Vitality have clung on to their BLAST Open Porto campaign after fighting past Legacy 2-1 in the lower bracket of Group B (16-14 Nuke, 9-13 Mirage, 13-8 Dust2).
Loathsome T sides encapsulated the series, with Vitality showing clear growing pains adjusting to an event with Justinas "jL" Lekavicius playing instead of William "mezii" Merriman. Those adjustments will have to come quickly with a match against FUT standing between Dan "apEX" Madesclaire's men and the playoffs on Monday.
Legacy will also have plenty to look back on after squandering a 10-2 lead on Nuke, which could have helped them sweep the series in two. Santino "try" Rigal continued to be a standout member for his new team, but his efforts weren't enough to overcome Vitality on the decider once they finally came online.
Vitality began the match looking more like the team that failed to show up against Inner Circle, getting barraged on their Nuke pick amidst an uninspired T side and a disastrous half from Robin "ropz" Kool (1-10 K-D, 1-6 in openers) and Shahar "flameZ" Shushan (1-9 K-D).
Legacy seemed unstoppable as highlight moments were taken in turn, first by Vinicius "n1ssim" Pereira with a quad-kill to kick things off, then a triple from try in a 3v5, and later, a quad from Eduardo "dumau" Wolkmer to keep piling on the pain en route to a 10-2 half.
But it was meager offenses all around as the Brazilians collapsed after the swap, losing momentum after a 1v3 clutch from Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut turned an early round. Fortune continued to favor Vitality as Bruno "latto" Rebelatto hit a legshot to just miss out on a 1v3 ace clutch, and one of Legacy's only two rounds came by way of flameZ somehow not seeing try on SIlo as Vitality eventually secured overtime and the win.
Legacy's T side struggles continued on Mirage as they won the pistol and a force-buy after losing the conversion, but soon found themselves staring down a 2-7 deficit once apEX pulled off a miracle quad-kill. The Brazilians took over at the end of the half and into the swap, though, with a 2.06-rated showing from dumau and a pivotal triple from try powering a near-lockout defense to secure a 13-9 win.
Vitality's T side finally clicked on Dust2, with apEX becoming the unlikely frontrunner for his team in an embattled first half that ended in a stalemate. Legacy's economy spiraled once on the T side, questionable hero rifle buys and pistol forces never giving them a proper chance to stabilize with try on an AWP and with full grenades in hand, and the trio of ZywOo, flameZ, and apEX took full advantage as they cruised towards a 13-8 finish.
Bruno 'latto' RebelattoPast 3 months
Legacy
Andrei 'arT' Piovezan
Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer
Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto
Vinicius 'n1ssim' Pereira
Santino 'try' Rigal
Alan 'adrrr' Riveros
Vinicius 'n1ssim' PereiraPast 3 months
Justinas 'jL' LekaviciusPast 3 months
Robin 'ropz' KoolPast 3 months
Inner Circle
Arseniy 'cptkurtka023' Derevinskiy
Daniil 'headtr1ck' Valitov
Eduard 'zeRRoFIX' Petrovskyi
Viktor 'onic' Babii
David 'Dawy' Bibik
Dmytro 'jR' Chervak
Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
Eduardo 'dumau' WolkmerPast 3 months
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautPast 3 months
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanPast 3 months
FUT
Yasin 'xfl0ud' Koç
Dmytro 'dem0n' Myroshnychenko
Aulon 'Krabeni' Fazlija
Nikita 'cmtry' Samolotov
Džiugas 'dziugss' Steponavičius
András 'coolio' Fercsák
Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePast 3 months
Santino 'try' RigalPast 3 months
William 'mezii' MerrimanPast 3 months