Vitality edge past new-look GamerLegion in BLAST Groups opener

Spinx's heroic performance on Mirage got Vitality over the line.

Vitality have avoided an early upset at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024 by edging past the new-look GamerLegion squad in a three-map series (Anubis 10-13, Mirage 19-17, Dust 2 13-5).

Vitality will now face off against the winner of Astralis vs. Falcons for a Group A final spot, while GamerLegion will fight the loser of that match for their tournament lives.

The performance won't do much to lift Vitality's spirits, however, as the European combine continues its lackluster form in recent months.

They had a trophy-less 2024 so far and were eliminated in the quarter-final at the Esports World Cup after the summer break, and a hard-fought victory against the new GamerLegion, where they were one round away from losing 0-2, is far from a positive note.

On the other side of the server, GamerLegion should be happy with their debut performance with the new roster. Erik "⁠ztr⁠" Gustafsson showed impressive calling and more importantly fragging in the series, with their young core all having standout moments.

Sebastian "⁠volt⁠" Maloș echoed the sentiment in his post-match interview despite a heartbreaking loss. "We've gotten to a point where with this roster we can do something. It's a long-term project, everyone is super young and everyone is really hungry to win. With the right work, the sky is the limit," he said.

While Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company were able to stabilize on the Dust2 decider and put together a dominant victory, the first two maps were far from smooth sailing. Their Anubis campaign was marred by a lackluster CT side and a lack of fragging bar Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut's 22 kills.

The tables turned on the second map, where Vitality edged out a victory in double overtime despite ZywOo being a near non-factor, with Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi picking up the slack with a 1.59-rated performance.

The decider of Dust2 was simply the ZywOo show, as the French superstar put his previous map behind him and starred with a 2.27 rating to get his team over the line.