Team Vitality Maul Heroic At IEM Dallas Quarter-Final

Despite a rocky Group Stage, Team Vitality returned to form and quickly disposed of their Quarter-Final opponent, Heroic. The Danes have been eliminated from the tournament, while Team Vitality will play against Team Spirit next.

Team Vitality took a surprising loss against 9z in the Group Stage final, which was a shocking upset. Even though they had won their other Group Stage matches, the French organization had not looked too sharp, almost losing to Monte in a close game.

Meanwhile, Heroic has been looking heated. They are coming from a six-map win streak, taking down M80, Natus Vincere, and BIG to qualify for the Playoffs, all of which were 2-0 victories. Fans expected Heroic to put up a good fight in the series, even with their former AWPer, Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi, as a stand-in. However, this was not the case.

Map 1 – Nuke

Nuke was Heroic’s pick and is one of their best maps. However, they could not recreate their success in previous matches against Vitality.

Team Vitality won the pistol round and four straight, putting the score at 5-0 in their favor. Heroic could begin exchanging rounds, but the half ultimately ended at 7-5 for the French. Of all the names you’d expect to see on top of the scoreboard, it was Dan “apEx” Madesclaire leading the charge, going 14/7 with a 1.64 rating in the first half.

Heroic could not get much going after conceding the second pistol round, giving Team Vitality three more to lead 10-5. The Danes could find scraps, winning a couple of rounds here and there, but the lead was too significant, as Heroic was forced to concede the map 13-8.

Again, apEx was also the most impactful player in the second half. Despite showing low levels of individual performance throughout the event, apEx was named the highest-rated player on Nuke, going 22-13 with a 1.60 rating, 0.60 more than his star player, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.

Map 2 – Dust II

The next map on the cards was Dust II, Team Vitality’s choice. Unfortunately, Heroic looked like they were out of steam for this one.

Team Vitality won the third pistol round of the series, but Heroic won the following round with a force buy to keep the game competitive. However, after getting the bomb down despite the round loss, Team Vitality bought back weapons and won the third round.

After winning Round 3, Team Vitality had built all the momentum they needed to demolish the first half. ApEx called a near-flawless Terrorist side, allowing Vitality to win nine rounds in a row to end the half 10-2. All of Vitality’s star players were fragging out.

After winning the fourth pistol round, Team Vitality swiftly closed the series after a 13-2 victory on Dust II. ZywOo was back in top shape, going 16/4, with a 4.00 KD ratio, and a 2.06 rating. However, the highest-rated player in the entire series was apEx, with a 1.48 series rating compared to ZywOo’s 1.43.

Won 2-0 over @heroicgg !
Much better showing today, and life game on nuke.
Gg wp, cu tomorrow !

— Dan Madesclaire (@Vitality_apEX) May 31, 2024

Heroic’s miraculous run at IEM Dallas ends here. All things considered, they displayed a valiant performance with a stand-in and will exit the tournament at 5-6th place.

We tried our best but it was not enough this time. It was fun to finally experience the arena with this team. Ggwp @TeamVitality 👍

Out of IEM Dallas.

— kyxsan (@kyxsancs) May 31, 2024