Vitality vs Virtus.Pro – IEM Katowice 2019 Closed Qualifiers

The closed qualifiers of IEM Katowice are taking place. The stage includes 8 teams competing for the right to secure a spot for the prestigious competition. All matches will be played in the best of 3 format.

The reason we have picked this match is that it is between one of the high performing teams, Vitality vs Virtus.Pro who have their fair share of troubles in 2018. Let’s see who will come out on top.

Vitality

A couple of months ago, the French organization Team Vitality decided to bet on Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with the signing of a staff of five renowned French players. The announcement was made by Team Vitality through their Twitter account, although the truth is that the incorporation of these players was already an open secret.

From G2 Esports arrived Nathan ‘NBK-‘ Schmitt and Dan ‘apEX’Madesclaire, two players who since last June had been relegated to substitute. They are joined by Team EnVy’s players. The organization got rid of its French roster in June- Cédric ‘RpK’ Guipouy and Vincent ‘Happy’ Schopenhauer. The lineup is completed by Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbatur from against All authority.

During their stay at G2 NBK and apEX have shown their skill and strength as players and it goes without saying that the duo will be looking to make a big impact. The same goes for RpK and Happy while, ZywOo is just 17 years old and has much to learn.

With this signing, Vitality joins one more discipline, thus consolidating itself as one of the leading figures in the French electronic sports scene.

Vitality off to a flying start

After their formation, Team Vitality in late November won its first CS: GO title at the CS: GO’s DreamHack Open Atlanta event. Nathan “NBK” Schmitt and his team eliminated North American rivals such as Rogue and compLexity Gaming to achieve success. The most noteworthy name during the whole competition was 18-year-old player Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.

Ghost Gaming beat Vitality in their first game of the competition. However, Vitality still finished strong in the group stage and won all of their next four matches. In the elimination stage, the team went first came out victorious against Fragsters and then also see off Rogue Gaming. In both of these encounters, Vitality won 2-0 and thus established a win streak of six games.

In the semi-finals, while Vitality lost the first map against D1, this showed signs of complacency by the team however, all doubts were shortly cleared when they made the perfect comeback and won the series 2-1. ZywOo, the name of the day, played an important role in the team’s victory against teams next opponents in the grand finals, Luminosity Gaming by taking 31 kills on two maps that brought the win. ZywOo won with almost no effort. The young starlet received a respectable 1.49 score on HLTV.

Although there is no high-level talent in the team, this championship is very important for the French team. If they continue to achieve this success in the offline event – especially with ZywOo continuing this performance – there are a lot of achievements they can take in front of the team.

All players come from France, so you can expect that Vitality excels in this region as well as larger tournaments with European or global reach. Each of these players is already famous in CSGO competitive scene but there are some drawbacks as well. Despite the fact that they are world-class players, they already have their years. Between players “RpK” and “ZywOo” there exists 12 years of difference. Apart from potential misunderstandings, there are voices about regress, which may soon start to hit due to lower reflexes. Contrary to all opinions, looking at the recent achievement of Vitality, they are all set for a good start in the competitive circuit of CS:GO and should get the victory against Virtus.Pro.

Virtus.Pro

It all began on February 6, when the whole eSports world was circulated with the news that Wiktor “TAZ” Wojtas was removed from the squad and his place in the team was filled by Michał “MICHU” Muller from Team Kinguin.

At that stage, changes in the team seemed necessary, but as it turned out later, it was only a prelude to a later revolution in the composition made by the Russian owners. In June, Virtus.Pro welcomed Piotr “MORELZ” Taterka, who took the place of Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski. MORELZ came from the PRIDE team. August is the month when Paweł “BYALI” Bieliński ended his career in Virtus.Pro, and Michał “SNATCHIE” Rudzki came to his place from AGO Esports. Thus, TAZ’s words were confirmed, who, when leaving, said in one of the interviews that this is just the beginning of long-term changes in the team.

Looking at these changes, it is safe to say that the line-up has been rejuvenated and we have a team that is a mix of experience and youthful enthusiasm. However, when we look at the latest results, one thing is certain. The owners are certainly not satisfied with the effect of the changes.

Fall in the HLTV ranking

To avoid being groundless, let us use the HLTV ranking as the reference point. When TAZ left in February this year, Virtus.Pro in the world ranking occupied 18th place, including the big drop, by 10 positions. In June, before the arrival of MORELZ, the team was in 19th place. The organization was also in the same position when SNATCHIE joined. In November rankings, the team went below the first 30 and we didn’t even mention that it is not known for how long, the team lost the status of the Legend. Now at the time of this writing, the side is sitting at 26th place.

We are all well aware that it takes time to get together, but in our opinion, the changes were too radical and counterproductive. Some of the fans still believe in returning to the past glory days, but Kuben’s pupils effectively expose their fans faith to a hard test.

They have not title to show for in 2018, and by the looks of it, the fortunes of the are not changing anytime soon.  Summing up the recent activities of the Virtus.pro organization, it is clearly visible that the owners want to keep the Polish team members at all costs. The only question is how long do they need patience?

Final Verdict

Vitality Victory

Odds on bookmakers

Bookmakers	Vitality Odds		Virtus.Pro Odds
	European	American	European	American
Betway	1.40	-250	2.75	+175.00
GG.bet	1.50	-200	2.46	+146.00
Buff.bet	1.41	-243	2.62	+162.00