In one of the biggest upsets in CS:GO Major history, dark horse AVANGAR defeated Vitality in a best-of-three today at the StarLadder Berlin Major.
The first map was heavily in Vitality’s favor since the French side are extremely strong on Mirage compared to AVANGAR’s recent poor performance on the map. The match began well for both sides but Vitality looked stronger after outmaneuvering AVANGAR on the T-side. But Vitality were showing weakness in terms of individual performances.
Vitality lost several clutch rounds in the second half, allowing AVANGAR’s Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev to have an impressive performance alongside AWPer Dzhami “Jame” Ali, who finished the first game with 25 frags. AVANGAR ran away with Mirage once they were on the T-side and won the first map 16-9.
Vitality’s winning factor, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, was nullified in map one. He failed to make an impact on Mirage, finishing with 12 kills.
During the second map, Inferno, AVANGAR looked deflated after taking an early lead. Vitality won six rounds in a row toward the end of the first half. The Vitality players won many more individual duals with the help of ZywOo, who bounced back from the disappointing first-map performance, finishing with 28 kills.
Vitality’s T-side pushed the map over the edge, gifting the French squad the victory on Inferno.
The third and final map was Dust II. Although it’s a prolific map for AWPers, Vitality were crushed in the first half after AVANGAR won 12 rounds on the T-side. The CIS side continued this momentum and sent Vitality home, winning 2-1.
AVANGAR will face Renegades on Sept. 7 after the Aussies beat ENCE today.
