Vitality advance to BLAST Spring Final grand final over G2

The BLAST.tv Paris Major champions are on track to end the first half of the season with three title wins in a row.

Vitality are through to the grand final of the BLAST Premier Spring Final after securing victory over G2 in a three-map series (11-16 Anubis, 16-9 Inferno, 16-12 Nuke).

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023
11/06/2023	HEROIC 20:30 Vitality	Match

The French-Danish-Israeli combine continue to showcase renewed vigor since stumbling against Imperial in their opener, although their win over G2 was not clear-cut: the Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen-led side managed to halt Vitality's seven-map winstreak on Anubis to start the series, but couldn't convert upon that victory as Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's men were a class above on Inferno and managed to emerge on top of key deciding rounds at the end of Nuke to reverse-sweep the series.

G2 will lament the loss after a downturn in results in the latter half of the season, their title victories at BLAST World Final 2022 and IEM Katowice 2023 now just a distant headlight in their rearview mirrors. The briefly-insurmountable side has looked like a shadow of themselves in recent events but showed signs of life while in Washington despite missing out on a top-two finish, offering a small solace heading into the tournament break. Vitality, conversely, are on track to win a third title in a row as they peaked at just the right time to win IEM Rio and the BLAST.tv Paris Major, but will need to defeat HEROIC on Sunday to secure the three-peat.

Vitality established an early lead on the T side of their Anubis pick, multi-fragging from Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen and Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi securing them a pistol victory and an early string of rounds for a 4-1 lead.

A saved AWP and stellar work around the B bombsite pillar from Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač and Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov allowed G2 to swing momentum in their favor and upset their European counterparts on what was an eco, and G2 seized upon that momentum to tie up the scoreline at 4-4. Vitality remained in contention in the latter half of their T side effort, doubling their scoreline to 8-4, but G2 added another three to their tally to give themselves a healthy set of rounds heading into the favored side of the map.

A blistering offense allowed G2 to tie up the scoreline immediately in the second half, and they refused to relinquish control from that point onward: Just three rounds went the way of Vitality before G2 sealed away a 16-11 victory, ending the seven-map winstreak of apEX's men and moving the series on to Inferno.

There, G2 were simply outclassed. Despite it once being one of their most dominant maps, holding ten and nine-map winstreaks at different points, G2 recent showings have left much to be desired. It was no different this time as Vitality simply outclassed G2 on the map, posting a stalwart defense and completely shutting Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač and company out of bombsites en route to a 12-3 half. The immense deficit also came back to bite G2 as it seemed like they were showing signs of life on the CT side, but didn't have enough of a buffer to play with before Vitality closed things out, 16-9.

Nuke was a more contentious affair, although it was Vitality who remained in the lead at the onset. Attacks of the A bombsite provided them an early string of four rounds before G2 finally got their first round on the board, and NiKo's aggression and multi-fragging Outside proved key in helping them gain momentum off that victory, resulting in them winning eight of the remaining 11 rounds in the half to head into their attacking effort with a slim lead.

Vitality got right back into the driver's seat once on the CT side, however, and things began to look dire for G2 as the BLAST.tv Paris Major champions climbed to a 12-9 scoreline. An ace and 1vs2 clutch from huNter- proved key in getting G2 back in the running as they won three of the next four rounds, closing the gap to 12-13, but back-to-back triple kills and a 1vs2 clutch by Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut completely shut that momentum down and allowed Vitality to edge out victory, 16-12.