Team Vitality Spear Through Cloud9 In Copenhagen Major Playoffs

The defending champions, Team Vitality, have demolished Cloud9 in the opening match of the Copenhagen Major main event. The Russian squad has already been sent home in this tough single elimination bracket. 

Boombl4 and company looked terrific on the Swiss Stage. The North American organization started their Group Stage run with a 7-13 loss against Team Spirit, arguably the best team in the tournament. However, they proved that Spirit was the only one who could stop them, winning three matches in a row against ECSTATIC, G2, and NAVI to reach the Playoffs stage.

On the other hand, the Vitality roster looked quite shaky, even against significantly weaker opponents. They lost their opening match against Eternal Fire in a close Best of 1, then barely scraped past The MongolZ, Imperial, and Complexity. In-game leader apEx said that the team was not feeling too good.

Though the French organization would always be favored against the AWP-less team, fans argued that this was Cloud9’s best chance to defeat Vitality in a long time. However, the few days between the Swiss Stage and the Main Event proved enough for Vitality to get their stuff together and return to form. 

Map 1 – Inferno

The series started with Vitality’s pick of Inferno. Cloud9 rushed into the B bomb site, getting an opening kill, untraded, and getting the bomb down. The Vitality boys did not have a kit, but stormed in to retake the bomb site and managed to win the pistol and the two following rounds.

However, Cloud9 shut down the Vitality defense, posting two in a row. In round 6, the Russian captain led by example, winning a crucial 1v2 post-plant situation for his team. Blink, and you miss it; Cloud9 was suddenly up 6-3. Still, Vitality woke up from their slump to end the half 6-6.

In the second half, Vitality won their second pistol round and, again, converted the two following rounds to be up 9-6. Cloud9 finally mustered up a good buy and won two straight to keep the game close, putting Vitality on an eco round.

On a round where Team Vitality had no guns and no armor, an A rush proved successful after all five players swarmed Cloud9 on the bomb site, winning nearly a full eco. This round killed Cloud9’s momentum and ultimately allowed Vitality to win the next three rounds and take the game 13-8.

Map 2 – Anubis

Moving on to the second map, Anubis was set to be the battleground. Prior to the match, Cloud9 had won five of their last matches on the map, one of which was a swift 13-5 victory against their current opponents. 

Vitality won their third pistol round of the series and, following the series trend, won the next two rounds in conversion. Cloud9 could not win an opening duel for their lives, as flameZ, who is making his Major Playoff debut, was having the game of his life in the first half, going 15-2 at one point. 

The first half consisted of Cloud9 facing a man-disadvantage every round and saving two or three weapons for the next rounds. Vitality found themselves up 10-1, an absolute stomp. In the last round of the half, electronic finally found a play to keep his team hanging on by a thread after getting a three-man spraydown to collect scraps and end the half 10-2.

Despite Anubis being a heavily Terrorist-sided map, two rounds were not enough for Cloud9 to make a comeback, especially when they lost the second pistol round. Team Vitality could clean up the win 13-2 and send Cloud9 packing after a dominant 2-0 performance.

Post-Game Interview With flameZ

The man of the match, flameZ, was dragged in to share his thoughts after the convincing win. 

The 20-year-old was asked how he felt playing in his first Major Playoff:

“It felt really weird in the morning; I was really nervous. I knew that today was going to be a different day, but we are familiar with this arena; we’ve been here before. I felt that today we were the better team and also the better individuals. But yeah, it does feel like a Major Playoff and it feels different than any other tournament I’ve played in.” 

After a dominant performance, flameZ was asked how he felt going into the Semi Final:

“It gives us a lot of confidence. Obviously, now we have a day off, and we’re going to prepare for Team Spirit or FaZe. We’re going to watch the game, but we’re confident. We know we can beat any team if we play on our good side, and we just need to stick to it.”

With this result, Team Vitality broke into the Semi Finals, satisfying the thousands of fans cheering their names in the Royal Arena. ZywOo and the crew will look to prepare for their next match against the winner of Team Spirit and FaZe Clan, two of the highest-ranked teams in the world.