Heroic knock RMR leader Team Vitality out of Flashpoint 3

Heroic are looking to reassert their dominance in the CS:GO world following a strong victory over Team Vitality today in the lower bracket of Flashpoint Three. With this win, Vitality, the Regional Major Rankings leader for Europe coming into the event, will be bounced out of the main bracket and will play in the seventh-place match.

Both teams met in the lower bracket, beginning on Heroic’s pick of Nuke. Heroic strung together a few T-side rounds late in the first half to put pressure on the French side heading into the second half. But Heroic locked it down on the CT-side, surrendering only four rounds lost and just two successful bomb plants. Heroic took Nuke 16-11.

Heading into map two, Overpass, Heroic took advantage of starting on the CT-side and jumped out to a 10-5 lead at halftime. Heroic’s strong T-side on Overpass paved the way to a decisive win on Vitality’s map pick, 16-9, to take the series 2-0. René “TeSeS” Madsen was the lead fragger for Heroic on both maps, notching 51 kills across Nuke and Overpass. Captain Casper “cadiaN” Møller had an excellent series himself with 42 kills and only 23 deaths.

Heroic entered Flashpoint Three with a lot of momentum as the second-ranked team in RMR points for Europe and third-ranked in the global HLTV rankings. Their stellar 2020 ended on a low note with several poor event finishes in a row heading into the new year. But this past April, they catapulted back to the top with a win over Gambit in the ESL Pro League season 13 finals in a grueling five-map series against the IEM Katowice champions. Heroic followed this up with a semifinals appearance at DreamHack Masters Spring, falling to Na’Vi in a close series.

They began Flashpoint Three with a solid win over Sprout but lost in the second round of the upper bracket to a resurging G2. Vitality’s Flashpoint run, however, started off poorly with a loss to DBL Poney. But they bounced back with lower bracket wins over both OG and FunPlus Phoenix before falling to Heroic today. Vitality have now been eliminated earlier than expected, with star Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut having a poor showing in both series losses.

Heroic move on in the lower bracket, where they’ll face Astralis in the next round. Vitality await the loser of DBL Poney and BIG in the seventh-place match.