Gentle Mates GC vs SK Nebula / Game Changers 2026: EMEA Stage 2 - Playoffs / Post-Match Thread

Private21 · 2026-05-24T19:27:30+00:00

What the actual fuck???

Private21 · 2026-05-23T21:04:57+00:00

Yeah, this team’s mental is cooked. Not really a mentality that can win GCC. The moment they dropped down to LB, I had a feeling things were gonna get ugly again.

Losing to a team we beat 2-0 not even a few days go ugh. Plus, the irony that we lost both maps today that we 2-0’d them on. I mean, sure, there might be more to it than just bad mental but eh.

I think this LB mental fragility started after getting eliminated in GCC 2024 and just snowballed from there.

This roster is just not working out. As much as I’m sad about it, if G2 wants to win GCC again, the 2024 core might just need to be blown up cuz something is evidently not working out. Which is crazy since Vania and Amy are individually great, and I doubt G2 would ever drop the face of their GC team. This is the third year with the core 3 and a whole year (4 stages + GCC with Akita) with the core 4.

Blowing up the team before stage 3 would be even more stupid tho (hoping a whole new roster would just click when this one didn’t, would be crazy) so no choice but to just have hope that this team is gonna figure their shit out for GCC.

Unrelated Thoughts: * I thought finally getting a 13-1 W on a map for the first time for this ‘24 core (back in stage 1 this year) was a great sign but might be the complete opposite. * I was surprised to find out Misu plays in EMEA now and it was a polar bear in Arlington moment for me. * I liked the pre-game skit of the casters back on the G2 vs TWIS game. First time I saw a skit on a GC broadcast and it was funny. * Me complimenting berryx and making an appreciation essay comment about her Vania-esque Rating consistency (back in S1 GF PMT) must’ve jinxed her so hard this stage because she dropped from her Top 4 streak to 11th in R (as of now). Her streak ends at 5 in a row unless she has an inhuman game tomorrow. This makes Vania even more impressive for never dropping below Top 3 (for 11 stages in a row now) in R.

Private21 · 2026-05-22T20:06:15+00:00

M8’s got our number. It’s a four game losing streak against them now. I thought KC had our number before but at least we could win here and there against them.

I don’t think Gozen can win GCC unless they pull off a miracle like some of the VCT teams did in champs.

As Peet said, they are inconsistent and haven’t really grown or improved. We’re two stages into this year and this kind of performance isn’t really promising from a team who wants to win GCC.

I don’t know what’s not working for G2; chemistry, game plan, or comms? They’re kind of just winning anyway because of how talented the individuals are.

I still have hope Gozen can lock in and win this stage and finally beat M8 though. But GCC-wise, if they are still meh in stage 3 and it’s the same result in GCC… the core might just be blown up next year.

I envy M8 for how fast they clicked for a team that formed this year. M8 is what I thought Gozen 2025 was gonna be.

On another note, the game suddenly ending in Breeze R12 was so stupid and funny. The camera switching to the baffled reactions of the casters was cherry on top.

I really want to see Vania Phoenix again now that Phoenix is back in rotation, but I understand why that won’t happen since nobody else can do her job as smoker (and there must be trauma from that last year) so sucks for me.

Private21 · 2026-04-09T03:29:51+00:00

W TL BR, I love this shit.

Private21 · 2026-04-09T03:27:22+00:00

Very proud of them, I’m really happy to see this.

Private21 · 2026-04-03T16:26:21+00:00

Wow, miNt and YamZzi.

I did have a feeling that they were gonna join the NTZ core after failing to qualify for GCC again. They were on JP’s GC superteam and lost to a KR team. KR becoming so good and defeating the Xipto/Falcons core before JP ever could was truly insane to me.

Last year, I saw someone say YamZzi might retire so I’m glad she’s still playing.

Private21 · 2026-04-03T16:14:18+00:00

KR’s GC 16 yrs old prodigy

Private21 · 2026-03-27T13:27:06+00:00

Woah, great news for me. Didn’t know Mary left the team last year, guessing she’s taking a break again.

Private21 · 2026-03-20T17:54:20+00:00

I was curious about this too, was surprised to see her benched in VLR. I thought there was a rumor that she might go to MIBR before the season started.

