France is definitely back on the Counter-Strike map.
Vitality beat FURIA 2-0 today to win the ECS season seven finals and take home $225,000.
The best-of-three series started on Inferno, one of FURIA’s favorite playgrounds at ECS. Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato kicked things off with a one-vs-four pistol round clutch, but Vitality absorbed the hard hit to win seven rounds in a row. FURIA recovered from the deficit and finished the first half in front, 8-7. The French squad played a well-coordinated T-side, though, and shattered FURIA’s defense to take the map 16-9. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Alex McMeekin combined for 45 kills.
The game moved to Overpass, a very strong map for Vitality—and they proved why as they won six rounds in a row on their CT-side. Alex and crew didn’t slow down whatsoever and built an 11-4 advantage moving on to the second half. Vitality won the second pistol and denied FURIA’s chances to come back into the game. ZywOo finished with 25 kills and only six deaths as Vitality won 16-4.
Vitality are looking stronger since they won cs_summit four in May, beating Team Liquid and ENCE—two of the best teams in the world.
The French slipped up at DreamHack Masters Dallas against FURIA and got knocked out in the quarterfinals. But they got their revenge by defeating them at ECS to grab their first big title.
And this victory isn’t only about ZywOo. He goes nuclear in almost every game, but Vitality’s system looks consistent and the rest of the players contribute and create a lot of space for ZywOo to shine.
As for FURIA, the Brazilians did very well in their second tier-one tournament. They have to be proud of what they’ve accomplished so far and they’ll be rewarded with the title of the best team in Brazil in the HLTV rankings, surpassing MIBR.
Vitality will have a lot of time to rest and prepare for their next big tournament in July at ESL One Cologne.
