FURIA close in on EPL playoffs after hard-fought win over Vitality

A concerning series performance from Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut saw the French-Danish side falter against the Brazilians.

FURIA have taken a significant step towards a spot in the ESL Pro League Season 15 playoffs after picking up their third consecutive victory in Group B, taking down Vitality following a hard-fought battle on the deciding Nuke, which came down to the 30th round and a 1v1 clutch.

The Vitality victory isn't enough to secure the Brazilians a top-three finish in the group, but a Sprout upset over FaZe at the end of the third day would see FURIA lock down one of the playoffs spots after they also picked up victories over Outsiders and Rasmus "⁠raalz⁠" Steensborg's team.

For the team around Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire, the narrow loss comes as a tough blow as they now find themselves 1-2 in the round robin, having won their opener against Sprout and lost to ENCE in the second round, and will likely need to win their last two matches to have a shot at making it to the bracket stage.

The yuurih-KSCERATO-arT trio were firing on all cylinders

Following the Vertigo opener, Nicholas "⁠guerri⁠" Nogueira shared his belief that FURIA picking the map instead of Mirage — a clear weak point for Vitality — came as a surprise to the French-Danish squad, and that's certainly how it had looked on the server.

Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan was a terrifying presence in ramp, leading from the vanguard as usual as he kept creating opportunities for FURIA to enter A uncontested and for Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato to close the rounds, while everyone else pitched in as well en route to a near-perfect offensive half. With 11 rounds to their name, the South American side stormed to a quick closing once they converted the second pistol round on the back of a timely rotation to A.

Inferno turned out a much closer and back-and-forth affair in which neither team was able to establish momentum for longer than a couple of rounds, until a key eco round victory turned the tide.

After an 8-7 half in favor of apEX's team, FURIA took the lead at the beginning of the second only to fall to the French in-game leader's multi-kills, and the tug of war continued until it came to round 25. There, FURIA left themselves with too little time in an A attack against just pistols and a saved weapon, and a key Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier 1v2 clutch swung economy and momentum in favor of Vitality, who went on to close the map 16-12.

Nuke was heading in a similar direction despite FURIA getting off the line in lightning-fast fashion on the CT side, with Vitality managing to claw back from an early 2-8 deficit to make it a close half after all and taking the lead to kick off the second. FURIA did not let themselves fall too far behind, though, as they converted a key halfbuy round at 11-12 and, unlike on Inferno, salvaged a scary anti-eco on the back of a KSCERATO 1v3 to retake the lead.

Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen & co. held on, pushing it all the way to 30 rounds, but they faltered at the last minute to a Rafael "⁠saffee⁠" Costa clutch despite a well-timed rotation to the B bombsite.

ESL Pro League Season 15Best of 3

Vitality

Matchpage

1

2

18th March 2022

FURIA

4

Vertigo

16

16

Inferno

12

14

Nuke

16

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	51 - 56	-5	78.9	62.8%	1.02
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	55 - 53	+2	76.5	66.7%	0.99
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautZywOo	47 - 52	-5	68.1	69.2%	0.91
Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussendupreeh	48 - 55	-7	66.0	65.4%	0.89
Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabiermisutaaa	34 - 61	-27	55.8	59.0%	0.71

FURIA	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Yuri 'yuurih' Santosyuurih	67 - 43	+24	91.0	83.3%	1.44
Kaike 'KSCERATO' CeratoKSCERATO	65 - 43	+22	90.7	80.8%	1.37
Andrei 'arT' PiovezanarT	62 - 55	+7	93.7	76.9%	1.35
Rafael 'saffee' Costasaffee	47 - 47	0	57.5	67.9%	0.90
André 'drop' Abreudrop	35 - 49	-14	58.8	78.2%	0.89