Vitality edge past G2 to make Gamers8 grand final

20-8-2023 00:22

The Paris Major champions recovered from three series points on the Mirage decider to clinch victory in overtime.

Magisk ended the series at the top of the board with a 1.18 rating

Vitality have secured a spot in the grand final of Gamers8 after scraping past G2 in a three-map series, with the teams trading blows on each other's map picks (16-12 Inferno, 10-16 Anubis) before going the distance on the Mirage decider (19-15).

The win is some sweet revenge for Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's side, who fell to G2 less than three weeks ago in the Group B upper bracket final of IEM Cologne. This time around, Vitality's decision to pick Anubis instead of Vertigo didn't pay off, but they showed tenacity on the Mirage decider to claim the win.

There was a good chunk of time on the decider that it looked like we would be headed for a rematch of the IEM Cologne grand final between G2 and ENCE, especially with both of the Kovač cousins firing on all cylinders and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut notably absent early on in the map.

The French superstar woke up when it mattered most, however, helping his side to recover from a 12-15 deficit and force overtime, where they swept the next four rounds to claim the win and set up a title-decider versus ENCE.

Date	Matches
Gamers8 2023
20/08/2023	ENCE 19:00 Vitality	Match

Vitality last made a grand final appearance at the BLAST Premier Spring Final in Washington just before the tournament break, where they ended up losing to HEROIC. This time around they'll fight for the title with Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan, looking to grab their first trophy since winning the BLAST.tv Paris Major in May.

G2 will likely be kicking themselves as they could have made it a 2-0 victory if they hadn't struggled at the onset of the series on their Inferno pick, unable to find entry onto bombsites as they were consistently bullied by Vitality's utility. Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen's finally found some life in the second half, but the 4-14 deficit they faced was far too large to overcome as Vitality closed things out.

The same could have been said for Vitality if they had lost the series, though, as they initially held a 8-1 lead on the CT side of their Anubis pick only to end up winning just two more rounds from that point onward, conceding a 10-16 loss on their pick. It really all came down to the Mirage decider, where flameZ and Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif kept their team in the running long enough for ZywOo to come alive and close things out in overtime.

Gamers8 2023Best of 3

Vitality

Matchpage

19th August 2023

Inferno

Anubis

Mirage

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Emil 'Magisk' Reif Magisk	68 - 54	+14	86.9	71.6%	1.18
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut ZywOo	59 - 51	+8	64.9	75.0%	1.13
Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi Spinx	56 - 55	+1	69.0	69.3%	0.99
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan flameZ	51 - 61	-10	70.8	70.5%	0.98
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire apEX	44 - 59	-15	60.6	58.0%	0.81

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating2.0
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač NiKo	76 - 52	+24	89.4	79.5%	1.33
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač huNter-	62 - 60	+2	86.6	68.2%	1.12
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov m0NESY	54 - 50	+4	62.0	67.0%	1.03
Justin 'jks' Savage jks	45 - 52	-7	59.5	77.3%	0.95
Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen HooXi	43 - 67	-24	54.4	64.8%	0.76

NT NiKo, the real top 1

2023-08-20 00:22

12 replies

Nice recency bias. That is why researchers say sports fandom is a prime outlet of people's innate tribalism. Nothing wrong in it but sometimes these outbursts of emotional idolization does get annoying

2023-08-20 00:27

6 replies

my idol pywoo finally won

2023-08-20 00:56

3 replies

Why pywoo tho I don't get it. Is it just coz it's funny?

2023-08-20 01:11

2 replies

u find that funny? L

2023-08-20 01:23

1 reply

Y sounds funny to me

2023-08-20 01:36

It's not that deep bro

2023-08-20 01:33

2023-08-20 06:29

zywoo >>

2023-08-20 00:28

2023-08-20 00:44

Zywoo w/o an awp on mirage lol

2023-08-20 00:45

copium harder :)

2023-08-20 01:21

Blast farmer and 1 event wonder

2023-08-20 13:03

Even without Zywoo carrying, ez. Must feel nice :)

2023-08-20 00:23

zywoo is just always there, but gives an opportunity for teammates to step up if they feel like they can :)

2023-08-20 01:22

G2 without Aleksib Choking XDD

G2 with aleksib: hltv.org/matches/2354404/g2-vs-faze-iem-..

Except for winning Katowice Cologne within the same season ... THAT list of teams is VERY short!

2023-08-20 00:33

If they had aleksibot they would have been eliminated on the first round

2023-08-20 04:10

ZywOo shine when it's needed

2023-08-20 00:24

4 replies

he was mid the whole game ngl, then overtime happened, the zywoo we all know came back to life and that was amazing. hope he'll deliver tomorrow.

2023-08-20 00:30

hopefully i was waiting till he just does this and hope he does more of it. He rarely goes for such aggresive plays but thats what they need of him vs ENCE. Just straight out dont care trust yourself and let this happen and you can win vs SunPayUs which does the same thing sometimes of setups though

2023-08-20 00:38

yes i agree, zywoo being agressive boost his confidence i feel like and obviously makes him way scarier. hope he'll be able to get a revenge on SunPayus who destroyed him last time.

2023-08-20 00:41

He definitely rarely does that but i think that's the only way he could get rid of sunpayus which does play aggresive too.

lul

G2 1 tourney fluke expected lost to underperforming Vitality

2023-08-20 00:25

Bro why 80% of Vita fans r baiters?

2023-08-20 00:31

I don't know. I only have Vitality flair for zonic and Magisk because I'm an Astralis fan.

2023-08-20 01:04

But zonic and magisk not in astralis anymore? Youre fan of the player/coach

2023-08-20 01:10

Yes, I root for Vitality because of them.

