Monte end Vitality's 17-map Nuke streak to eliminate them from EPL

Sergiy "⁠DemQQ⁠" Demchenko and Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro put in stellar performances to help their team beat the world's No. 1-ranked squad.

Vitality had their ESL Pro League campaign ended early as Monte defeated the current top-ranked team in the world 2-0 to send them crashing out of the competition. Monte earned their victory with wins on Anubis (16-11) and Nuke (16-14).

Vitality had already beaten Monte twice in series play this year, but the script was flipped as the two squads took to the server in Malta. An absolutely unreal 30-bomb from DemQQ got the job done on Anubis, and the whole Monte squad showed resilience to recover from a gut-punching eco loss to get over the line on Nuke.

In taking this victory, Monte ended two impressive streaks Vitality were racking up: their streak of finishing no worse than top-four in Big Events that stretches back to IEM Rio is now over, as is their monumental 17-map winstreak on Nuke.

Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev hopped on the broadcast to give his thoughts after the match. "Overall I felt like we had the game under control the whole time, the only rounds we lost are when we played bad basically. It was weird, I feel like we were the same level of team when we played on the server."

Monte now progress to the semi-finals, where they will await the winner of the match between Eternal Fire and Natus Vincere.

Date	Matches
ESL Pro League Season 18
30/09/2023	Monte 15:30 Natus Vincere	Match

The match began on Anubis, Monte’s pick, and DemQQ put on a masterclass to ensure they started strong on the T side. A pistol win got Monte rolling early, and despite trading streaks of rounds to a 3-3 score, they firmly asserted their control. DemQQ was in blistering form, finding repeated multi-kills to put Vitality under his thumb and earn an 11-4 lead by halftime.

Vitality answered back in the second half, recovering from another pistol loss to rack up seven of the next eight rounds with Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut leading the way. DemQQ was not to be denied, however, and he produced an impactful 3k round at the key moment to end Vitality’s streak, earn map point, and eventually secure a 16-11 victory.

Over on Nuke, it was br0’s turn to step up and provide the firepower to earn a halftime lead. Starting 1-3 down on defense after losing to a second-round force-buy, Monte dominated much of the first half, a br0 4k in a 4v5 situation the highlight. Vitality managed to stabilize right at the end of the half to take a 6-9 deficit into their own CT effort.

Monte seemed set to run away with things at the start of their offensive effort, recovering a 2v5 in the pistol round before winning two more man-down scenarios to put the pressure on Vitality. The European combine found a key eco round victory, however, to haul themselves back into contention and eventually take a 14-13 lead. DemQQ stood tall to ensure victory, shutting down an aggressive push on his own to deny Vitality map point, and Monte duly eked out a 16-14 win to seal the series.