Vitality send NAVI to BLAST Premier Fall Finals lower bracket after double overtime affair

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company have secured a place in the upper bracket final of the tournament.

Vitality defeated Natus Vincere after a heated battle on two maps, winning both Nuke and Dust2 in overtime affairs. Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's squad now have to fight through the lower bracket, which will see them take on FURIA in a first encounter between the two organizations since mid-2019.

After handily beating the French side on Nuke a few weeks ago at IEM Beijing-Haidan, Natus Vincere opted to pick Nuke as the first map of the series, but this time Vitality proved to be a much tougher nut to crack.

The opener went back and forth, with neither team being able to establish dominance after the first half as they kept exchanging a few rounds at a time until the map reached overtime. There, Vitality found the recipe for success, with Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut playing key roles as the French team went 4-0 to clinch their opponent's pick.

NAVI looked poised to answer on Dust2 with force after the opening stretches of the first half saw them string together eight rounds on the defense, but once Vitality broke through the first time the whole map flipped on its head. Playing with Nabil "⁠Nivera⁠" Benrlitom instead of misutaaa, the Frenchmen closed out the half with six in a row and quickly got the second half under control with a forcebuy win, consistently getting early picks and maintaining the advantage in retake scenarios.

Their successful run came to a halt at 14-10, however, with Natus Vincere choosing the correct timings to explode each bombsite and abuse Vitality's forward setups, and the map reached overtime once again. This time, NAVI were the first to strike, courtesy of Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev's 1v2 clutch, but the French side responded with four in a row, with Nivera closing out the match with an all-important triple.