Vitality take down Spirit to reach second final in a row

The first clash between ZywOo and donk went the Frenchman's way.

Vitality have locked down a spot in the grand final of IEM Dallas 2024 with a 2-0 victory over Spirit. In a highly anticipated first clash between Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut and Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, the Frenchman came out smiling as he put in an inspired performance to power his team to their second grand final in a row.

donk, meanwhile, cut a frustrated figure and was invisible for large portions of the series, which he finished with a disappointing 0.89 rating, partly because of a 0.76-rated Dust2 game (his lowest rating in almost eight months).

After losing the Pro League title to MOUZ in a 0-3 sweep, Vitality will be full of confidence heading into Sunday's grand final as they chase their first trophy of the year. The shocking loss to 9z in the group stage seems to be behind them. "We're happy to have lost to them in some sense," Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan said after the match. "It was a good match-up to get in the group stage, where you couldn't eliminated.

Date	Matches
IEM Dallas 2024
02/06/2024	G2 20:00 Vitality	Match

Spirit got off to a strong start on Dust2 and jumped out to a 4-1 lead on the CT side, with Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov raising eyebrows with a series of opening duels. Vitality eventually picked up the pace, and went to half-time with a two-round lead after a dominant 6-1 run.

The second half began with Vitality pulling off an unlikely B retake with a quad-kill from ZywOo, only to lose the round as the bomb went off. Still, they kept their composure and immediately hit back on a force-buy — a round that changed the landscape of the game.

Spirit never found themselves after that and were constantly caught off-guard by their opponents, with frustration taking hold of donk. Vitality refused to let up and went on a 6-0 run to lock down the map.

Mirage began with Spirit taking the pistol round but once again losing the conversion. Vitality rode that momentum to a 5-1 lead, as they punished an apathetic Spirit, but then the Russians picked themselves up thanks to some stellar fragging from donk and secured six rounds in the half.

A 1v2 clutch from William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman in the following pistol kick-started a dominant period from Vitality as the international team quickly hit double digits.

Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov stepped up to the plate with the AWP as Spirit rallied back to equalise the score at 11-11, but they were stopped in their tracks in the final two rounds. ZywOo and mezii —Vitality's best players in this series—pulled off a crucial 2v3 clutch on B, and then 'The Chosen One' picked up three quick frags to put the series to bed.