Vitality knock Gambit out of IEM Winter; advance to semi-final

The Frenchmen advance to face Virtus.pro after beating Gambit in 2-1 fashion.

Vitality are through to the semi-final of IEM Winter after besting Gambit in a three-map series, maintaining their undefeated record against Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov's troops after previously scoring 2-0 series wins at IEM Summer and ESL Pro League Season 14. The French side will next take on Virtus.pro in their semi-final matchup, where they'll look to make back-to-back grand final appearances after finishing as the runner-ups of BLAST Premier Fall Final.

It was a blowout that kicked the series off as Vitality ran away with their map pick, Dust2, taking it in dominant fashion before the teams locked horns on Vertigo, where Gambit were able to answer back to force a Mirage decider. There, Vitality were hot off the trot, posting a large lead in the first half before requiring overtime to eventually close things out, 19-17.

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's side kicked off the match with a pistol victory, converting the momentum into a streak of three rounds to take an early lead. Once rifles were in hand, Gambit got on the board, with Timofey "⁠interz⁠" Yakushin securing a 1vs4 clutch to help Gambit up to a 5-3 scoreline.

However, things took a turn for the worse for nafany's crew as Vitality swept the final seven rounds of the half, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut and apEX adding insult to injury as they fought back in a 2vs5 in round 15 for a dominant 10-5 half. Gambit fared little better after the break as Vitality continued their spree, adding six more rounds to their tally as they quickly swept up the map, 16-5.

Stellar individual form was key in Gambit replying on Vertigo, a map which they kicked off by winning six rounds in a row. A Deagle round from Vitality allowed them to finally crack through and win four in a row themselves, but it was Gambit who emerged ahead at the end of the half, 9-6, thanks to a number of multi-kill rounds from Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov.

ZywOo and Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier helped their side tie up the score at the start of the second half, but a sweep of the series was not to be as interz stepped up to deny. A 2.24-rated performance on the CT-side from the 21-year-old entirely locked the French team out of the remainder of the map as they rode the momentum into a 16-9 win to force a Mirage decider.

There, it was a resurgence from Vitality that set the pace of the first half, during which Gambit were unable to string together any round wins, leaving them with just four individual wins to their name heading into the side swap — one courtesy of a key 1vs3 clutch by Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov.

Despite reliable impact in opening duels from ZywOo and apEX, Vitality struggled to close out the map even with their immense lead, and they found themselves on the receiving end of an almost identical treatment in the second half as Gambit managed to push the map to overtime, not allowing Vitality any back-to-back round wins. That momentum initially carried into overtime, where Gambit took the first two rounds, but a complete comeback was denied by multi-kill rounds from ZywOo and misutaaa as they swept four rounds in a row to close out the series.