Aurora beat Vitality 2-1 in the upper-bracket final of StarLadder StarSeries Fall, HLTV reported, taking Anubis 13-7, losing Inferno 11-13 and closing out Nuke 13-8. The result sent Aurora to the grand final and dropped Vitality into the consolidation final.
It is the first final for Aurora's rebuilt roster, which added Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski, Jimi "Jimpphat" Salo and Ashley "ash" Battye and has now played five events together.
An offense that never arrived
Vitality managed six T-side rounds across the whole series, according to HLTV: none on Anubis, four on Inferno and two on Nuke. Their defense was what kept the series competitive. HLTV described the performance as a long way from the form the team had shown against FURIA on Friday, with their teamplay breaking down repeatedly across the three maps.
On Anubis, Aurora recovered from a 1-5 deficit after a 1v2 clutch from Jimpphat and punished weak trading to level the half, though Vitality took the final two rounds for a slim lead. Vitality then failed to win a round on their own offense, and Aurora closed the map 13-7 with Jimpphat posting a 2.48 CT rating.
Inferno opened the same way. Vitality registered a single kill across the first four rounds and trailed 8-4 at the break, a half that included a quad-kill B-site defense from Ali "Wicadia" Haydar Yalçın. Their form turned in the second half, where improved setups and a barrage of HE grenades produced a seven-round run and an eventual 13-11 win.
Nuke gave Vitality the CT start they wanted, but they struggled to close late-round situations and fell to 2-5 before two 1v2 rounds from Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut brought the half level. Vitality won the T-side pistol and then lost to the force-buy that followed. Jimpphat and Wicadia led a near-lockout defense from there, and Vitality's only further round came off a double smoke spray from Robin "ropz" Kool before Aurora finished the map.
