Things haven’t been smooth sailing for the VCT EMEA juggernauts: NAVI And Fnatic. Now they face off against each other with elimination on the line. Which team will live another day, and which team will be eliminated? Let’s find out in our prediction.
Fnatic vs NAVI – VCT EMEA Kickoff 2025 Preview
Image Credits: Riot Games
If there was one team known to be the best in the VALORANT Champions Tour (VCT) since its first season, it’s Fnatic. The organization has won multiple international VALORANT tournaments, such as the VCT LOCK//In Sau Paulo in 2023 and the VCT Masters Tokyo in 2023.
Since then, however, the team has gone on a downward spiral. The best the organization was able to finish in a VCT international tournament was 5th during the VALORANT Champions 2024. In the VCT League last season, they finished first in stages one and two.
Many believed that they would carry this momentum into VCT EMEA 2025. Sadly, this hasn’t proved to be the case. In their first VCT EMEA Kickoff 2025 match against BBL Esports, Fnatic crumbled and lost the series 2-1. While each player on the team had a positive kill: death ratio, they couldn’t secure the win, which resulted in them falling to the lower bracket.
NAVI, on the other hand, fielded a new roster this season with the likes of Ruxic and hiro. During the 2024 VCT EMEA, the team finished 5th in stages one and two, failing to qualify for international VCT tournaments. This year, they have started on the wrong foot, losing to Karmine Corp in a one-sided reverse sweep.
Series Breakdown
Image Credits: Riot Games
From a stats point of view, Fnatic is the clear favorite to win this VCT EMEA Kickoff elimination match against NAVI. The main reason for Fnatic’s loss in their previous match was that they couldn’t refuse the spike. BBL Esports played a game focusing primarily on the post-plant. During this series, Alfajer from Fnatic had 12 first kills in his name but couldn’t make a difference.
In their decider match, Fnatic was 9-3 up during the first half of the series but went on to losenine9 rounds in a row on defense. If they can strengthen their strategy on the post plant, it would be quite a hill to climb for NAVI to secure a win.
In their previous match, NAVI had a major crumble of form. They have only won 8 rounds in the last two games of their series. If they wish to defeat Fnatic, they must find a method to stop them from planting the spike while on the attack. Our prediction for this is 2-0 in the favor of FNATIC at the VCT EMEA Kickoff 2025.