Today, July 15, a match in the lower bracket final at VCL Ascension: EMEA 2023 took place between the former world champion, team Acend, and the French club Gentle Mates. Despite the match format being best of three, the 2021 world champion - Acend, unexpectedly couldn't take a single map and lost the match with a score of 0:3.

The teams had previously met in the first stage of the tournament, where Acend effortlessly won the match 2:0. Therefore, before the start of this match, Acend was the clear favorite, both in terms of personal encounter statistics and fan predictions.

At the beginning of the final part of the tournament, the Acend club posted a team ranking on their personal Twitter account, where Gentle Mates were in the "What is this?" category.

What happened in the lower bracket final?

The match started on the Fracture map, which was chosen by team Acend. Gentle Mates effortlessly won this map, leaving only 4 rounds for their opponents and took the map with a score of 13:4. Next was the choice of Gentle Mates, namely the Split map, which turned out to be the most intense map out of the three played, not only for the teams but also for the viewers. The French team managed to take their pick only in the sixth overtime and began to lead the meeting with a score of 2:0. The third map, Lotus, also ended with a victory for the Gentle Mates team with a score of 13:9.

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Thanks to their victory over Acend, Gentle Mates are advancing to the grand final where they will face Apeks. In turn, Acend end their participation in this tournament. Tomorrow, it will be decided between the two finalists who will secure a spot in the EMEA partner league for the next two years and the title of VCL Ascension: EMEA 2023 champion.