The upper bracket of VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026 has reached its penultimate phase. All 12 teams participating in the tournament have played their matches. Some won while some lost, which leaves us with just two teams in the upper bracket. The two teams that are taking part in the finals are BBL Esports from Turkey and Gentle Mates from France. In this VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026 Upper Finals preview, we take a look at the matches and which team is the favorite and will be the first team from the VCT EMEA region to secure qualification for VCT Masters Santiago 2026.
The Upper Finals of VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026 will take place on February 13. The grand finals will take place between BBL Esports and Gentle Mates in a best-of-five series. The winner will secure the first spot for VCT Masters Santiago 2026 as the first seed from the VCT EMEA region. The team that loses will drop down to the Middle Finals. During the Middle Finals, they will face off against another team for a chance to qualify for VCT Masters Santiago 2026.
The story of Gentle Mates leading upto the VCT EMEA 2026 season was quite interesting. The organization was added to the league following the removal of KOI Esports. Before this, Gentle Mates was a part of the VCT EMEA League after winning VCT Ascension EMEA 2023. During their two season in VCT EMEA, they failed to qualify for any international VALORANT tournaments.
Following their addition to the EMEA league in 2026, they have been on quite a streak. In their journey to the Upper Finals, they haven’t lost a single map, defeating the likes of FUT Esports, NAVI, and GiantX. This kind of performance hasn’t been seen by any team in any of the four VCT Kickoff tournaments.
On the other hand, the major shocker of the tournament was the performance by BBL Esports. Going into this event, no one expected that this team would be in any of the finals. In the prior season, the organization only qualified for the VALORANT X EWC 2025 tournament. During that tournament, the team finished in 5th place after qualifying for the playoffs. Going into VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026, they first defeated the VCT Ascension EMEA 2025 winners, PCIFIC Esports 2-0. Following that, they defeated the fan favorites FNATIC and Team Vitality in back-to-back clean sweep victories.
Going into the VCT EMEA Kickoff 2026 Upper Finals, predicting the winner of this match is quite tough. Both teams have a lot going in their favor, but several negative sides as well.
Another point to note is that the best-rated player currently in the tournament is Patrik “Minny” Hušek from Gentle Mates.
The only player with more total kills than Lovers Rock during the tournament is hiro from NAVI Esports. In our opinion, if Umut “lovers rock” Pekdoğan gets into his rhythm in the first two maps of the VCT EMEA Kickoff Upper Finals, BBL Esports will secure the victory with a scoreline of 3-1. The win condition for Gentle Mates is only if they can shut down Umut “lovers rock” Pekdoğan & Yusuf “Lar0k” Kaan Kanber, the duelist duo of BBL Esports. We feel that if it goes to map five, then Gentle Mates will secure the win and be the top seed from VCT EMEA for VALORANT Masters Santiago.
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