Vitality secure first grand final spot with comfortable 2-0 victory over OG

OG's impressive Pro League run ends in a whimper as they never seriously threatened Vitality in a one sided series.

OG could not continue their impressive run at this ESL Pro League, falling 2-0 on Mirage and Nuke to a Vitality that showed excellent form across the board to secure their first grand final spot since late 2020. It will be encouraging for Vitality that they did not need to rely on the star man Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut to haul them to victory, with each of the five Frenchmen securing vital frags and clutches at different points in the series.

Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier identified the veto as a key component in his team's victory: "They picked Mirage first against us, and we feel really confident in our Mirage. We thought they would pick Dust2, but they didn't, unlucky!"

We opened the series with OG's map pick of Mirage, and the boys in blue got themselves off to a good start, winning their Terrorist pistol and converting to a 4-0 lead. Vitality quickly began to take control of the half, finding opening kills consistently and abusing OG's ponderous mid-rounds with quick flanks. Despite a huge 1v2 clutch from Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski to secure a half-buy win late in the half, OG simply couldn't get back into it and went into the second half 9-6 down.

Vitality opened up their T side with a pistol and second round win, and got themselves to a 14-8 lead before OG really found their feet in the half. As has been the case with the rest of the tournament, Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan once again was the pillar around which OG tried to rally, but it simply wasn't enough for the European roster and Vitality secured the win, 16-12.

A shared team effort on the fragging front meant ZywOo was surplus to requirements for the French squad. mantuu once again was not his usual self, sitting bottom of the scoreboard for the 2nd time in OG's playoff campaign after being a top 5 rated player during group play.

The series moved to the Frenchmen's pick of Nuke, and it turned out to be a straightforward affair for Vitality. They won their T side pistol and converted, and despite OG managing to pick up the next three, Vitality ran away with the half. Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's team saw great success with slow yard plays, taking space away from OG and often catching rotations; the European side contributed to their own downfall by consistently losing rounds where mantuu found the opening pick with his AWP. The boys in blue could only muster one further round, giving Vitality and 11-4 lead going into their CT half.

OG encapsulated their performance in this series by losing to a forcebuy after winning the pistol, and despite the boys in blue cobbling together a couple of rounds, Vitality comfortably secured the map 16-7. ZywOo was back to his best on Nuke, topping the scoreboard with 114 ADR for Vitality and securing multiple opening frags with his AWP.