Vitality Knock Out OG From Flashpoint 3

Vitality are through to the second round of Flashpoint 3’s lower bracket following a convincing 2-0 victory over OG, who are the first team to be eliminated from the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament. After an embarrassing 0-2 loss to DBL PONEY on Monday, Vitality roared back thanks to a dominant performance from star player Mathieu “⁠ZywOo⁠” Herbaut, who was extremely effective with rifles and the AWP.

“I think players are scared to play against French players,” Dan “⁠apEX⁠” Madesclaire said about the defeat to DBL PONEY. “We were not really focused enough and that was a terrible game, really one of the worst that I’ve played with Vitality in almost three years.

“I just asked my players to play our game and not think about the result, just think about the way we practice, the way we practice CS. Today was much better.”

ZywOo put in a series-high 1.49 rating as Vitality beat OG

The early elimination comes as a huge blow for OG, who were unable to repeat their lower bracket heroics from Flashpoint 2. Aleksi “⁠Aleksib⁠” Virolainen will be hoping to have his team up to full speed by the time IEM Summer kicks off, on June 3.

Valdemar “⁠valde⁠” Bjørn Vangså opened up the action on Dust2 with a stunning 1v3 clutch to fire OG into the lead. That was the beginning of a chaotic period during which rounds went both ways and neither side managed to assert authority over the other, but then Vitality picked up the pace and carved OG‘s defence open, storming to a 9-3 lead. A quad-kill from Nikolaj “⁠niko⁠” Kristensen, who ended the half with a 1.38 rating and a 102 ADR, breathed new life into OG, who were able to reduce the deficit to just three rounds.

ZywOo, the only Vitality player to end the first half with a positive K-D (13-8), continued to show his class in the second half as the French team maintained their dominance over OG. The international team picked up the pistol round, but they were frustrated by Vitality‘s well-organised defence in the remainder of the half.

The first half of Inferno was almost a carbon of Dust2’s, this time with Mateusz “⁠mantuu⁠” Wilczewski leading the charge as OG recovered from an 8-1 deficit to end the half down by just one round.

A quad-kill by Jayson “⁠Kyojin⁠” Nguyen Van gave Vitality their first pistol round of the series, with the French side following that up with the next two rounds to bring the scoreline to 11-7. OG then tightened up and took the upper hand, but their hopes of taking the series to a third map were dashed in the 26th round, when Richard “⁠shox⁠” Papillon picked up three key frags in a 2v4 situation. That round shifted the momentum back towards the French side, who ran away with the game.