Vitality outbrawls Global Esports in close 2-1 bout

Team Vitality has taken down Pacific's first seeded Global Esports in their opening match of Champions.

The trajectory of the two teams coming into this match could not be more different. Vitality is a team full of proven, tournament winning talent, but fumbled in Stage 2, only just making Champions off of points. GE, on the other hand, is a crop of upcoming players making a meteoric rise to win the whole of Pacific Stage 2. After several blowouts across the past two days of Champions, the matchup between these two teams finally proved a close and competitive game. In the end, it was the experienced members of Vitality that were able to bring the match over GE.

Starting out on Abyss, GE quickly found themselves in a rut, struggling to close rounds against Vitality's attack. After going down 4-10, they finally put together semblance of a comeback, but it was too little too late, and Vitality eventually closed out the map 13-10.

An insane clutch from PROFEK .

In map two of Ascent, it was GE's infamous star PatMen that took control of the game, with two very important 4k rounds. The first was a 1v3 on GE's round 2 eco, which mitigated the effects of Vitlaity's pistol win.. The second was a 4k on the second pistol, which let GE run up to an 11-6 lead.

PatMen commands an immense amount of respect on the server.

On the other side of the stage, Jamppi was delivering belters of his own, with an insane ace to give his team hope of a comeback. However, GE was able to close out the map in the end 13-9.

The IGL takes charge to breathe life into his team.

Summit was the decider map of the series: a strong map for GE, and a relatively untested one for Vitality. GE ran their usual composition which uniquely featured both Veto and Tejo, while Vitality brought out a new composition, which placed Chronicle on Neon for only the second time in his career.

What ensued was a scrappy map defined by heroic plays from both teams. Derke 's Chamber pulled out many magical moments, while xavi8k from GE had his fair share of stunners.

An impossible spot to get four from.

The teams entered the second half dead even, but Vitality pulled ahead with a pistol and bonus round win. They eventually got up to match point at 12-8. However, they struggled to close out the map, as GE was able to fight back each round, even when it seemed lost to them. It all culminated in the insane final round of regulation, where Vitality barely managed to win, denied overtime, and ended the series.

Utter chaos to end the series.

From the Press Room

Each coach was asked about the scrappiness of the final round and the game in general: GE Platoon : “We scrambled a bit… they were more sure of themselves and what they wanted to do and we weren't.” VIT PAL : “Overall it was a good start for us… we just needed a bit more of the looseness towards the end, but I think it's fairly expected.”

GE xavi8k on most important things to work on: “Playing against different regions: usually in APAC, rounds don't go to 20 seconds, 10 seconds… going into our next game, we have the experience from playing today.”

VIT Chronicle on playing uncomfortable agents: “On the agents I'm most uncomfortable with I [expected I] will not perform super good… but I just destroyed people on the map. Sometimes [that's] just [the] randomness of the game, but I'm also happy with it, but also I have a lot of things to improve on.”

Finally, and most importantly, new upcoming freelance journalist Elias Olkkonen of Team Vitality posed a question to coach Scuttt :

Elias: “What's been your favorite food so far?”

Scuttt: “I like the dumplings, the dumplings have been nice.”

Vitality with their win will go on to face the winner of LOUD vs. EDG for a playoffs spot, while GE will fight the loser to keep their Champion hopes alive.