Team Vitality’s struggles were compounded at BLAST Open Porto’s Group Stage as the legendary roster fell to Inner Circle in their opening match of the event.
Vitality were without William ‘mezii’ Merriman as he began his paternity leave period, with Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavičius standing in for the roster during mezii’s absence and the later absence of IGL Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire for the same reason.
How Inner Circle took Vitality down at BLAST Open Porto
Inner Circle stunned Vitality 2-0 in their opening contest of BLAST Open Porto in BLAST’s Copenhagen Studios. Inner Circle outfought Vitality across Anubis and Cache as Vitality failed to establish their usual dominance.
Following a 7-5 T-side half on Anubis, which saw Vitality AWPer Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut fall to a 0/7 K/D early in the game, Inner Circle fought an aggressive CT-side to keep Vitality off balance and convert the map 13-8.
On Cache, Vitality started much the stronger, seemingly well on their way to victory on the map with a 6-0 scoreline. However, Inner Circle dug in to secure retake after retake, closing the half out 6-6 as ZywOo continued to struggle.
Once again, Vitality had the better start to the second half, securing map point at 12-7, but failing to convert as Inner Circle’s Daniil ‘headtr1ck’ Valitov and Arseniy ‘cptkurtka023’ Derevinskiy proved to be a dynamic duo, securing overtime and converting the map with a 16-13 scoreline to take Vitality down.
Vitality’s form continues to falter as VRS pressure grows
The result came after a few disappointing results for Vitality that saw the roster miss out on the BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals after an online stage defeat to Team Liquid.
That opening failure was compounded by the roster’s defeat at the Esports World Cup to Team Spirit, the eventual champions of the event.
The EWC CS2 tournament was the last time Vitality’s famous five will be together for the foreseeable future, as mezii and apEX welcome their respective children into the world.
The defeat therefore deprived Vitality of a chance to win a trophy before jL’s stand-in period, but also denied the organization the chance to relive their BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 victory in front of the French crowd, as the Grand Final of the event occurred in the Accor Arena, where Vitality won its first Major as an organization.
Now with jL as a stand-in and a shortened schedule due to the absences of their players, Vitality are now in a race to perform with the understaffed roster to guarantee a Stage 3 invite to the PGL Singapore Major in November/December.
Certainly, those wins need to come sooner rather than later, as VRS points degrade rapidly, meaning Vitality’s placement in Stage 3 of the Major is far from assured.
Vitality will play the loser of MOUZ vs 9z in the lower bracket of the competition, now requiring a flawless run through the lower bracket to qualify for the six-team playoffs in Porto’s Super Bock Arena.
Can Vitality contend with a stand-in? Share your thoughts with us on the Insider Gaming Discord.
You can also read our EWC winner’s interview with tN1R! And for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter.
Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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