Team Vitality wins first trophy in 2021 at IEM Winter
The Frenchmen outplayed Ninjas in Pyjamas and won in a quick fashion.
The Grand Final at IEM Winter was almost over before it had started. The best of five match was in general a one-sided affair with Team Vitality in the driver's seat.
NIP was once again handicapped by the absence of Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, who felt ill before the Semi-Finals yesterday. Young Ninja AWP'er Love 'phzy' Smidebrant stepped in again. NIP choose Inferno as the first battleground. The Swedes got off to a shaky start before they managed to recover nicely during the first half on their T-side. But after the break, the defense broke down after an excellent half from Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut, who stole the show on Inferno.
Copy-paste the text above and just insert Dust2. In short, that was the case on Dust2, where NIP took the early lead but got off stumbled upon in the second half. Vitality won 10-1 on their CT-side to take a commanding 2-0 lead with them to Nuke. This time Richard "shox" Papillon chipped in on the scoreboard alongside ZywOo, who had his eyes set on the trophy and the MVP title with his performance in the Grand Final.
On Nuke Vitality managed to win the first half for the first time in the Grand Final. The Frenchmen continued on their T-side but had to overcome the last push from the Ninjas, who had an excellent opportunity to make their way back into the match but got denied by a very well-playing Richard "shox" Papillon.
Vitality did miss a couple of match points, but in the end there were never any real doubt about the result. Team Vitality wins their first trophy of 2021 and takes home $100,000 in first prize.
NIP - Team Vitality (0-3) | IEM Winter 2021 - Grand Final
10-16 (Inferno) |
ZywOo – 1.74 Rating / 29-15 K-D / 112.0 ADR
10-16 (Dust2) |
shox – 1.42 Rating / 22-14 K-D / 84.7 ADR
13-16 (Nuke) |
apEX – 1.52 Rating / 25-16 K-D / 101.8 ADR
MVP: Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut – 1.40 Rating / 70-42 K-D / 86.1 ADR
