Virtus.Pro Outlast Vitality: BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2024

BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2024 starts Group B off with a match between Vitality and Virtus.pro. Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut’s squad may have come up short at Dallas, but they are still one of the most consistent teams. Coming into London, they have their eyes set on the trophy. Virtus.pro is the first test, but one that they must pass with flying colors.

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ZywOo is undoubtedly the best player on the server, but CS2 is a team game. Both teams have a solid rifle trio behind their AWPer, with Vitality taking a minor edge. Dzhami "Jame" Ali's style is legendary but has fallen short in recent memory. So can the perennial savior be the difference maker?

Regardless, with the sheer amount of firepower in the server, this will be an early taste of all that Group B has in store for us with all the superstars in one place.

Catch the stream for Vitality vs Virtus.Pro live on BLAST’s official Twitch and YouTube channels, or you can watch on the official streaming platform BLAST.tv. Or better yet, watch right here with the embedded stream below.

Here is the map-by-map recap of the BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2024 opener. Who will move on in the upper bracket while the other goes down to their last life?

Vitality got the perfect start shutting down back-to-back rush rounds from VP. Living up to his name, flameZ lept through a Molotov to shut down a 3rd, giving Vitality a massive start to their Spring Finals campaign. Jame’s troops nearly pulled a half-buyout but were outsmarted by APEX in a retake. With the bees up to four, VP finally brought out their guns. ZywOo was having none of it, spoiling VP’s fans with a wall bang kill, and he followed it up with two more to take 5 rounds.

In the blink of an eye, Vitality was pushing 8 rounds in the half. Virtus.Pro could muster no defense despite using all of coach Xoma’s timeouts. An opening kill onto ZywOo finally spelled success for VP. That propelled them up to four rounds despite electronic disconnecting in the final round.

After a very lengthy tech pause, VP nearly pulled off a miracle win thanks to Fame’s triple, but Vitality took the second pistol to win. Another tech pause followed, and the bees found themselves in double digits with a B pop. Despite their statements claiming the team isn’t following Jame’s style, VP had a failed save up against 11. Jame managed to delay the inevitable with a solid AWP round on A. Vitality found themselves in a 2v3 on B, but they closed out the map with apEX and ZywOo alive.

VP kicked off Dust2 with a flurry of frags on the pistol, but ZywOo brought out some prime p250 skills to singlehandedly win out the round. Three rounds in, VP’s half-buy found a pivotal win to get their campaign started much earlier than on Inferno. Still, Vitality held the economic advantage, and it showed. The bees were up to 5 before VP could muster more. flameZ was the star of the long show, taking two openers in round 7.

Apex had a great read on VP’s A stack, but with Jame tagging three players with a single AWP bullet, Vitality rerouted to A and got shut down on short. VP was then starting to warm up. Now up to 4-6, just when it looked like they’d take over, Vitality managed to sneak a 3v5 past with two great lurks from mezii and Spinx. Still, Jame and Co. walked away from the half with a 5 round haul.

Moving over to the second half, VP still maintained a 0% pistol win rate. That once again set Vitality up for success. A couple of kills were all they could take before Vitality made their way to 10. It looked like ZywOo's quad kill would go to waste, but Jame could not close out the 1v3.

When it all looked lost, Electronic found himself in a classic cubby position and pulled out three frags in succession to keep Virtus.Pro alive in the game. That round broke the Vitality econ, allowing VP to put together a streak of rounds. The Jame-electronic duo was fragging out, with n0rb3r7 joining in with entries through mid. Virtus.Pro made their way to double digits with a massive 5-round streak. ZywOo nearly held onto B, but Jame snatched a retake right from under Vitality's nose to tie the match.

Despite looking down and out early, Virtus.Pro managed to take the match point. And with Fame deciding that health bars are for weaklings, he managed to take an incredible Ace clutch for the win.

Virtus.Pro got off to a brilliant start on Anubis, taking their first pistol win of the series. Even ZywOo could not muster up a defense till round 7. That was when the French sniper finally woke up with a 4k to kickstart Vitality. That success was short-lived, however, as James's boys had no intention of letting their lead crumble. With a post-plant on B, they headed to 8-2.

VP was firmly in the driver's seat for the first time in this series. And unlike Vitality, they were ruthless. Not a round slipped by without a full fight, and the Russian side soon found itself up 9-3 at halftime.

Virtus.Pro was truly on a roll now, as they once again won a pistol round. That meant that despite a loss in the subsequent anti-force, VP was still maintaining its advantage. And that showed in Round 14 as they locked the A site down thanks to electronic's saved Famas. As fast as the map had begun, the team was on Match Point once more.

Virtus.Pro looked ready to close it, but proceedings were halted by a tech timeout once more. Vitality emerged from the pause as the pacesetters, quickly pushing VP's lead down to just four. Yet another tech pause hit the server at this point, bringing that total up to 4. Still Vitality were now on a roll of their own. The bees made their way up to double digits as VP's firepower went missing. Finally, in round 23, VP managed to close it out with a 13-10 nailbiter.

Virtus.Pro will now face the winner of G2 vs Spirit. With m0NESY still in travel limbo, Spirit looks like an almost assured victor. VP was the first to douse the donk flame. Can they do it at Spring Finals, too?

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Featured Image via Michal Konkol & BLAST