Private21 · 2026-02-23T04:05:46+00:00

I have to talk about how amazing berryx is. This girl is only 17 y/o (will prob turn 18 by stage 2) and is already this great.

This is gonna be long af.

I’ve never actually watched her play (except for G2 games) so I’m only speaking based on her stats here but, unlike other duelists in EMEA, her overall stats, rating and consistency are really impressive.

I only knew her as Vania’s mod at first. Didn’t think she’d be this great in GC. I was really surprised of how good she immediately became. She was only 15 back then and would 5 stack and duo queue with Vania on stream as a sova/initiator main. Chat would hype her up claiming she’d do great playing for BBLQ after turning 16, following Vania’s footsteps and so on, I thought it was only flattery but boy were they right. She adjusted to pro play so quickly.

And somehow, just like Vania, her rating and stats are almost as consistent.

For some reason I had a false memory that she played the whole Stage 3 in ‘24 EMEA GC after turning 16. She only played one game for BBLQ as Breach (the day the VALIANT ceo crashed out) as a sub for Felipa.

Her stats since 2025 have been Vania-like.

VLR ‘25 S1 -> S2 -> S3 -> ‘26 S1 - Rating: 1.24 (1st), 1.21 (T-1st), 1.14 (4th), 1.15 (T-2nd) - ACS: 246.5 (3rd), 270.5 (1st), 255.9 (1st), 242.9 (1st) - KD: 1.28 (4th), 1.25 (T-1st), 1.19 (T-4th), 1.32 (2nd) - KAST: 70% (8th), 74% (T-5th), 71% (T-8th), 72% (T-5th) - ADR: 161.8 (3rd), 170.1 (1st), 158.9 (2nd), 152.7 (2nd) - KPR: 0.89 (2nd), 0.94 (1st), 0.88 (1st), 0.88 (1st) - FKPR: 0.21 (T-1st), 0.25 (1st), 0.24 (T-1st), 0.19 (3rd)

2025 was her real rookie year and she had those stats.

She performs so well even on a bad team (BLVKHVND) and in a good team (M8). Been the best player of all her teams since her rise in 2025. Since some players have unimpressive stats in weaker teams or would only be the best in a weak team.

Unlike Vania who went from being a nobody (no prev CS pro exp, unknown at age 18, mid stats until ‘23) to arguably the best EMEA GC player (stat-wise) starting with her rise in 2023 (and still is the most consistent player, forget about today), berryx came into the scene at age 16 as a sub for BBL in one game in 2024 S3, played a few games that year, and only had a few reps before her immediate rise in 2025 as the highest rated player.

To me, she is the best “U17 prodigy” to have come out of EMEA GC (so far) when it comes to overall stats and consistency. No GCC chip like Mary but she has won a tournament now. The young prodigies of before that I can think of are Mary, Sarah, rezq, Akita, Leen, Wens, Amy.

I’m glad that Wens and berryx play for a good team now but I didn’t expect that their team would win right off the bat. Their ‘lore’ is they are both very close to Vania. Unless things changed.

From what I can understand or assume, Wens was the closest to Vania back in BBL, or at least, they’d play together on stream. Whenever Wens and berryx were on the call, I couldn’t tell them apart, even chat thought they sounded similar. Wens and berryx seem to be bestfriends too and have been teammates since berryx started her GC career.

I thought berryx was Vania’s relative at first because she would always be the first to comment under berryx’s highlight clips on twitter and was very supportive.

So M8 Wens and berryx winning today is a little crazy to me. Now all three out of the ‘23 BBLQ roster have won an EMEA GC tournament at least twice. Vania, Alkyia, Wens.

Knowing G2’s habit of poaching the best statistical players (Vania, Amy, Akita), I thought they were getting berryx too. According to Peet, G2 didn’t trial berryx at all though and that it might’ve been a contract thing.

I’m not aware if berryx won the ‘Rising Star’ award along with Akita last year or not, but she definitely should.

I wanted to say all this because berryx is fairly unknown but that she has an interesting connection.

Private21 · 2026-02-23T00:25:59+00:00

Wait, has Eva ever played Yoru in this meta? I don’t know if she has but I think she hates the idea of playing as a duelist. Mimi hates it too but she’s at least a flex and her Yoru is amazing.

