Vitality beat FURIA 2-0 at StarLadder StarSeries Fall, taking Cache 13-5 and Anubis 13-8, HLTV reported. The result sent Vitality into the event's best-of-five grand final against Aurora.
The series turned on the veto before a round was played. FURIA left Anubis — normally one of their bans — open, spending their first ban on taking Dust2 away from Vitality instead. Vitality took the opening and picked Anubis as a punish.
We wanted to experiment playing a different map pool against them. We figured we might maybe throw Anubis in there, we expected them to pick it, and it was a map we felt comfortable playing against them. In the end we couldn't win it, but the idea was playing something other than Dust2 against them.
Cache
FURIA's own pick of Cache opened the series and did not go their way. Their T side showed early promise, with Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis finding openings before the side committed to a bombsite, but Vitality's individual play shut it down.
Robin "ropz" Kool took several important multi-kills on the B bombsite, the first of them with a Five-Seven, and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut held A with the AWP. That started a run of Vitality rounds that ended only when Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo won a 1v2 in the last round of the half. FURIA managed a single round on defence, off a YEKINDAR multi-kill, before Shahar "flameZ" Shushan closed the map with a 1v2 of his own.
Anubis
Anubis followed a similar shape. FURIA went 2-0 up on the T side before a Dan "apEX" Madesclaire clutch against a bad buy broke the run, and Vitality carried that momentum to an 8-4 half.
FURIA teased a comeback after the switch, winning a force-buy and then finding their footing behind a FalleN 4K pushing through A main, but Vitality's stars answered again, with ZywOo driving the side to the 13-8 finish.
The win put Vitality through to the grand final, where Aurora awaited them in a best-of-five.
