Vitality have eased their way into the grand final of StarLadder StarSeries Fall, grabbing a comfortable 2-0 victory over FURIA via wins on Cache (13-5) and Anubis (13-8).
The intrigue in the series began in the veto: FURIA opted to leave their usual ban of Anubis open, choosing instead to take Dust2 away from Vitality with their first ban. Vitality duly jumped on the opportunity and opted for the Anubis punish pick.
"We wanted to experiment playing a different map pool against them," Sid "sidde" Macedo told James "BanKs" Banks after the match. "We figured we might maybe throw Anubis in there, we expected them to pick it, and it was a map we felt comfortable playing against them. In the end we couldn't win it, but the idea was playing something other than Dust2 against them."
FURIA were perhaps banking on taking their own pick of Cache to kick off the series, but were instead found wanting. There was some initial promise on their T side, Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis finding openings before FURIA usually found the right site to hit, but Vitality's individual brilliance put a stop to things.
First Robin "ropz" Kool found several important multi-kills on the B bombsite, the first coming with a Five-Seven, before Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut put up a stern hold with the AWP on A, leading to a streak of Vitality rounds that only ended with a Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo 1v2 in the final round of the half.
FURIA couldn't muster much on their own defense, a YEKINDAR multi-kill getting them their only round of the half before Shahar "flameZ" Shushan served up a gut-punch of a 1v2 to allow Vitality to close out the map.
Anubis didn't go that much better for FURIA, as another loss against a bad buy thanks to an Dan "apEX" Madesclaire clutch broke their 2-0 on T side, and Vitality ran with the momentum to a dominant 8-4 score.
A comeback was teased in the second half, FURIA finally winning a force-buy of their own before a FalleN 4K push through A main allowed them to really find their footing, but once again Vitality's star power shone through, ZywOo in particular driving his team forwards to a comfortable series win.
Vitality's work is not done, as they are set to play a BO5 grand final against Aurora later today.
Vitality
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire
Robin 'ropz' Kool
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan
William 'mezii' Merriman
Rémy 'XTQZZZ' Quoniam
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanPast 3 months
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautPast 3 months
Gabriel 'FalleN' ToledoPast 3 months
Robin 'ropz' KoolPast 3 months
James 'BanKs' BanksPast 3 months
Aurora
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş
Özgür 'woxic' Eker
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
Damjan 'kyxsan' Stoilkovski
Ali 'Wicadia' Haydar Yalçın
Ashley 'ash' Battye
Dan 'apEX' MadesclairePast 3 months
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' GaļinskisPast 3 months
Sid 'sidde' Macedo
FURIA
Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
Yuri 'yuurih' Santos
Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis
Kaike 'KSCERATO' Cerato
Danil 'molodoy' Golubenko
Sid 'sidde' Macedo