Vitality fight past Astralis to make first 2024 final

ZywOo is in radiant form and has a shot at his first trophy lift of the year.

Vitality secured a spot in the grand final of ESL Pro League Season 19 after a reverse-sweep victory over Astralis, recovering from a loss on Mirage (9-13) by stealing Vertigo (16-13) and fighting back from 0-6 on Inferno to close out the series decider (13-8).

The Maltese tournament is only Vitality's third of 2024, a year which began with a disastrous last-place exit from IEM Katowice and was followed by a 3-4th finish at PGL Major Copenhagen.

The team won BLAST Fall Final and BLAST World Final to close 2023 but will only now have their first shot at a trophy in 2024, thanks largely to Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut's otherworldly form at the event that makes him by far the favorite for HLTV's MVP award.

The French superstar tallied his career-highest series rating against FaZe on Friday (2.21) and continued to perform in the semi-final against Astralis, although he couldn't make up for an absent performance from three of Vitality's individuals at the start of the series despite a 5-0 lead.

It was instead Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz who came alive and powered his team to victory to steal the map, losing just four of the next 17 rounds while calling a masterclass on the offense to give Astralis the edge heading into Vertigo.

The Danes couldn't convert their pick, however, despite a back-and-forth first half where they won a pivotal eco round to crush Vitality's economy. ZywOo was simply unstoppable and bought enough time for the rest of his team to come online, with Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan being the difference-makers to deny Astralis a comeback in overtime and force an Inferno decider.

Here, it seemed Astralis were ready to send Vitality packing, Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund both stepping up with entry kills and picking apart rotations for a flawless 6-0 start for their side.

That was when things turned sour for device's men, though. Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi got Vitality on the board with a triple kill pushing down Middle and Vitality went on a six-round streak of their own to tie the map, helped crucially by a 1vs3 clutch from ZywOo to recover a 3vs5 situation and a vintage performance from apEX, who topped the board with 14 kills at halftime.

ZywOo quickly reclaimed that spot with an absurd pistol ace after the side swap, but Astralis looked poised to recover after the teams traded blows in the first three gun rounds (9-8 for Vitality).

Their economy in tatters, Vitality rallied around a hero AK purchase by ZywOo, who provided a key entry at Brackets for a 5vs4. It looked as if Astralis had recovered from the blow when they shut down the CT push, but William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman came up massive for his team with a 1vs2 clutch, a round that apEX stated in a post-match interview that they would not have won the game without.

It did prove to be the turning point as Vitality ran away with the lead after that, winning another 1vs1 to add insult to injury before closing things out, 13-8.