The Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 group stage concluded last week with G2 Esports and Team Secret topping the standings and securing a spot at the Upper Bracket Semifinals. Surprisingly enough, the samurai are now the favorites to take the region's first spot.
However, other powerhouses like Team Falcons and Virtus.pro are dangerous oppositions, especially in BO3 series. So, two questions arise: who will win the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1? Who will qualify for the Esports World Cup 2025?
Here's a look at what happened in the group stage of the competition:
Standings
G2 Esports stole the show early in the season with the signing of Zack "Stompn" Lamb. The 18-year-old and former XBOX content creator joined the team from Dallas, Texas, to make his debut as a professional player. Not many had expected to see the "king" performing so well, and, not just that, not many had hopes to see G2 Esports taking over the region.
In total, G2 Esports finished at the top of the standings with 22 points with eight victories and only one defeat. The story could have been very different though, as three of those eight victories were overtime wins — against Team Secret, Virtus.pro, and Team Falcons. Except for their maximum overtime defeat against Team BDS, the samurai were surprisingly good against the rest of the pack.
Right behind G2 Esports, Team Secret finished in second place with 20 points, six victories and three defeats, two of them being overtime loses against Gen.G Esports and the samurai. Meanwhile, Team Falcons finished in third place with one point less, but three defeats, which is already one more than the two defeats combined the team got in the Europe League 2024.
Finally, the playoff positions were taken by Virtus.pro, the Challenger Series 2025 champions MACKO Esports, and the Malta Cyber Series VIII champions and former ENCE roster, Gen.G Esports. Meanwhile, WYLDE, Team BDS, Wolves Esports, and Fnatic were knocked out.
Player stats
The best player of the group stage in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 was Virtus.pro's IGL Pavel "p4sh4" Kosenko. He was the only player in the competition alongside G2 Esports' Roberto "Loira" Camargo to register +100 kills.
It's also worth mentioning the Russian's 103-62 (+41) is the best K-D in the competition's group stage by a substantial margin, above G2 Esports' Jack "Doki" Robertson and Team Secret's Marc "jume" Steinmann. He also averaged the third-best entry balance in the competition, only behind the Frenchmen Yanis "Mowwwgli" Dahmani and Ilhan "Nayqo" Jabbari.
However, team-wise, G2 Esports' stole the show as three of their five members finished among the best six players of the group stage — including Doki (1.20), Zack "Stompn" Lamb (1.15), and Loira (1.14).
Meanwhile, G2 Esports' remaining two players, Alexandre "BlaZ" Thomas and Karl "Alem4o" Zarth, finished with SiegeGG ratings of 1.01 and 0.82. Despite the duo being far behind their teammates, both the Frenchman and the Brazilian have been extremely important in G2 Esports' recent results as revealed by Doki in our interview with the Scot and Stompn.
Although Team Falcons' stage hasn't been disappointing at all, as they finished in third place one point behind Team Secret and three points behind G2 Esports, the roster hasn't been as consistent as in previous stages: in 2024, under Team BDS, the European mix chained back-to-back group stage top seeds with a combined amount of two defeats — in the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 alone Team Falcons have already lost three games.
Logically, this doesn't mean Team Falcons are in a point of no-return. The former Team BDS roster is in a rock-solid position to qualify for the Esports World Cup, but results indicate they aren't as strong as in Year 9. Still, the team has looked really consistent, with Loïc "BriD" Chongthep standing out as the player with the highest survival — something fans are already used to see.
Finally, let's have a look at the Challenger Series 2025 teams MACKO Esports and WYLDE. While the latter couldn't qualify for the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 Playoffs, the Italians are still in the race to qualify for the Esports World Cup after finishing the group stage in fifth.
While their players didn't stand out among other highly-experienced players in the league, Evan "Evan" McDonnell and Mario "Dora" Manzato were two of the three best planters in the league with 11 and 10 plants, respectively.
Last but not least, MACKO Esports have produced a combined amount of 12 clutches. This number is abnormally high as Team BDS and G2 Esports follow with seven each.
Playoffs
The Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 Playoffs will kick off today, July 14, with the games between Virtus.pro and MACKO Esports, and Team Falcons and Gen.G Esports. The winners will play against G2 Esports or Team Secret, respectively, while the losers will fall to the Lower Bracket.
It's worth mentioning that the Europe and MENA League 2025 Stage 1 is the only regional competition to offer five spots to compete at the Siege X Esports World Cup 2025. This means that five of the six teams on the playoffs will qualify for the tournament that will be played in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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