Vitality breeze past mousesports in BLAST Premier Fall Finals opener

Vitality sent the European combine to the lower bracket without allowing them to hit double digits on either of the two maps played in the opening series.

The opening BLAST Premier Fall Finals match between Vitality and MOUZ kicked off after a lengthy delay due to a spat over communications recordings, but once in the server it was the No. 1 team in the world who were the superior squad all along, coming out on top in two maps to secure a spot in the next round of upper bracket play.

MOUZ, who jumped into the Fall Finals after making the grand final at DreamHack Masters Winter, couldn't extend their Inferno winning streak to eight in a row, as Vitality won a close CT side before crushing their opposition on the attack. Dust2 didn’t fare much better for Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company, as they weren’t able to contain Vitality on the CT side, going down 4-11 before losing the map and series 8-16.

Vitality will now proceed through the upper bracket, where they will play the winner of Astralis vs. Natus Vincere, while the loser will face MOUZ in a lower bracket elimination match.

RpK had a vintage performance on Inferno with a 1.96 rating

MOUZ won the first pistol round on the attacking side of Inferno, but a wild second round by Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier with three Desert Eagle kills evened out the score early on. Four kills by Aurimas "⁠Bymas⁠" Pipiras the following round got his team back in the lead, after which they went 4-1 with the economic advantage. Vitality brought things back to 5-5 as the half progressed, evening things out. Three rounds later Nabil "⁠Nivera⁠" Benrlitom and Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut won a 2vs2 retake before the Belgian AWPer clutched a 1vs1 in the last round of the half to end it 9-6.

Vitality evened out the pistol round count in the second half, jumping to a 12-6 lead ahead of the first gun round which MOUZ were able to take, but a successful fast A play by the French squad tilted the balance back in their favor the following. From there on out it was the Vitality show as they dominated all the way to the finish line, 16-7.

Vitality brought over their momentum to Dust2, securing the pistol round on the terrorist side and winning two clean rounds ahead of the first full buy from MOUZ. The French team extended their lead with a fast B play, but lost the following anti-eco, which MOUZ were able to follow up. Vitality were quick to return to winning ways, however, and maintained a grip on the half. Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy won a 1vs2 afterplant on A to make it 9-2, after which Vitality gave up just two more rounds in an 11-4 half.

The second half started with a 2vs3 retake on B that Vitality were able to win in time to defuse the bomb. Forced AKs worked for MOUZ in the second round, but they weren’t able to follow it up against a forcebuy. Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool and company were able to keep the map alive after the CTs hit match point, but ended up losing to a pistol buy as Vitality closed the series out 16-8.

BLAST Premier Fall 2020 FinalsBest of 3 VitalityMatchpage 2 0 8th December 2020 MOUZ 16Inferno 7 16Dust2 8

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	25 - 13	+12	97.7	1.64
Cédric 'RpK' GuipouyRpK	37 - 16	+21	75.8	1.45
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautZywOo	40 - 24	+16	85.9	1.44
Nabil 'Nivera' BenrlitomNivera	37 - 22	+15	80.0	1.37
Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabiermisutaaa	18 - 14	+4	87.7	1.30
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	25 - 32	-7	69.5	1.01

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
David 'frozen' Čerňanskýfrozen	30 - 35	-5	75.4	0.92
Aurimas 'Bymas' PipirasBymas	27 - 35	-8	68.7	0.87
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz	29 - 36	-7	68.2	0.85
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	22 - 39	-17	55.9	0.62
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	12 - 37	-25	39.5	0.46

Kévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Age: 17 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 0.95 Maps played: 201 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.66 Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy Age: 31 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1445 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.68 Natus Vincere #4 Egor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' MikhailovIlya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy Vitality #1 Richard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautKévin 'misutaaa' Rabier Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Age: 20 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.28 Maps played: 747 KPR: 0.86 DPR: 0.62 MOUZ #8 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' KoolAurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras Aurimas 'Bymas' Pipiras Age: 17 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 0.96 Maps played: 141 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.64 Robin 'ropz' Kool Age: 20 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 876 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.62 Nabil 'Nivera' Benrlitom Age: 19 Team: VitalityS Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 168 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.62 Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 30 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 1763 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.69