Despite being met with boos upon entering the Moody Center in Austin, Team Vitality delivered a dominant 2-0 victory over NAVI in the third Quarter-Final of the BLAST.tv Austin Major.
NAVI Falter on Mirage Despite Strong Start
The match kicked off on Mirage, NAVI’s map pick, where they initially showed promise. On their T-side, NAVI held a 6-4 lead but failed to capitalize on the final rounds of the half, missing the chance to build momentum heading into the second half. Vitality took full advantage, ramping up the pressure and shutting down NAVI’s chances of defending their map pick. William ‘mezii’ Merriman was instrumental in the win, topping the scoreboard ahead of superstar teammate Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.
ZywOo Comes Alive on Nuke
Nuke was up next, and although NAVI started strong with a 2-0 lead, Vitality quickly seized control. At 7-3, NAVI managed to claw back the final two rounds of the half, giving them a glimmer of hope heading into the switch.
But ZywOo proved to be a thorn in their side. After a relatively quiet showing on Mirage by his standards, the world’s best player in 2025 came alive on Nuke, becoming a decisive factor in closing out the series.
With only a 25% win rate on Nuke in 2025, NAVI faced an uphill battle as they moved to the T-side. Losing the pistol round only worsened their odds, and trailing 10-5, it was now or never. NAVI finally scraped together a round, trying to mount a comeback. NAVI made it all the way back to 10-11, but then Vitality’s incredible depth of their squad came into play, as Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, William ‘mezii’ Merriman, and Robin “ropz” Kool all contributed with kills to help Vitality scrape home their 12th round in the map to give them two shots at winning the match in regular time.
In the last round of the Nuke, it was William ‘mezii’ Merriman who gave Vitality the last push with an incredible 4k, denying NAVI a chance to take the game to overtime.
Vitality now faces MOUZ tomorrow in the first Semi-Final of the Austin Major.
