Vitality ease past Endpoint in ESL Pro League opener

The favorites did not disappoint with a clean 2-0 victory to kick off their Pro League run.

Vitality tripped up at their first event with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi, missing out on qualifying directly to the BLAST Fall Final, but have now started off their ESL Pro League Season 16 group stage bid on the right foot with a 2-0 victory against the Endpoint underdogs.

Vitality's two French players stood above the rest in this opening series. Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut did so on Vertigo, where he racked up a 2.02 rating, while Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire took over on Inferno, which he ended with a 1.87.

Vitality’s dominance on the CT side of Vertigo came early, with a 7-1 lead and ZywOo tallying double the kills than rounds played. The French star had 20 kills by the 11th round, making his silenced M4A1 sing. Joey "⁠CRUC1AL⁠" Steusel downed three B defenders with an AK to get a second round on the board for his team, and then a sloppy defense on A by Vitality in which two players died to molotov opened the doors for Endpoint to claim the remaining rounds in the half.

Vitality rallied on the attack after winning the second pistol round and ran away with the map as ZywOo tallied 30 kills by round 20. Endpoint put up six defenses in a row when up against match point, but ultimately fell in the 28th round, 12-16.

Endpoint had a perfect start on the CT side of Inferno, 3-0, but frustration started to creep up in the first gun round as Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye grimaced after Vitality broke the A defenses to get on the board. From there on out the terrorists took over, going on a nine-round streak before giving up one more round in an 11-4 half.

apEX, who was leading the charge for Vitality on Inferno, hit 20 kills after racking up a double in the second pistol round, which his team won. From there on out it was smooth sailing for the defenders, who gave up just one round out of six to close out proceedings 16-5.

Vitality will have a tough challenge in their next series on Thursday, when they will face the No. 6 team in the world, Ninjas in Pyjamas at 19:30 . Endpoint will go up against another team with a negative record on the second day of play, Spirit, who lost their opening match against Natus Vincere.