Vitality turn on the heat in Riyadh to win Gamers8
After getting humiliated in the IEM Cologne 2023 semifinals, Vitality went into the Gamers8 final against with not only their eyes on the trophy but also with revenge on mind.
The first map of the Grand Final was ENCE's pick of Anubis with Vitality starting on the CT side. A quick A hit saw ENCE take the opening pistol of the final. A SunPayus quad helped ENCE see off the force buy but Vitality answered back with a couple of upgraded pistols with Magisk coming in with a crucial Deagle triple. Both teams kept trading as ENCE answered back with a force buy of their own. ENCE went 7-1 up before Vitality got their second round thanks to a Spinx and flameZ double but ENCE replied immediately and ended the opening half with an incredible 11-4 lead.
Source: Gamers8
Vitality got the second pistol and pulled it back to seven rounds before ENCE wrapped it up with five in a row to pick up Anubis at 16-7 and like the IEM Cologne 2023 semi-final it was SunPayus who was the thorn in Vitality's stride, leading from the front with 23 kills.
Vitality started Mirage on the T side with a 3-0 lead before ENCE got three of their own to tie the game. A ZywOo 1v2 and a crucial apEX 1v2 helped Vitality take a 9-6 lead at the half.
After a lengthy technical time-out, the second half got underway with a Vitality pistol win. While ENCE tried to perform a comeback, flameZ shut down a dycha 1v3 to help Vitality take Mirage 16-12 with ZywOo topping the scoreboard with 28 kills as the French AWPer finally woke up in the final.
Source: Gamers8
The decider was Nuke with ENCE starting on the CT side. It was a 5-0 start for Vitality before a SunPayus triple denied ZywOo a scary 1v4 try to give ENCE their first round. ENCE picked up three in a row before Spinx and Magisk got openers on a Deagle and Tec-9 to give Vitality their fifth T round. ENCE made sure Vitality didn't run away with the half as they recovered it to a 8-7 half.
ZywOo and Spinx's double helped Vitality take the final pistol of the tournament and tied up the map at 8-8 and after the conversions, they were 10-8 up. apEX's crucial double on the B site in the first gun round saw Vitality turn around a 3v5. ENCE could manage only 1 T round as Vitality closed the map at 16-9 with ZywOo and Spinx on top of the scoreboard with 22 kills each.
ENCEVitality| ENCE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Álvaro 'SunPayus' García |
62 - 45 | +17 | 80.3 | 73.7% | 1.27 |
 Pavle 'Maden' Bošković |
55 - 49 | +6 | 77.9 | 77.6% | 1.14 |
 Paweł 'dycha' Dycha |
39 - 46 | -7 | 68.6 | 68.4% | 0.98 |
 Guy 'NertZ' Iluz |
46 - 45 | +1 | 69.5 | 61.8% | 0.95 |
 Marco 'Snappi' Pfeiffer |
37 - 49 | -12 | 54.8 | 61.8% | 0.81 |
| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
66 - 44 | +22 | 85.4 | 77.6% | 1.34 |
| Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi |
53 - 51 | +2 | 76.0 | 63.2% | 1.00 |
| Emil 'Magisk' Reif |
44 - 48 | -4 | 65.7 | 68.4% | 0.95 |
| Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
39 - 41 | -2 | 59.9 | 65.8% | 0.92 |
| Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
32 - 56 | -24 | 65.3 | 64.5% | 0.75 |
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