The final day of the Europe League 2024 Stage 1 Group Stage will decide who joins Team BDS in the league's Top 2 and what sides will take the remaining playoff spots.
At the top of the standings, Wolves Esports and Team Secret are the favorites to get the region's second seed for the league's playoffs. With 13 points each, both sides will collide later today in the final match of the regular phase. Outside these two, Into the Breach is the only team with mathematical chances of finishing in second — which would happen if they defeated ENCE by 7-1 or 7-0 and Wolves Esports fell to Team Secret in overtime.
While the fight for the region's second place is on fire, all the eyes will be set on the battle between G2 Esports, Fnatic, and ENCE for Europe's remaining playoff spots.
Unfortunately for G2 Esports and their fans, they will be mere spectators in today's matches as the Samurai are the only ones in the league who have already played their nine matches. This means that the Berlin-based organization's future is not entirely in their hands.
The Six Invitational 2023 champions will automatically qualify for the Europe League 2024 Stage 1 Playoffs if Into the Breach defeats ENCE in Monday's first game. Currently in seventh place with 10 points, the Finn organization needs two points to overtake G2 Esports as both teams have a round difference of -2.
If ENCE won against Into the Breach, the French-majority roster would temporarily climb to fourth place on the standings — or even third if they were to get a flawless victory against the British.
However, that wouldn't be it for G2 Esports. The Six Invitational 2024-bound would have a final shot at the playoffs as they would need Fnatic to get a flawless defeat against Team BDS, who have already secured a Top 1 finish. Unfortunately, that feels very unlikely as we are yet to see a flawless result in Europe after 32 played matches.
Following the conclusion of today's matches, we will know what two teams will join Team BDS, Wolves Esports, Team Secret, and Into the Breach in the Europe League 2024 Stage 1 Playoffs. Meanwhile, WYLDE and Virtus.pro will be joined by a third team as they will move to the Open Qualifiers Playoffs.