Vitality defeat Sprout in ESL Pro League Group B opening match

Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen's men were taken to the brink on Inferno, but ultimately prevailed in overtime to keep the series to two maps.

Vitality have kicked off their ESL Pro League run with a victory in the first Group B match, taking out Sprout on Dust2 (16-7) and Inferno (22-20) to get their run in Dusseldorf, Germany, underway on the right foot.

Despite losing their map pick amply and not managing to upset Vitality, Sprout showed face on Inferno and proved that their recent feat of qualifying for the European RMR was no fluke, with Dane Rasmus "⁠raalz⁠" Steensborg’s clutch play offering his team several lifelines on Inferno that were ultimately not converted into a victory to force a decider map.

With this victory the squad led by Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire have put the first stone in what they will hope to be a better showing than their 9-12th place at IEM Katowice, where they lost to HEROIC and Gambit after an opening round victory over MOUZ. They will now go on to face ENCE on the second day of play in a bid to keep a clean record in the round robin stage.

The match started with a strong A hit in pistols by Sprout to get ahead on their Dust2 map pick, but Vitality hit back in forcebuy with a triple by Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut with a scout while holding the A site. From there on out the French-Danish squad asserted their dominance, securing an 11-4 lead at the half.

The two Danes in the team, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen, topped the board by the end of the map as Vitality didn’t give Fritz "⁠slaxz-⁠" Dietrich and company a chance to get comfortable in the second half, closing out proceedings 16-7.

ZywOo then came alive on Inferno, where he was a crucial piece of the attack, wielding his highly lethal AWP as Vitality took a 9-6 lead at the half. He was also a defining factor in the map as a whole as he remained atop the scoreboard on the CT side despite Sprout working on mounting a comeback. Sprout squad got to within one round of tying, 13-14, and although Vitality hit match point, raalz clutched a crucial 1vs2 to bring it back to within one and keep the series alive.

Sprout’s Danish veteran then downed four players in the following round to force overtime, where he continued to shine by winning a 1vs4 in the 32nd round to put a tie back on the scoreboard.

ZywOo then got a 1vs2 clutch of his own when up against match point to force double overtime, which saw the two teams remain with horns locked up until the last round, when the more experienced Vitality team finally managed to get the edge to win it 22-20 and end the match 2-0.