ENCE eliminate Vitality from IEM Rio Major

The ESL Pro League Season 16 champions have been eliminated from the Major.

ENCE have moved one step closer to the top eight of the IEM Rio Major, avoiding elimination with a huge 2-0 victory over Vitality, who only just reclaimed the crown as the No.1 team in the world hours before the match began.

Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer's men were able to win both maps in close fashion, with Paweł "⁠dycha⁠" Dycha winning a 1vs1 to send Nuke to overtime and Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså doing the same to win the series. Though ENCE must be happy about keeping their Major hopes alive, the moment was still bittersweet as their victory saw to the elimination of their former star rifler, Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi, who struggled to play up to his usual level for Vitality during the tournament.

For Vitality, the loss was unanticipated as the squad came into the Major having recently lifted the trophy at ESL Pro League Season 16. The international roster barely made it through the Challengers Stage with a 3-2 record, and now head home early with a lot to reflect on ahead of their appearance at the BLAST Premier Global Final in December.

The series began on Vertigo with ENCE getting a clean sweep on their CT side pistol round, momentum which they converted into garnering an early 4-0 lead. Vitality were not going to take a beating lying down, however, and they went on a run of their own to tie up the match 4-4. Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García came alive and began to post multi-kill rounds, mustering 16 kills en route to his team pulling ahead, 9-5. ENCE were on the brink of locking down a tenth round ahead of the swap as well, but were denied by a heroic Deagle quad kill from Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, breathing some life into Vitality heading into the side swap.

ENCE took the advantage early into the second half with a pistol win, but were not able to capitalize on the momentum as they lost the next round to a force-buy. Vitality proceeded to win three rounds in a row on the back of some big kills from Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire, as well as a pivotal round from Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and ZywOo, who answered the call with a crucial hold on the A site.

Affairs continued to be close with both teams trading the lead and losing to force buys until Snappi was able to win his team a crucial round, clutching up in a 1vs1 against his former teammate. Vitality's best efforts to keep themselves in the map ended up being denied in the dying moments of the map, with apEX getting three kills in a 1vs4 in round 26 only for ENCE to take the round and map, 16-12.

Nuke kicked off with the same competitiveness that had made Vertigo so enthralling. ENCE lost the pistol round, but were able to quickly bring themselves up to speed with dycha finding early impact to win five rounds in a row. Vitality's defense was faltering, but with crucial kills outside Magisk was able to spur them back into the game. Thanks to a ZywOo who was firing on all cylinders, Vitality were able to take control from there and end the first half in the lead, 9-6.

ENCE kicked off the second half with another great start, this time winning the pistol and three rounds afterward. On the CT side of Nuke, SunPayus and valde became an impenetrable wall for ENCE that Vitality could not overcome. In the 23rd round, Vitality found their first of the second half, a fast execute with only one rifle in hand catching their opponents completely off-guard.

The win boosted Vitality's confidence and in the following round, they used that same aggressive A-site hit to make the scoreline 11-13. With a comeback dawning, Snappi found four huge kills to halt the momentum, but it only delayed the game from getting tied at 14-14. The comeback was now a reality, and victory in a 3vs3 situation gave Vitality a 15-14 lead. In the final round of regulation, ENCE went down one man, but two clutch kills from Snappi and then a 1vs1 win from dycha sent the game into overtime.

Overtime started with a story that is all too familiar in this series: ENCE took the lead, did not let up, and proceeded to have a flawless CT side. SunPayus was once again instrumental in taking those rounds, barely losing a duel with his AWP. The hopes of Vitality ended up all on shoulders of their Danish duo at 18-15, and the pair managed to whittle down a 2vs4 situation to a 1vs1; however, a knife from valde with seconds on the clock added insult to injury and helped seal the victory for ENCE, clinching the map win in overtime.