ZywOo excels as Vitality advance to ECS grand final over NRG

Vitality have defeated NRG 2-0 (Overpass 19-15, Mirage 16-7) with Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut putting up a carry performance en route to the grand final at ECS Season 7 Finals.

The second semi-final began on Overpass, with NRG getting off to the better start after a second-round forcebuy victory. An ace in defense of the A bombsite from ZywOo in the fifth round helped Vitality regain the lead, but it was soon taken away from them after Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele and Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov won a couple of unlikely clutches to go on a six-round streak.

ZywOo replied with a 1v2 of his own, giving his team their fifth round in the half towards the end, and doubles from him and Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire in the second pistol round saw the deficit lower to just two rounds. apEX's great contribution continued over the next five rounds, securing a couple of multikills and a 1v1 clutch to turn things in the French team's favor.

Up against the ropes at 11-13 with a halfbuy, an aggressive setup in water saved NRG from drowning and Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte added a quad-kill through a smoke on top in the next round, gaining a one-round advantage. However, a winner wasn't found in regulation, as the two sides went back and forth in the last three rounds and the opening map went to overtime. There, ZywOo's 1v3 clutch set up Vitality for a perfect Terrorist side, and great play around the timer running low in the first round as CT saw them go 4-0 to bag a 1-0 series lead.

Mirage followed in similar fashion as apEX put up one more clutch, a 1v2, in the first pistol round to lead his team to 3-0. Much like many times throughout the earlier stages of the tournament and the first map of the series, Vitality lost to an eco in the fourth round, allowing NRG to equalize the scoreline at 3-3. However, the Frenchmen still remained in control for most of the half, with six of the next seven rounds going their way as they came out on top of a 3v5 situation and ZywOo added another clutch to his name, as Vitality secured a 9-6 half.

When the second pistol round went their way and Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt stepped up in with a quad-kill when both sides had full weaponry for the first time, Vitality quickly reached the 13th round, and they had little trouble closing things out at 16-7 when the captain secured the last round for his team with yet another 1v2 clutch.