2023-08-20 01:15

Beautiful bo3 from both teams, zywoo and niko both delivering a splendid last map

2023-08-20 00:26

Magisk absolute monster

+1 He's been sooo "tuff" for YEARS! Of course: ALL the players at this level are just nearly unfathomably good. THIS time around he was ... as you said: A MONSTER! 😎👍 He may have a ROUGH game ahead going up against Dycha tomorow!

2023-08-20 00:37

Magisk be renaming his nick to Yung Fatso soon

2023-08-20 14:37

ZywOo woke up late, but sure as hell delivered.

All players in the semis clearly showed why they are up there: ALL FOUR TEAMS in top5!

All four team in top 4, actually

2023-08-20 01:02

Yeah, happens only VERY rarely! There are NO "ez" games at this level! 😎👍 Top6 to 10 look pretty promising as well!

stressful game, all map 3 i was malding at my team doing these pushes at 11-10 in windows and etc.. but somehow they win from 12-15 nice

Zywoo haters in shambles Even playing terrible for his standard still 1.13 Goated

2023-08-20 00:36

some grass needs to be touched

2023-08-20 00:43

Except for the 1st map it was truly a wonderful match! Ence may have an edge against ANY team these days, but it will be a great match tomorrow!

Ez for the best in the game, ez for the WOO. Cry is free ChoKo fans.

Zywoo is monesy father

Hooxi gigachad on match point and bomb plant, 1v1 decided to pick… omega fail! Cost them the game! To be honest, it should have been 2-0 for G2 but such a slow start on Inferno. No pistol wins no map wins against very good teams.

2023-08-20 01:06

5 replies

You disagree? Flag doesn’t matter

2023-08-20 01:47

Inferno was juste a stomp by vit, G2 was lucky to even get an opportunity by vit to let them get 10 round tbh, dont be delusional bro But After the 8-2 throw on anubis, vit should have deserved to lose tbh

2023-08-20 02:15

First of all, G2 is the best T side Inferno team, so them being destroyed is just slow start… Magisk killing them one by one with Famas in force round, and they didn’t seem like a team. So yes, slow start from G2. Second, just after some life from Hunter, they started playing better. Third, Hooxi LOST mirage with that 1v1 post plant on match point. Forth, if you do not win pistol rounds, or you don’t convert pistol rounds, there is no forgiving against top teams, and G2 was just bad today in most of those situations. Ergo, everything I said is based on the facts from todays match, but you would know that if you used your brain or watched the game (not just reading the game stats) Unless you have anything smart to say that actually makes a point please refrain from using the keyboard.

2023-08-20 03:28

Man your answer doesn't make any sens ahaha WTF, and btw i clearly said vit should have loose this match (exept zywOo IS Indeed, the goat again)

2023-08-21 22:12

zywoo trolling g2 until decider overtime it's almost like he knew...

2023-08-20 02:17

=[ couldn't stay awake late enough to watch this game. Not the result I wanted.

2023-08-20 04:21

Rough map 3 for jks, hope to see him come back stronger. :)

2023-08-20 04:33

now there are at least 3 players as strong as zywoo in his team. zywoo exposed to not be the goat and a fraud

2023-08-20 04:51

Because he doesnt have to carry anymore?

2023-08-20 10:30

Sunpayus about to own Vitality yet again

2023-08-20 05:38

Mr Wu: zZzzZzzzZzz…oh, quoi? we losing? G2 series point? c’est impossible! *turns on monitor* 10 mins later Ok, finish…zzz…

2023-08-20 06:00

Lmao

2023-08-20 09:35

Best thing I've read this month

2023-08-20 15:59

gg zywoo goated

2023-08-20 06:28

Hooxi had the game....he must have got info that flamez is 1 hp i guesss? Thats why he took the fight?

2023-08-20 06:34

or maybe he got the info that he is the gigachad and can take fights in the deciding moment of a one million dollar tournament

2023-08-20 09:10

yep, winning cologne can get to ya head i suppose

2023-08-20 15:33

bb choko xDDDDDDDDDDD

2023-08-20 07:00

Actually I'm feeling sad for hooxi. Sometimes you are making mistakes like this and you have this in mind for long time.

2023-08-20 09:54

Zonic best coach in CSGO

2023-08-20 11:10

GGWP Vitality <3

2023-08-20 11:30

I am genuinely curious: Why did G2 kick Nexa? I just feel like he was a better fit than aleksi, hooxie

2023-08-20 11:41

I was watching you Hooxi...

2023-08-20 12:30

Vitality is literally almost winning this tournament by just firepower They have like 69% winrate in ct this event (the highest of any team) And in t side they are dogshit. They have 43% winrate+ one of the worst team in trading Pls don't ever tell me that apex is actually a top igl, he's decent just like hooxi but both are heavily getting carried by their team.

Bro apEX said he was on sick leave right after Cologne you can also see him coughing and entire core said they had small amounts of practice if anything that's a testament they made it especially without zonic. Its not suprising if there's genuine anwser to this that was given by players themselves. Also they play really good on ct like that is literally insane and its insane that TT's winrate is not 20% at this point

2023-08-20 13:04

U don't forget how to call cuz had "small amount of practice or cuz he was sick" lol It's just very weird to me that their tside as soon zonic isn't with them become bad Maybe it's just a coincidence but i doubt it is

2023-08-20 15:56

T side is harder than CT side and they played really good despite not having a lot of time and yes its kinda while you don't forget how to call, without practice your timings are off you and you have to try figure it out yourself. Which makes certain calls sloppy and chaotic. The only thing that made me kinda sad is that Anubis throw they could have won it already 2-0 but they let off the gas and started to be uncertain of how to play at the moment they went aggressive and then wanted to fall back like ZywOo on that connector and the timings went to G2. Hunter essentially winning that round on its own and making huge impact for further rounds

2023-08-20 17:20