ESL Pro League Season 22Gentle Mates upset Vitality in EPL S22 Stage 2
The Spanish team continue their hot streak with an upset victory in the first round of Stage 2.
It's 2025 and anything can happen, such as a Spanish team winning a derby between French organizations, and that's exactly what happened when Gentle Mates beat Vitality 2-0 in the first round of ESL Pro League Season 22 Stage 2.
Before besting the squad led by Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, M8s made it through EPL's Stage 1 with a 3-1 record, beating HEROIC, Legacy and G2. Now, they got one over on the most dominant team of the first half of 2025 despite not even supposed to being in Stockholm as they joined the tournament with a late invite.
Vitality, who have been inactive for nearly a month since falling to G2 in the BLAST Open London grand final, will have time to pick themselves up and brush themselves off to regain momentum continuing their run in the 0-1 pool of the Swiss group stage.
The series kicked off on Nuke, where an energetic Gentle Mates came out of the gates swinging on the attack all the way to a 7-2 lead with brilliant showings by Antonio "MartinezSa" Martinez and Pere "sausol" Solsona Saumell.
Vitality won the final three to keep it close, and even brought it to within one after winning the second pistol round, but a M8s forcebuy turned the tides and they won out 13-6 with a 1vs3 clutch by sausol closing it out.
Vitality were first out of the gate on Train, taking the T-side pistol round and a 5-1 lead, but once the Spaniards sorted their economy, they took six in a row to lead 7-5 at the half.
Gentle Mates hit double digits after the half, 10-5-, but brilliant multi-kill rounds and pressure from Ivy by William "mezii" Merriman helped Vitality regain ground.
A series of back-and-forth forcebuys late in the game could have had it go either way, but Alejandro "alex" Masanet and company had the edge to win it on a forcebuy in the final round of regulation, 13-11, closing out the series and sealing the first derby between the two French organizations.
Highlights from Gentle Mates vs. Vitality:
  Vitality |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 35 - 31 | +2.43% | 88.3 | 74.4% | 1.25 | |
| 31 - 29 | -1.25% | 87.9 | 74.4% | 1.10 | |
| 30 - 32 | -0.58% | 66.8 | 67.4% | 0.98 | |
| 29 - 27 | -3.56% | 68.3 | 74.4% | 0.94 | |
| 16 - 33 | -4.48% | 60.1 | 58.1% | 0.63 |
 Gentle Mates |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 41 - 30 | +6.01% | 100.5 | 72.1% | 1.60 | |
| 35 - 27 | +2.99% | 83.7 | 69.8% | 1.30 | |
| 26 - 27 | +0.04% | 69.2 | 74.4% | 1.01 | |
| 25 - 28 | -1.08% | 68.3 | 74.4% | 0.96 | |
| 25 - 29 | -0.52% | 73.1 | 67.4% | 0.96 |
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