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Marteen Propels Gentle Mates To Santiago Qualification with Triple Record Breaks
Gentle Mates player Martin “marteen” Pátek has been a revelation this VCT EMEA season thus far. After a shattering performance tonight, the French phenom was a vital reason Gentle Mates (M8) have now qualified over Fnatic and are bound for Masters Santiago later this month.
After the heartbreak that was yesterday’s 5-map series against BBL which saw the Turkish side qualify ahead of their opposition as the 1st seed to Santiago, M8 was thrust with little rest time into a second Bo5 (Best-of-five) series against a rapidly mounting Fnatic looking to qualify for their first-ever Kickoff tournament. In a bid for qualification, marteen broke not one, not two, but three individual VCT records across two nights.
Unleashed - Looking to make his mark on the global stage
Last night, while facing BBL, the first record was broken – the highest number of kills in a single VCT EMEA Bo5 match. Previously set by (former) Team Liquid Georgio “keiko” Sanassy with 88 kills in the 2025 VCT EMEA Kickoff Grand Finals against Team Vitality, marteen shattered it last night with 106 kills total as Gentle Mates marched onwards in the series.
Already a stupefying performance, made more so by the fact that that was still not enough to qualify Gentle Mates for Santiago. The French side had another Bo5 to play the following day, a date with another EMEA titan, Fnatic. During the course of the series, marteen not only replicated his performance from the previous day; he surpassed it.
This time he was headed for the All-Time Global VCT Kill Record for Bo5 series, previously held by Zheng “ZmjjKK” Yongkang, set during the 2024 Champions Grand Finals series against Team Heretics. The record set at the time was 111 kills. In the fifth map of play, marteen officially broke and set the new count at 125 kills.
Moreover, the all-time Bo5 kill record which includes the Game Changers circuit was set at 124 kills, posted by Nicolas “srN” Niederauer. This was obviously shattered too with today’s performance.
While it is unthinkable at this current time to think that this record will do anything but stand the test of time for at least a few years to come, 2026 VALORANT has been nothing but full of surprises.
One last tasty morsel. During their series yesterday against BBL, marteen was complicit in yet another record, this time for the longest Bo5 series in VCT EMEA history. Previously set at 108 rounds by Fnatic and Team Heretics 2 years ago, BBL and M8 held the record with 118 rounds total. Tonight's series against Fnatic once again broke the record, setting it now at 124 rounds.
Gentle Mates Are Headed for Santiago
EMEA this year looks devastatingly promising. With Gentle Mates qualifying for Santiago, one spot remains for either Fnatic or Team Liquid to round out the representatives list. With 8 out of 12 teams locked, the spotlight begins to shift now towards the first international event of 2026.
Featured Image Credit: Wojciech Wandzel/Riot Games
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