FaZe send Vitality home in last place

Less than 12 hours after beginning their campaign at IEM Sydney, Vitality exited the first big LAN in Counter-Strike 2 in joint-last place.

FaZe have sent Vitality packing from IEM Sydney following a 2-1 win in Group A's lower bracket.

The two teams had dropped to the elimination zone earlier in the day after overtime losses to GamerLegion and BetBoom, respectively, and went toe-to-toe in a chaotic series that ended well past midnight.

Vitality struck first on Overpass, getting the vast majority of the work done on CT side before fending off FaZe's comeback in overtime. FaZe responded in another closely fought affair on Inferno, avoiding several money-break situations such as this one to prevent momentum from shifting the other way in key rounds.

It came down to Nuke, where an 8-1 lead wasn't enough for Vitality to bring the series home. As Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen said after the match, getting four weapon rounds on the Terrorist side was enough to make a comeback viable. FaZe went near-perfect on the CT side to turn the decider on its head, with the captain himself putting in one of the crucial rounds to get the series across the finish line:

Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company go home after two difficult losses to swallow within one day. In their loss to BetBoom in the opening round of Group A, they also had a 9-4 lead on Mirage that they let slip before losing the game in overtime.

"It's been a long day, I feel like I've played a few MR15s," karrigan said on the desk following the match after having played three overtimes in four maps on the opening day. "It's been a rough day, but it's the same for both teams, playing that late or playing that early, but it is what it is, in the end it's the percentage that makes you win the game."