Vitality will join Natus Vincere in the grand final of BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022 following their 2-1 victory over G2 in the semi-final. The apEX-led squad edged their pick of Dust2 (16-13) to start the match and after being denied Inferno (8-16), they closed the series on Nuke (16-13), avenging the loss at the hands of the European squad in the group stage.
After an underwhelming season following the assembly of the new roster, Vitality can look at an improvement in Lisbon, reaching their first grand final of 2022. Their journey in Portugal saw them take down ENCE in the first round of playoffs and are now set to face Natus Vincere on Sunday at 18:30 .
This marks the end of G2‘s tournament run. Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam‘s men began their playoffs adventure in the semi-finals after going undefeated in Group A, defeating Vitality and FaZe in the process, but were unable to do the double on the French-Danish mix.
Vitality are in the grand final
Vitality kicked off the series on the T side of Dust2, quickly taking the lead after a successful pistol round and extending it on the back of a couple of apEX clutches. Staring at a 1-5 deficit, G2 quickly adapted their defense and as Nikola “NiKo” Kovač began to come online, there was very little the French-Danish mix could do. The Bosnian superstar accumulated a 21-9 K-D and 2.06 rating while helping his squad string eight consecutive defensive rounds to steal the lead and push the Samurai to a 9-6 advantage going into halftime.
After conceding the second pistol, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and apEX brought the game back into Vitality‘s hands with their combined Scout play from the car position, stopping G2‘s advance on long. apEX‘s men then converted five on the bounce to retake the lead, and despite a few close calls and thrown rounds, managed to edge the map 16-13 with a retake on the A bombsite.
G2 came into their pick of Inferno looking for revenge, and they got it. After converting a force buy on round 2, Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen‘s men quickly identified a weakness in Vitality‘s defense of B and exploited it throughout the whole half. NiKo had cooled off after a great first map, and Audric “JACKZ” Jug stepped up in his place with an exemplary performance on the offense as G2 cruised to an 11-4 lead before halftime. Similar to the first half, the European mix converted a force buy that followed the pistol round loss, breaking the T economy in the process. After that, it was unlikely Vitality could come back in the game, and G2 brought the series even with a 16-8 scoreline.
apEX was untouchable on Dust2
Moving into the decider on Nuke, Vitality needed to replicate their performance against ENCE if they wanted to take this series home, and starting from the CT side they had a chance to lock the map down in the first half. Unfortunately for them, both JACKZ and NiKo turned up to make their life as difficult as possible, powering G2 to an 8-7 advantage on the T side.
Another incredibly intense half ensued, with both teams fighting tooth and nail for every round. G2 initially extended their lead following their pistol round victory, but once the Vitality rifles came out, Danny “zonic” Sørensen‘s men began to take control of the game. After a five-round winning streak and a few moments of ZywOo brilliance, the offense managed to lock match point at 15-12. The last two rounds were a rollercoaster of emotions as JACKZ and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov halted Vitality‘s push into B with only a few seconds left in the round, temporarily keeping G2 alive. To finish things off, Emil “Magisk” Reif converted a 1v2 post-plant on the back of the A site to close take the map 16-13, and the series 2-1.
