Vitality edge out Astralis to reach DreamHack Open Fall grand final

The Danish team will need to beat the winner of HEROIC - Ninjas in Pyjamas to earn a grand final rematch against the Frenchmen.

Being blown out of the water on Nuke (16-4) didn't shake Vitality in the upper-bracket series of DreamHack Open Fall, as they recovered and took Dust2 (16-10) and Overpass (16-11) to claim the best-of-three win.

This ends Astralis streak of six consecutive series won over the French team, and sends the Danes to the consolidation final where they will have to beat their countrymen HEROIC or neighbours Ninjas in Pyjamas to reach the BO5 grand final. On the other hand, Vitality will have their fourth shot at winning a tournament this year, after finishing runners up at BLAST Premier Spring Europe Finals, cs_summit 6 Europe, and ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe.

A bleak showing from Vitality on Nuke opened the series, with Astralis running over the Frenchmen to take a 9-0 lead as Terrorists, while no Vitality member managed more than five kills. They soon added their first, but Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's team was unable to close out the following 3v5, allowing Astralis to run away with the half.

The Danes switched to the defense with a 13-2 advantage, as the duo of Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz and Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen shined, combining for 34 kills. The second half was brought to an end quickly, as Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen clutched out a 2v4 to conclude Nuke 16-4.

Dust2 looked nothing like Nuke, as the second map offered nail-biter action right from the start. Vitality's pistol win was cancelled out by Astralis' force buy, and the back-and-forth force-wars continued for 10 rounds, without either team being able to chain two rounds together. The madness was finally brought to an end after Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut clutched a 1v4, seeing Vitality go up 7-4.

Astralis found their footing at the end of the half, though, and managed to pull back into the lead before the half-time switch (8-7). On the defensive side, Vitality managed to weather the storm, surviving a couple of Astralis' scary force buys, and with ZywOo's consistent contributions and Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier's seven opening kills, the French team closed out the map 16-10.

Two Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon quad kills set up Vitality for a 7-3 lead on the CT side of Overpass as the series rolled towards a conclusion. With the momentum on their side, apEX and co. constantly caused problems for Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander's team with their aggression, limiting the Danes' T side to just three rounds.

The first two rounds of the second half went Astralis' way, setting the foundation for a CT-side comeback. They got up to 10 rounds before Vitality managed to expose gaps in the defense and finish off the series with a 16-11 win on the decider, 2-1 for the series..