Vitality defeats Heroic to win IEM Rio

In the last Tier A tournament before the BLAST Paris Major, Team Vitality took home the trophy and the $100.000 with a clear 2-0 victory against Heroic.

The win came after a run in the lower bracket of the tournament after a loss on Day 1. Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi had been the big revelation during the tournament where the Israelian found back to his “ENCE” shape with several impressive performances. But in the playoffs, the impact of Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen was also notable, while Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut did “ZywOo” things ending the tournament with a 1.31 rating.

In the Grand Final against Heroic, it was Emil 'Magisk' Reif who topped the scoreboard after solid performances on both Vertigo and Inferno.

On Vertigo the match was fairly even, but on Heroic’s map pick of Inferno, it was one-way traffic in the first half with apEX and Magisk making great plays to secure a 10-5 lead at the break. And despite Heroic’s best efforts on their CT side, it was not enough to swing the match back in their favor. Vitality won 16-13, 16-12 to secure the trophy in Rio alongside $100.000 and a spot in the upcoming IEM Cologne tournament.

Now Vitality looks like one of the favorites to win the next Major on home turf, when the best teams in the world face each other in Paris next month.

Team Vitality – Heroic 2-0 | IEM Rio Grand Final

MVP: Emil 'Magisk' Reif – 1.30 rating / 44-35 K/D / 92.9 ADR