Vitality Defeats Liquid in Grand Final Marathon to Win ESL Pro League S16
The international roster lifts its first trophy since coming together.
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Team Vitality has finally managed to come together as a team as it worked hard to overcome its problems. This resolve has led the team to lift its first trophy in CS:GO since it went international. Team Vitality proudly stood victorious at the ESL Pro League Season 16.
The win did not come easy as Team Liquid gave it their absolute best to drag the series down to the last map in this best-of-five grand final series. While Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut was able to find his rhythm, it was a really disappointing night for Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski as he ended bottom fragging for his side.
Following this victory, Vitality has managed to qualify for both BLAST World Final 2022 and IEM Katowice 2023, while also walking away with $200,000 USD in prize money and 2800 BLAST Premier points.
Vitality wins ESL Pro League Season 16 to win its first CS:GO tournament in 2022
The international CS:GO lineup assembled by Team Vitality earlier this year has finally started to show positive signs, grinding hard to lift its first trophy of the season in Malta, Europe.
Vitality performed well throughout the entirety of this tournament and not just in the playoffs. During the group stage it was looking in top shape as it won all the matches to go '5-0' and directly qualify into the quarterfinals.
From there on VItality went undefeated into the grand final, taking care of Outsiders and G2 Esports with great setups and executes. On the other hand, Liquid had fought hard to make its way into the finals but still managed to deliver quite the show.
The first four maps were a back and forth between the two sides, Liquid winnings on its map picks - Inferno (16-7) and Mirage (25-21), while Vitality did the same on Dust 2 (16-7) and Overpass (19-17) .
It all boiled down to the final map which took place on Vertigo and this is where Vitality managed to edge past Liquid, ZywOo leading the charge for his side and managing to close things out with a 16-11 scoreline.
This is a great sign for the French organization which seems to be getting things together after a long spell of failures that involved no podium finishes for the side in eight tournaments since the start of the season.
The team has faced enough slumps and challengers since the start of the year. After working on multiple problems and making necessary roster shuffles, everything is finally starting to take shape.
