Two teams within the VCT EMEA League have distinct team-building approaches. On one hand, FUT Esports puts all its eggs in one basket and creates the Turkish super team. Team Vitality, on the other hand, creates a roster with some of the best players in the world. Who can come out on top in their match during the VCT EMEA Kickoff 2025? Let’s find out.
FUT Esports vs Team Vitality – VCT EMEA Kickoff Preview
Image Credits: Riot Games
FUT Esports and Team Vitality received a bye to the second round of the VCT EMEA Kickoff. This was due to these two teams qualifying for the VALORANT Champions 2024 last season. While both teams qualified, neither could make it to the playoffs phase of the event. Fans did not expect this performance of either organization, and many believed that there would be multiple player changes within each team.
Interestingly, FUT Esports decided to stick with the same core of the roster by adding the young Turkish duelist xeus. At the start of the year, cNed announced that he would take a break at the beginning of 2025 to focus on content creation. FUT Esports dominated their opponents in their first match in VCT EMEA Kickoff against Team Liquid. The series ended with a score of 2-0.
Team Vitality took another approach. While keeping their core of Sayf, Kicks, and trexx, they added Less and Derke. For those who don’t know, Derke is considered one of the best duelist players on the VALORANT Champions Tour.
Meanwhile, Less was previously a part of the LOUD team that won VCT Americas League 2023 and VALORANT Champions 2022. The first match of Team Vitality was a pretty mixed bag. They started their first map in a dominating fashion.
In the second map, they couldn’t get the lead during the series; in map 3, they made a comeback, taking the game to overtime. This was a close affair, with Team Vitality coming out on top with a score of 17-15.
Series Breakdown
Looking at the previous matches of both teams, FUT Esports have started this tournament on quite a strong foot. Both on attack and defense, they have proved to have multiple strategies and counter strategies. The team does look synergized well, as all players in their previous game had a positive kill-to-death ratio. The primary initiator for FUT Esports, qRaxs ended the game with seven first kills.
Team Vitality, on the other hand, hasn’t played in any off-season event with the new roster. Thus, their performance on stage doesn’t look close to what many expect this start-studded roster to outfit. We believe FUT Esports will win this series with a scoreline of 2-1. One point to note is that we may see a Derke masterclass during this game.