Vitality’s Major vlog revealed their reaction to their surprising underperformance.
Team Vitality released their behind-the-scenes vlog of a disappointing finish at the IEM Cologne Major, won by Falcons in miraculous fashion. It revealed that Vitality felt below their usual stature.
Vitality came in 5th-8th place losing to the eventual champions, an acceptable finish for a team of almost any caliber. However, they had the opportunity to equal a record of three consecutive Majors.
Only one team has been in this position before (Astralis 2018-2019).
Only Astralis has ever won three consecutive CS Major trophies, a remaining feather in their cap. Vitality’s vlog revealed the difficulties of contending with the pressure of clinching GOAT status.
Undergoing a unique pressure
Vitality decided to take a month-long break from competition to rest and prepare for the IEM Cologne Major. Their previous event was at IEM Atlanta, where they lost to NAVI after lack of practice.
They arrived at the IEM Cologne Major as the heavy favorites with massive pressure to win.
It’s been a while since we played like that.
That was what Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire said to his dejected team after losing a group stage match 1-2 to 9z, ranked #21 in the world by HLTV at the time on a miracle run.
We have some regrets on the way we played. Let’s not do the same today, […], let’s die with our convictions.
Despite that loss, Vitality still qualified through the group stage with a 3-1 record, now in the playoffs. However, apEX still said there were still “weird” things that they needed to improve on.
“We need to get back to our real level”
Disaster struck immediately for Vitality as they fell to Falcons in the quarter-finals after an incredibly close series.
Down 4-8 on the decider map of Dust2, apEX tried to build belief in the team.
We will need to step up massively [to win this game].
Vitality were close to coming back, but lost to a critical force buy round right at the end. Afterwards, apEX admitted that the team was not at its usual level.
Looking behind [at the Major], we were lacking too much stuff. We need to get back to our real level.
Robin ‘ropz’ Kool, looked defeated as he reflected on their elimination.
Falcons weren’t perfect either, they played pretty bad, I feel like. We could have won it, but today we made a few too many mistakes.
Vitality’s assistant coach, Mathieu “MaT” Leber, told his team to rest and recover for the next season.
You deserve a really, really good vacation. We all know we’ll have to do more than our best. Because yes, this team deserves it.