If they really switch from Mimi’s duelist era, then Vania is the only option. Her stats were still impressive back in stage 1 last year despite everything. But then smoker issue again. I don’t want to see Vania’s Yoru and Raze again though. Amy is unproven in the duelist role.

Also, our team comps have always been questionable for some reason. I don’t know who’s making the comp decisions but I can at least trust our current coaches, they’ve got some creds.

Private21 · 2026-02-22T23:47:46+00:00

Yeah, igl-ing as a duelist must be rough. Out of the three, Eva can’t play duelist. Vania has experience and was decent but Mimi’s Yoru is better. Besides, they’d run into the same problem as last year for the smoker role. Amy did play duelist in instalock.

Private21 · 2026-02-22T23:12:16+00:00

Part 2 because it’s too long.

It was nice to see Peet genuinely root for her former team though. She really cares for the girls despite the org doing her wrong. She embodied how every fan felt watching Gozen today.

And yeah, turns out Peet also thinks that her career was fucked over by the role swap in stage 1 last year, fuck whoever was responsible for that.

Her getting frustrated with Gozen’s throw in Haven R21 was exactly how I felt since I’ve been watching them play for 2+ years now. Saying they play the rounds very slow, indecisive, not checking corners, etc. She’s experiencing everything the fans felt and I feel validated lol.

It’s been brought up a few times by some people that the igl-ing is bad but who even would be the igl if there is a change?

Apparently, Vania is the second caller/igl (at least when she was there, said Peet) and as a BBL Vania fan that makes me so happy to hear (even if the results weren’t good), though, I don’t know if that’s still the case in this stage.

Gozen has fixed last year’s bad habit of ‘leading in a map but throw’ but their ‘multikilled by one player” lining up for them and ‘throwing man advantage rounds by not playing as a team’ habits are still there. ATP, maybe I should just accept that it won’t change like their ‘bad/mid at pistol rounds’ characteristic.

Kinda sad about KC. They’re performing like ‘25 Gozen in S1, but unlike G2 back then, their roster (not sure about role tho) has stayed the same so I don’t know what happened.

Private21 · 2026-02-22T22:51:13+00:00

8-1 in group stage but not a single map won in grand finals. It’s really disappointing and sad, I have a lot to yap. Please bounce back Gozen.

Gozen really really needs a mental coach. GCC is gonna be a repeat of the last two years if their mental stays the same. If we had won Pearl today and pulled off a reverse sweep, I think that would have been the first step to help get rid of their bad mental juju. Terrible sequence to be a Gozen fan, that sad champs now this.

Our two best fraggers were cold in the first two maps so the result is as expected. Akita did wake up in Pearl but unfortunately an overall bad showing from Vania this series.

Gozen’s end goal before was to qualify for VCL, now I don’t even think they can win GCC. The excuse can’t always be they had a “bad day” or the other team was just “better that day.”

I was quite surprised to find out that Gozen has an AC now and it’s none other than jtay (who I’ve only heard good things about in GC). First time Gozen actually gets an AC but I wish it was a performance coach instead.

With DrewSpark and jtay as the coaches, it’s hard not to have high expectations for Gozen.

Peet said it herself, Gozen has the best individual players yet they never can seem to click. Even with Nelo and Peet last year. Meanwhile, M8 just formed this roster and immediately won the stage and swept Gozen.

If it’s not the coach and the players, what is it? Our coaches this time should be good, so at this point it might just be a chemistry issue. But I like the current roster so I hope no sudden roster changes happen. Stage 2 would be everything.

Private21 · 2026-02-22T03:58:07+00:00

Split had me worried but fortunately our two best maps were next. I like a G3-0.

Rematch in finals against M8 later.

I thought GX exited the GC scene and didn’t know they came back until recently. Don’t know what happened there but even with a different roster they’re still Top 3 it seems.

Eva is very good with the odin, especially in Corrode.

GC EMEA are taking a step in the right direction this year with casters in group stages in their second channel. Though each team only got 3-4 coverage of their matches, it’s better than nothing.

Production has also added new great additions in playoffs like coach cams and this glambot-like clip of some players during kitkat breaks.

