KSCERATO shines as FURIA see off Vitality in Belek

FURIA move on in the lower side of the StarSeries i-League Season 8 playoff bracket after outclassing Vitality in a two-map series.

It is back to the drawing board for Vitality after another painful defeat at StarSeries. For the third match in a row, the French team could not even pick up a map as they posed little threat against a composed FURIA side, who were led by the ever so consistent Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato. Vitality were nowhere near the level expected from a top five team in the world and will have some thinking to do before returning to action at IEM Beijing in less than two weeks.

The series began with a blowout of a game on Mirage, FURIA's map pick. Vitality looked lost on the map and bereft of ideas during the first half as they could only break through the Brazilian defense just one time, and in an eco round at that, as they replicated the 1-14 scoreline from the Mirage game against Renegades.

After switching to the CT side, Vitality still tried to get some rounds on the board in an effort to build some momentum before heading into the next map, but their resistance would not last long as FURIA secured back-to-back rounds to close out the game 16-5.

A quad-kill from Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy in the pistol round set Vitality up for a blazing fast start on Nuke. The French team appeared to be in control of the contest as they raced to a 5-1 lead, but then FURIA picked up the pace and dominated proceedings for the remainder of the half, with KSCERATO leading his team's efforts with 20 kills, twice as many as his next closest teammate.

Vitality leveled the scored after switching to the Terrorist side, but it all went downhill from there. Once they had guns in hand, FURIA set up a water-tight defense to keep the French players at bay, winning seven rounds without response to secure another convincing victory.