Vitality secure playoffs at IEM Melbourne over Liquid

Vitality's winning streak is now up to 18 matches.

Vitality have advanced to the IEM Melbourne playoffs with a 2-0 victory over Liquid in the Group B upper bracket semi-finals. Up next, they have the UB final to determine their seeding in the playoff bracket, while Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken and company will have to continue their journey in the lower bracket.

It was none other than Vitality’s French in-game leader, Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire, who got off to a hot start on the CT side of Mirage, tallying a 15-6 scoreline before switching sides in his team’s 10-2 lead at the half.

Read more

As Vitality chase the Grand Slam, where is apEX in the pantheon of great IGLs?

When it wasn’t apEX, it was Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan who stepped up in rolling Liquid, and the map was brought to a close by Vitality’s superstars, Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, turning a 2vs5 around to hit map point before sealing the deal 13-5.

The script didn’t change on Nuke, where Vitality nearly won the second round with glocks before Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz and Twistzz turned around a 2vs4, but once guns were in play, Liquid fell by the wayside.

flameZ and ropz, who led on the scoreboard, both had their moments, flameZ bringing back a 1vs3 in a quad-kill round early on, and ropz with a smart 1vs2 to reach match point.

Liquid put together a cosmetic comeback, which included winning a 2vs5 when up against the ropes, but could only delay the inevitable momentarily as Vitality extended their winning streak, which dates all the way back to January, to 18 games.

Vitality surpassed Astralis' 17 game winning streak from 2018-19, and put them in hot pursuit of Liquid's 23 in 2019, with Ninjas in Pyjamas's 60 right after CS:GO's release in 2012-13 still a long way out.