Gentle Mates and BBL Esports qualify for 2026 VCT EMEA Kickoff Upper Final

Gentle Mates and BBL Esports have qualified for the 2026 VCT EMEA Kickoff Upper Bracket Finals after securing semi-final victories earlier today (January 29th).

As a result, both teams are just one series away from qualifying for the first VCT global event of the season, VALORANT Masters Santiago.

Gentle Mates’ revamped roster has completely turned the organisation’s fortune around, as it hasn’t lost even a single map so far at VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026. 

The team started with a clean 4-0 on Abyss before NAVI fought back to close the gap to 3-4. However, M8 refused to provide the Ukrainian organisation with many opportunities for the rest of the map, comfortably closing out game one with a 13-7 victory.

The story of the second map, Bind, was also pretty similar. NAVI fell seven rounds behind as the scoreline hit 8-1 in the opponent’s favour. Although NAVI managed to win five rounds back-to-back, the French side stole momentum back to secure the map 13-9 and the series 2-0.

Gentle Mates’ Martin ‘marteen’ Pátekand and Patrik ‘Minny’ Hušekwere were the standout players, with both achieving a 1.36 rating, along with the KDAs of 46/30/11 and 36/22/18, respectively.

On the opening map, Haven, the Turkish side dominated from the start as it put 4-0 on the board. However, Team Vitality snatched away the lead with five consecutive round wins. Whilst the first half ended evenly with a 6-6 scoreline, BBL’s aggression in the second half proved to be deadly. In the end, the young BBL roster concluded the map with a 13-9 win.

Map two, Abyss, was full of nail-biting rounds. Still, BBL narrowly came out on top almost every time, thanks to a bunch of insane clutches from its players. Team Vitality failed to take the lead even once during the second map, despite trying to put up a fight in the second half. Ultimately, BBL Esports won Abyss 13-8 and the series 2-0, pulling off what some would consider an unlikely sweep.

Gentle Mates and BBL Esports will meet on February 13th to compete for the first EMEA seed at Masters Santiago. That match, alongside every other Kickoff clash, will be streamed live on VCT EMEA’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.