Vitality push Astralis down to the lower bracket

apEX and company will be the top seed in Group B's final.

Vitality were slow starters at Fall Groups, losing map one and needing overtime in the second against GamerLegion on day one, but showed their rifling prowess as they swatted Astralis down to the lower bracket.

The 2-0 victory, secured in 13-7 and 13-11 fashion, puts Vitality one win away from Fall Final as the top seed in Saturday's Group B final.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024
03/08/2024	Vitality 15:50 Astralis	Match

With Vitality still awaiting their first trophy of 2024, Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire made it clear that his priority was improving the squad's defensive halves when he spoke to BLAST at the start of Fall Groups.

"We have the best T side round win % in the first half of 2024, but on CT side we were like 12th," said [p,7322 . "I don't think it's about our positions, I think it's how we play our role. We lack multi-kills sometimes, converting rounds, we're not good enough on CT side."

Against Astralis, at first, those fears were averted as Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan — who is still adapting to his anchor roles — dominated Ramp on Nuke. The Israeli has a 1.22 T rating for the year so far but just 1.04 on CT, a trend that has slowed in the last month with 1.13 on CT and 1.19 on T.

It was flameZ's impact on both Nuke and Dust2 that made the difference with twin 1v2s: The first on round four on Nuke and the second at 12-11 on Dust2 to confirm the win.

Vitality, as they have all year, looked supremely confident on T side, after they lost the Dust2 pistol but marched to 7 T rounds regardless. That spell included a stylish 'FURIA walk' up Catwalk all the way round to A site that caught Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz completely off-guard.

One concern for Vitality despite the win was Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, who shied away from the AWP again en route to a quiet 1.06 series rating. 2023's No. 1 player also has flameZ to thank for flipping the narrative away from a whiff that allowed Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro to clutch a 1v2 of his own late on map two. Ultimately, however, there was no harm done and Vitality are one series from Copenhagen's Fall Final.

"We did so well at the start of rounds, getting the advantage," analysed apEX post-game. "And then, always someone fucked up the round. It was always someone different, the last round it was me, it was bad in that way. We have to step up for that. As I told you yesterday CT is the issue right now, and we need to win these rounds."

Astralis, who only truly looked like themselves in the second half of Dust2, now await the result of Falcons against GamerLegion to discover their opponent in the lower bracket.

Date	Matches
BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024
02/08/2024	Astralis 14:00 Falcons	Match