Vitality straight to semis at BLAST World Final

A rematch from the Fall Final saw Vitality beat Cloud9 in a two-map series.

Vitality have advanced straight to the semi-finals at BLAST Premier World Final after securing the top spot in Group A.

The European side are yet to lose a map at the Abu Dhabi tournament, having first decimated Natus Vincere in a convincing series on Wednesday and now added another 2-0 over Cloud9, who will start the playoffs from the quarter-finals.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier World Final 2023
13/12/2023	Vitality Finished 2:0 Natus Vincere	Match
14/12/2023	Cloud9 Finished 0:2 Vitality	Match

The latter match was a repeat of a close encounter between the two teams in the BLAST Premier Fall Final semi-finals, and this time Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company never looked in danger of losing the series.

Vitality got off to a hot start on the Anubis T side and put Cloud9 on the back foot early. The Russians recovered from 1-6 thanks to three crucial rounds from Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov, and then again in the second half, but ultimately their slow starts into halves cost them. Chaotic exchanges on A late into the match led to Vitality adjusting their setup there and locking down the bombsite.

Inferno followed, where a second-round forcebuy win from Vitality put them in control early once again. Giving up openings time and time again, Cloud9 struggled on the defense, even picking up two AWPs at one point, which did little to help their cause.

When the sides switched Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and company once again soared, and a 1v4 clutch from Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy on B allowed them to close the gap. Vitality still had little trouble closing out the match, with William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman stopping an A apps explosion and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut finishing it off with a triple and a double in the final two rounds.