Team Vitality’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad has won its first title in 2020 after beating Na’Vi in a 3-2 series. Despite conceding the first two maps on Nuke and Dust2, the French squad rallied behind Shox’s performance on Overpass, misutaaa’s on Inferno and ZywOo on Mirage, thwarting an otherwise great day for s1mple.
The grand final started well for the CIS squad as Na’Vi picked Vitality apart on Nuke, with s1mple finishing the map with a 2.10 ratio. The team dominated their opponents on T-side with a 10:5 round score, only to improve the mark to 16:5 upon switching to CT-side after a 4k by flamie on the pistol round.
Na’Vi built upon their momentum with a map victory on Dust2, but it was far more disputed as Vitality showed signs of life on the T-side. When the two teams swapped sides, Na’Vi held a narrow 8:7 round lead, but they quickly improved it through a stellar Round 20 showing by s1mple. Although his team conceded two rounds in a row when attacking the B site, they eventually closed the map 16:12 with a boombl4 four-kill round.
With the finals on the line, Vitality awoke on Overpass, leaving little room for breathing on either side: a 12:3 start on CT side for the French squad made matters considerably easy, a matter they later confirmed as they closed the map on T-side 16:6.
The same nearly happened on Inferno as, after a 11:4 start on T-side, misutaaa defended the A site with a 4k from cover. All signs pointed towards an equally smooth map victory for Team but the combative CIS team went on two small streaks (from 4:13 to 9:14), before Vitality was able to afford rifles and scored a solid victory on their buy round — leading to an eventual 16:9 victory for the French team instead.
With the two teams eyeing the IEM Beijing trophy on Mirage, Team Vitality’s ZywOo took matters in his own hands on the T side with an ace on the pistol round, then another ace on the sixth round on Na’Vi’s buy round — both around the A site. Eventually, Na’Vi awoke on Round 12 with a successful defuse behind smoke cover. Even then, they entered the side swap with a five-round deficit, 10:5.
Despite winning the first three rounds, Na’Vi were unable to fully close the lead that the French team had built. Team Vitality’s crucial round of the A site on Round 22, with shox as the main contributor, allowed them to secure momentum, culminating in ZywOo fragging s1mple on the final round of the series. With Vitality winning the map 16:8, the team was finally able to win its first final in 2020 after five attempts.
You can watch highlights below:
