Banner Image: Ubisoft / Kiril B. @ItsKirillVision
Earlier this week, the best nine teams in Europe met in what was the league's third week of action. Despite Team BDS and Team Secret rough results, both rosters will head to the upcoming matches in first and second place, respectively.
Additionally, tumultuous weeks for Fnatic and Virtus.pro saw them dropping from the league's Top 6. Here's everything you need to know about the third week of action in the Europe League 2024!
ITB and ENCE go flawless
Into the Breach and ENCE were the week's surprises as both teams won their respective matches.
While Into the Breach had a great start to the stage with a 7-5 victory against Wolves Esports, the roster temporarily dropped out of the league's Top 6 after defeats against Fnatic and Team BDS. However, the British have picked up the pace again with this week's victories against Virtus.pro and G2 Esports.
Without a doubt, Into the Breach's best player of the week was Charlie "Creedz" Foote as the British registered SiegeGG ratings of 1.74 and 1.33 against Virtus.pro and G2 Esports, respectively. It's also worth mentioning Callum "azzr" Aitchison's effectiveness at securing entry kills, as he finished the week with a combined balance of 7-0 (+5).
Meanwhile, ENCE produced the biggest upset of the week as the French-majority roster defeated Team BDS and Virtus.pro to skyrocket up to third place in the standings.
Team BDS and Team Secret first defeats of the season
Team BDS had an excellent start to the season as the French-majority roster began the first split of the Europe League 2024 with four regulation defeats. Unfortunately for the pink organization, the third week of action didn't go as smoothly.
The Six Jönköping Major champions started the week with an unexpected defeat against ENCE, which saw Team BDS securing one of the ten entry kills seen in the series. Playing on Kafe, both Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu and Fatih "Solotov" Türker finished with SiegeGG ratings of 0.71 and 0.54 and got a combined entry kill balance of 0-4 (-4).
In the roster's second match of the week, Team BDS got back on track with a maximum overtime victory against Team Secret in what was a match between the first and the second-placed roster in the standings. While Josh "Yuzus" Pritchard was the best-rated player of the series with a SiegeGG rating of 1.29, Stéphane "Shaiiko" Lebleu was outstanding at getting entry kills as he finished with an entry balance of 6-1 (+5).
While Team BDS got to finish the week on a high note, Team Secret's unbeaten start was put to an end with the roster's defeats against G2 Esports and Team BDS. Surprisingly, Aleksi "UUNO" Työppönen was the best player in the series against Team Secret with a SiegeGG rating of 1.44.
Despite both Team Secret and Team BDS' results in the third week of action, both rosters will head to the next match day in first and second place, respectively.
Virtus.pro continue struggling
Against all of the odds, the Six Invitational 2024 Top 3 side Virtus.pro has started the Europe League 2024 with a record of three regulation defeats, one overtime loss, and one regulation victory. This means that, with only three games left, the Russians currently sit in eighth place four points away from the playoff spots.
Playing against Into the Breach and ENCE, Virtus.pro were the favorites to take both wins. However, what happened was exactly the opposite, as they lost both matches by 7-5 and 7-3, respectively. Curiously enough, the team struggled on defense as they could only win one out of nine defensive rounds played this week.
With Virtus.pro having still to meet Team BDS, Fnatic, and WYLDE, the Russians are on the verge of finishing the stage out of the playoff zone. Ultimately, the team would have to qualify for the Last Chance Qualifiers for a chance to make it to the BLAST R6 Major Manchester.