, we think they have the potential to be great and bring huge upsets in the Kickoff:

Gentle Mates

• Beyazıt “beyAz” Körpe
• Logan “logaN” Corti
• Nathan “nataNk” Bocqueho
• Jonathan “TakaS” Paupard
• Wailers “Wailers” Locart
• Kévin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans (Head Coach)

Gentle Mates was one of the most consistent teams in the French T2 scene, and they have the potential to not only go past the current French team in the franchised league, but also defeat some of the other top names in tier 1.

Since this roster is coming from Ascension, expectations will be low on them. That being said, this team’s continuous effort in the Challengers League throughout all of last year is likely to come to fruition in 2024.

VCT 2024 EMEA Kickoff Predictions: Early Exits

These are the teams we are expecting to get eliminated early from the Group Stage of the Kickoff:

Karmine Corp

• Martin “MAGNUM” Penkov
• Tomás “tomaszy” Machado
• Marshall “N4RRATE” Massey
• Martin “marteen” Pátek
• Ryad “sh1n” Ensaad
• Andrey “ENGH” Sholokhov (Head coach)

Karmine Corp’s poor performance made them a laughingstock in 2023, as even with talented members like Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom and Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom, they faced disappointing results. Going into 2023, only sh1n from their past roster remains, and the team is moving forward with four new members, one of them being N4RRATE from North American Challengers.

While the addition of new members seems promising for KC’s 2024 season, we don’t see them making it out of the Group Stage.

Team Heretics

• Ričardas “Boo” Lukaševičius
• Dominykas “MiniBoo” Lukaševičius
• Mert “Wo0t” Alkan
• Enes “RieNs” Ecirli
• Benjy “benjyfishy” David Fish
• Patryk “paTiTek” Fabrowski (sub)
• Neil “neilzinho” Finlay (Head coach)

While the addition of Óscar “mixwell” Cañellas and Wassim “keloqz” Cista was expected to provide wonderful results, Team Heretics’ 2023 was full of disappointment. The roster has been fully transformed, for the most part, with various new members. However, the new players lack the experience of competing in tier 1, and it will be hard for them to go past the Group Stage in the EMEA League.

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