Vitality will face MOUZ in a contested rematch after a three-mapper against Astralis.
ZywOo spoke to the Chinese crowd after taking down Astralis, ahead of Vitality’s semi-final matchup against MOUZ.
Team Vitality faced off against Astralis in the quarter-finals of IEM Chengdu. Vitality came in as the heavy favorite having won the previous event they competed in, while Astralis just made their first playoff run in two months.
Vitality came hot off the presses on their map pick of Inferno, with a dominant terrorist side to start.
Despite winning both pistols and conversions, Astralis got only 7 rounds in the map, as only device really performed. The standout for Vitality was flameZ on the CT-side, who got 125 ADR holding the B bombsite.
Back-and-forth Nuke
On Astralis’s pick, the first half was a contested 6-6 affair. Astralis grinded out 6 offensive rounds to keep Nuke competitive.
In the second half, force buy wars kicked things off, with Astralis losing the pistol round but winning the force buy. However, Vitality answered right back with their own force buy win, and took a 10-7 lead on the second map.
In the gun rounds, the game took a turn as Astralis got to play their game and got to 11-10. A crucial force buy from Vitality turned it, as they exploited a poor Astralis rotation to steal the round.
Vitality then were to first to reach match point, but Astralis took the game to overtime with a limited buy.
In overtime, Astralis took the lead on their defensive side, with a device 4k on the AWP holding ramp. Then, close rounds ensued to decide the map in favor of the Danes. Despite Vitality’s best efforts, Astralis took their map pick to send it to Mirage.
ZywOo appears to close the series
While Mirage was a fairly close affair, the favorites pulled through to take the series.
The first half ended 6-6 with elimination on the line, but when Vitality switched to CT side, there was no contest. ZywOo was back to his usual form, winning a crucial 1v1 while dominating on the sniper rifle.
Fittingly, it was flameZ to finally shut down Astralis with a 4k on the retake in the last round.
Match Statistics
Team Vitality vs Astralis – | IEM Chengdu 2025 Quarter-final
13-7 (Inferno) – flameZ | 1.63 rating
14-16 (Nuke) – jabbi | 1.34 rating
13-7 (Mirage) – ZywOo | 1.64 rating
