Vitality eliminate BIG after a four-hour thriller

Day 3 continues to deliver with one of the most exciting matches of the Legends Stage.

BIG's adventure at the PGL Major Antwerp was abruptly ended after their third defeat in the Swiss stage at the hands of Vitality. The German squad came into the match with a 1-2 record following defeats to Natus Vincere and FURIA and will now travel home after an underwhelming finish at the event given the team's incredible performance in the European RMR.

Meanwhile, Vitality's miraculous recovery from an initial 0-2 record continues, and they now have just one more best-of-three standing between them and the knockout stage of the Major. Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut was a force of nature on the last map, proving himself as the difference-maker in the elimination match.

The French-Danish mix played a fantastic opening half on Mirage, starting off on the offensive by taking the pistol and the follow-up rounds to go 4-0 up. ZywOo shined on the T side, pushing his squad to a 10-5 half as he accumulated a 16-7 K-D and a 1.54 rating. After taking the second pistol, the game was too far gone in favor of Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's squad. Despite a late resurgence from the Germans, Vitality were able to close their map pick 16-9.

What followed on Vertigo was a thriller of a map, with BIG taking over the offensive side with both Johannes "⁠tabseN⁠" Wodarz and Florian "⁠syrsoN⁠" Rische playing at the top of their game to take an 11-4 lead. ZywOo was surprisingly quiet on the defense but he would come alive after switching sides, joining Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen in his quest to force a comeback. Vitality took the second pistol and claimed all but one of the following 10 rounds, retaking the lead of the game and setting themselves up for a 2-0 with a 14-12 scoreline.

However, Josef "⁠faveN⁠" Baumann would hear none of that. The young rifler came into his own in the late stages of the game and was a crucial piece in BIG's hold out, taking down apEX, dupreeh, and Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif on the B site to force overtime. It took two sets of extra time, but the Germans eventually came out on top to bring the series to Nuke with a 22-19 victory.

Vitality opened up Nuke with a pistol victory, but a second-round force buy by BIG stole their momentum, condemning the Ts to a 1-7 deficit. Always in the spirit of comebacks, apEX's squad responded with seven consecutive rounds of their own on the offense, with the French-Danish mix proving more effective during clutch situations to close the half 8-7 ahead.

The second side would turn out to be equally as competitive, with both teams fighting tooth and nail for every round. Vitality were able to scrape a 14-12 lead, but in a similar fashion to Vertigo, they were unable to close out the game, conceding overtime to the Germans. This time, ZywOo did not allow history to repeat itself, going absolutely nuclear in extra time to drag his squad to a 19-17 victory.