EMEA Masters Spring 2023 grand finals between Unicorns Of Love and Istanbul Wildcats

It was the grand finals of EMEA Masters Spring 2023. With Unicorns Of Love SE facing Istanbul Wildcats, no holds were barred in the finals. Check out who won the tournament and how the action turned out only at Gamopo!

Finals Of EMEA Masters Spring 2023

Rosters

Unicorns Of Love Sexy Edition

  • Iwan ‘Venour’ Skorikov (Top)
  • Lee ‘Peach’ Min-gyu (Jungle)
  • Lee ‘Mask’ Sang-hoon (Mid)
  • Johannes ‘Fun K3y’ Werner (Bot)
  • Alexander ‘Lekcyc’ Lexikov (Support)

Istanbul Wildcats

  • Yoon ‘Destroy’ Jeong-min (Top)
  • Taha ‘Elramir’ Yurdagüven (Jungle)
  • Emre ‘Yzn’ Akça (Mid)
  • Jeong ‘BAO’ Hyeon-woo (Bot)
  • Polat ‘Parus’ Furkan Çiçek (Support)

The Series

Match 1

The first match of the finals of EMEA Masters Spring 2023 started with USE starting on blue side. The match didn’t take to long to get rolling as Elramir picked up the kill of Mask heading into the 5th minute. A well-timed execution at mid made the first blood possible. But IW didn’t take too long to respond to that either. This time it was Fun K3Y who avenged his teammate by slaying Parus. On the 9th minute, a hook from Parus helped BAO pick up the kill of Peach on the botlane. IW also managed to pick up the first dragon of the game in the next minute. The roster continued to pressurize their opponents by deploying the Rift Herald on the midlane in the 13th minute. But that was not enough as BAO soon picked up a double kill for himself. The 16th minute saw the team picking up their second dragon. IW picked up their first turret in the 20th minute.

The Wildcats from Istanbul continued to steamroll over as they picked up their third dragon in the 22nd minute after winning a teamfight. IW won yet another teamfight 2 minutes after taking 3 kills and conceding 2 of their players. But the 26th minute saw USE finally winning a teamfight of their own by slaying BAO and Kofte. They continued to gain a bit more momentum by taking their first dragon soon after. It was followed up by destroying the first tower of IW. In the meantime, the gold lead was handed over to Unicorns Of Love. What followed soon was undoubtedly the best teamfight of the match with the Unicorns winning and ultimately slaying the Baron Nashor. Capitalizing the Baron buff, USE exposed the defense of IW. However, it was their greed to push too much and end the game that resulted in four of their players being killed. Eventually, in the 39th minute, the Unicorns took down the Nexus of the Wildcats winning their first match.

Match 2

It was now the Wildcats’ turn to start on the blue side of the map. But they started the match on the wrong foot as Peach took first blood heading into the 4th minute. Unicorns responded by taking the first dragon in the 7th minute but Peach came knocking again, this time slaying Parus and BAO for a double kill. USE seemed to focus more on objectives as they secured their second dragon in the 12th minute. Peach picked up his third kill of the match by taking down Destroy this time at the top lane. The Unicorns picked up their first turret of the match but Peach had to be sacrificed right before. Meanwhile, it was IW that slayed their first dragon.

Disaster soon struck for IW as the Unicorns had obtained their first ace of the night and also took the bot turrets. Doing so, USE were sitting on a massive 7k gold lead over their opponents. The 22nd minute saw Mask finding himself in murky waters giving away his life to USE. USE continued to focus on objectives as they took their third dragon in the 24th minute. They went straight for the Baron in the 26th minute after taking down BAO and Elramir in a teamfight. The defense of IW was soon exposed as USE took the first inhibitor turret along with the inhibitor. On the cusp of the 29th minute, Unicorns took their fourth dragon of the night. With three more kills secured in front of their own Nexus, USE soon tore down their final line of defense and picked up their second match of the night.

Match 3

The third match of the series didn’t take long at all to get started. The 3rd minute saw the first teamfight take place with IW’s Elramir getting first blood. The Wildcats came out on top getting two kills there while USE also took one. Soon in the 6th minute, the second teamfight broke out and IW came out on top again as they took down Peach and Fun K3Y. Parus continued to harass the Unicorns as his grab helped Elramir take down Peach. It was now Lekcyc’s turn to return to base as another hook from Parus landed just right. Heading into the 11th minute, IW took their first dragon. Right after, USE destroyed the first turret of the match.

Despite the lead for IW in terms of kills, there was barely a gold difference between the two teams. The 12th minute saw Kofte taking down Mask thanks to… you guessed it! Another hook from Parus! A teamfight on the cusp of the 14th minute saw Wildcats picking up two more kills. IW picked up their second dragon of the match in the 16th minute. A teamfight in the 17th minute saw both teams trade in two of their players each. The Unicorns seemed to be getting into the flow as they soon picked up three kills back to back. Despite that, IW got their first Baron in the 22nd minute. IW soon went full aggression mode as they picked up an ace over their opponents. They also picked up another dragon in the 27th minute. A swift 4k by BAO soon ensured a smooth entry into the defense of Wildcats and that was IW’s first win of the night.

Match 4

The fourth match saw IW now starting on the red side. Both teams started off a little slow this time as the first blood came in the 9th minute courtesy of Kofte. The Unicorns soon responded by taking down Parus. BAO soon picked up the kill of Fun K3Y but he was avenged by his teammate, Peach. Kofte soon picked up his second kill by sending Mask back to the base. BAO and Kofte continued to wreak havoc as they took two more kills. Meanwhile, they also earned their first dragon of the match. This time it was Destroy’s turn to pick a kill and that was of Fun K3Y.

A tussle in the midlane saw Destroy pick up the life of Peach. Within the 20th minute, IW picked up their second dragon of the match. With things going back and forth, it was now Kofte again under the spotlight as he picked up the kill of Mask. On the cusp of the 26th minute, the Wildcats not only took Baron but also a sweet little ace to take down the nexus of Unicorns. It was now time for game 5!

Match 5

It was now time for the final showdown. The action kicked off from the 5th minute as Destroy picked up the first blood of the final match. The Wildcats continued to lead early game as they picked up the first dragon along with a kill on Peach. The 9th minute saw the lives of Parus and Fun K3Y being traded in at the bot lane. But Wildcat BAO was soon caught in a sticky situation as Peach took his life. Things continued to tumble down for Unicorns as it now Lekcyc this time who had to give up his life to BAO. Another fight at the midlane on the 14th minute saw both Lekcyc and Kofte being sent back to base.

IW continued to keep their cool as they kept targeting objectives one after the other maintaining a healthy gold lead. In the 21st minute, Wildcats picked up their third dragon. But the 23rd minute of the match came bearing bad news for IW as a teamfight around Baron went in favor of the Unicorns as they got three kills. Even though the Unicorns couldn’t get Baron, it was still a win for them. But they couldn’t smile for long as the 27th minute came bearing not only an ace but also a free Baron for the Wildcats. It was the 29th minute that put the final nail in the coffin of the Unicorns as the Wildcats picked up yet another ace. Thanks to that, they went straight for the nexus and it was game over there and then! The Wildcats made an amazing comeback from being down two matches to being crowned the champions of EMEA Masters Spring 2023!

It’s another good news for Turkish fans after Fnatic’s Valorant roster dominate another day at the VCT EMEA 2023. But for now it’s time to celebrate the glory of Istanbul Wildcats! They have showed that while Unicorns maybe magical- it’s the roar of the Wildcats that matters the most!