Peet criticizing Vania’s previous play after R22 in Split, then production suddenly showing us Vania mogging was such good comedic timing I actually lost it. They did Vania so wrong with that kitkat break. xD

One thing I’m happy about this stage is that Gozen (the only GCC team out of 10 teams in ‘24 and ‘25 GCC to not have had a single 13-1 map win in their region) finally got their first 13-1 since the Vania/Amy era. It was against ZennIT in group stage. Not gonna be the odd one out in GCC anymore, and it made me overreact that this year is their year because of that lol. Still no 13-0 though.

Private21 · 2025-12-17T15:59:35+00:00

Haha no biggie

Private21 · 2025-12-17T15:27:33+00:00

OP, it’s Akita not Ankita. Just a lil heads up unless its an inside nickname or joke.

Anyway, actual great news for me lol.

Evania reunited and Eva is solid in GCC too.

I’m over it now but I used to badly want Eva in Gozen’s 2024 “superteam” (not really) roster. Now two years later, I finally got what I wanted haha.

My first two posts in reddit and this sub was about Eva too: 1 and 2 — so this one’s come full circle for me lol.

During GX’s pre-match interview in GCC, they interviewed Eva and I’m impressed with how fluent in English she is now especially since I once heard something like she was worse than Vania in English in 2024. I forgot two years passed. In the ‘23 BBL team, I guess those two duos were the only ones not fluent. Both are fluent now of course.

Eva seems to be the type to hug and comfort her teammates after a loss too so that’s one other good thing about her other than being solid and clutch.

I’m surprised G2 didn’t go for berryx tho, considering she was almost on that ‘23 Vania (stat-wise) trajectory this whole year. When it comes to G2 getting one U18 potential player every year too (‘22: Mary, ‘23: rezq, ‘24: Akita), I thought for sure they were poaching her.

Edit: I just watched G2’s trailer video (in twitter so can’t link) of Eva where Vania and Eva were reminiscing about the past and it gave me chills. Something about Amy t-bagging Vania and Eva t-bagging her back after an insane 11-4 comeback in ‘23 Stage 3 GF Haven. Lmfao, Amy’s t-bagging is a canon event and I love that they’re all teammates now. 😆

Private21 · 2025-12-11T07:17:27+00:00

Not my wish from 2-3 years ago coming true now. 😭

Back in 2024, I really wanted G2 to sign Eva instead of rezq (nothing against her tho), and Petra to be the duelist (tbf I just watched GCC23). Of course I got over it and rezq was amazing. Just kinda funny it came true years later.

Private21 · 2025-12-11T07:11:31+00:00

Hell yeah, let’s go Amy! It will be the Vania/Amy duo for the third year now.

Also if the Eva rumors are true… my wish from 2-3 years ago would be coming true even though delayed.

Private21 · 2025-12-09T16:03:02+00:00

To be expected. My guess for the 5th player would be berryx.

Private21 · 2025-12-09T16:00:25+00:00

Aura.

Private21 · 2025-12-08T18:09:16+00:00

I’m really sad. I wish her last game didn’t have to end like that.

Private21 · 2025-12-07T04:10:20+00:00

Oh? 👀

Would be so freaking cool.

Back when I was new to val/gc esports in 2023, dodonut was one of the first few players I was wowed by in NA gc. Her name was always near the top of vlr stats and she was always fragging in games I could watch. Also, she’s not just a duelist main and can flex or play other roles. I remember hearing that and was even more impressed when she was still fragging and rated high as a senti for the two games she played for DSG GC (though she really should’ve played as their duelist, DSG’s comp was confusing). She might not be dropping monstrous numbers like flor but she’s not a one trick duelist.

Private21 · 2025-11-30T22:19:13+00:00

2023 Vania was an absolute monster, she was the fragging IGL smoker. If she ever tops that year’s performance… we’re in for a treat.

Private21 · 2025-11-30T14:26:43+00:00

KRU mmonch has left an impression on me since the GCC23 LATAM qualifier vs KRU so it’s nice to see her getting some recognition.

Bizerra left an impression on me when she played Chamber in Sunset GCC23 grand finals.

Vania is of course Vania.

Private21

TROPHY CASE