FURIA prevail over Vitality to book DH Masters Spring playoff spot

The Brazilian team have completed their lower bracket run to lock down a quarter-final place.

FURIA have secured a quarter-final playoff spot at DreamHack Masters Spring after taking down Vitality 2-0 in Group B’s lower bracket final, eliminating the French side in the process. The Brazilian team now awaits the loser of Gambit and Natus Vincere in the first round of the playoffs, which is scheduled to take place on Friday.

After securing a confident victory on Vertigo, Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato and co. had work to do when they found themselves against the odds on Nuke, especially after losing the second half pistol. In typical FURIA style, the Brazilian squad was hyper-aggressive with numerous A site hits, which proved crucial to flipping the map on its head. "I had a feeling when we started playing the T side rounds that they would focus on lower a lot," Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan said in the post-match interview. "I thought we could exploit their setup, and it worked."

Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier opened up Vertigo with a pistol triple kill on the way to a 4-0 start on the CT side, but FURIA got their first round on the board in the fifth and put together a streak of their own in reply. The Brazilians won the vast majority of the remaining rounds in the half to lead 9-6 at the midway point despite a red-hot Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut posting a 21-7 K-D. Vitality kicked off their offence brightly to bring the deficit to a solitary round before FURIA readjusted and tightened up their defence to confidently shut down the Frenchmen and secure the map 16-10.

Vitality came out on Nuke with a blistering pace to overwhelm FURIA and claim a 5-1 advantage. ZywOo looked to have added another to his team’s tally if not for a 1v2 clutch from arT, which initiated a run of rounds that tied up the score. The Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire-led side refused to let their opponents find any more success and hit a higher gear to edge ahead, with the increased intensity resulting in a 9-6 difference at the break.

The French squad made it four pistol round victories from four in the series to extend their lead, but FURIA responded instantly to prevent the map getting away from them. KSCERATO and arT spearheaded a deadly offence for a 14-11 advantage before Vitality snatched two back in their favour and a Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon 1v2 levelled the score. The final two rounds were traded in a nail-biting ending to regulation as overtime was needed to determine a winner. KSCERATO continued his impactful performance into overtime, where he added eight more kills to his tally on the way to a 19-17 victory.