The second map was critical in Vitality gaining momentum and breaking Aurora’s morale.
Vitality was put in the hot seat once again today in the ESL Pro League Season 24 semi-final. They were handily beaten by Aurora on the first map, with Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker going +16 in K-D.
But as usual, the back-to-back ESL Grand Slam winners rallied to break Aurora’s morale on the second map, despite lacking firepower, and made it look easy on the third.
woxic takes over the match on Anubis
The AWPer from the Turkish Aurora trio stole the show on the opening map, going 22-6 and dropping an astounding 2.12 rating.
The map started positively for Vitality, garnering a 6-3 lead on the weaker CT-side. Then, woxic came online with a collateral AWP double kill, helping Aurora steal a draw in the half.
Aurora’s individuals were firing way beyond Vitality in the first map. Aurora went on a 7-1 run in the second half, with woxic popping off to a degree we have only seen in his prime. He capped it off with one of the best plays of the series, solo holding B against three Vitality members with the AWP.
Aurora won the first map 13-7, clearly with the upper hand on the firepower side
Vitality break Aurora’s spirit on Cache
Aurora kept up with Vitality firepower-wise on Cache, with Ismailcan ‘XANTARES’ Dörtkardeş matching up to anyone in a 1v1 duel on the map.
However, Vitality had their map under control, and Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut helped them win multiple mid-round situations that skewed the map in their favor.
ZywOo got 16 kills in the first half picking apart Aurora, helping turn a 2v3 alongside ropz and a 3v5 for Vitality with an ace, on the weaker T-side of the map.
XANTARES did his best to power Aurora to a win, but Vitality kept closing out the mid-rounds. The final straw was a flameZ 1v2 clutch, where Aurora had all the advantages.
Vitality responded with a 13-7 map win of their own after the lop-sided opening.
Vitality carry the momentum forward, picking apart the defense on Mirage
Vitality ended the series with a T-side masterclass, where they could do no wrong as Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan broke open bombsites with ease. He had three opening kills in an 8-4 T-side half.
Though Aurora’s incredible firepower coming from their Turkish trio of fraggers gave them a fighting chance in the first two maps, supplemented by reliable anchoring from Jimi ‘Jimpphat’ Salo, their spunk had entirely faded away after Cache. They had no response for Vitality’s clinical site hits and ZywOo’s multikills that cleaned up rounds as quickly as they started.
Vitality got up to a 7-1 half before Aurora could respond, but it was too late by then. They mounted a comeback of sorts, but were practically against match point after losing both pistols.
Vitality won the decider map 13-8, where they await their opponent from the winner of MOUZ/Spirit, to fight for their second title of the season so far.
