Vitality annihilate SAW to lock finals at IEM Cologne 2024

SAW added another feather to its cap yesterday with an incredible win over FaZe Clan. Now up-against an in-form Vitality, can the Cinderella run continue? Vitality's 70%+ T-side win rate says otherwise. Dan "apEX" Madesclaire and co. and ready to finally take their first trophy of 2024. Team Vitality's playoff run at IEM Cologne begins against SAW.

Vitality's Cologne campaign has been incredibly dominant. The star trio boasts a mind-blowing 1.27 rating average coming into the event, but even stronger has been the calling from Dan "apEX" Madesclaire. Their T-side has been unstoppable, and with Cologne's great air quality, ZywOo is ready to lead Vitality against SAW.

Meanwhile SAW is hoping to extend their Cinderella run after their win over FaZe Clan. That win was built on the back off incredible, yet unlikely plays from the SAW side, while FaZe's firepower faltered. Up against the Vitality locomotive, SAW needs everyone to step up.

SAW started off with a quick B take on Nuke, overcoming Vitality’s defence with ease. A ewjerkz triple followed, giving his team an early lead. Key rotates from Mezii and flameZ started things off on A, and the riflers were looking sharp as Vitality quickly tied up the scoreline. SAW settled on an A take as their protocol in round 7, and that paid dividends as the international side was caught off guard.

SAW’s best chance at a half-time lead came in round 10, when ewjerkz managed to turn a low-hp 1v2 into a 1v1 against apEX. But the French leader managed to barely win out the clutch, before FlameZ took round 12 by storm to take a 7-5 lead for Vitality.

A yard crawl started off the EU combine’s T-side with a win. Despite ZywOo not having the best showings, this was what Nuke was supposed to look like for SAW against a top team. Round after round Vitality extended their lead, racking up double digits without SAW contesting a single round.

Economy on the line, SAW pushed Red, but found themselves at the painful-end of ZywOo’s AWP. A triple kill for the Woo, and nothing saved spelt game over for SAW. Up against match-point, SAW found themselves up 5v3 thanks to the story-roman hold, and finally the Portugese squad found a CT round. That spurred on apEX again though, and the legendary entry-fragger pulled out some 2014 form, blasting through the defence and closing the map out with an ace!

Dust2 started with another SAW pistol win, but Vitality were on top of things this time, with ZywOo picking up multi-frags to start off strong. There was no stopping the French sniper as every single shot connected. Round 6 saw ZywOo first take a blind AWP kill through the double doors, before switching out for an AK-47 to take control of a 2v4 situation.

There was absolutely nothing SAW could do to stop the onslaught. Dust2 has been a classic French stronghold, and Vitality were proving it. With the French-duo posting 28 frags between them, Vitality took a commanding 10-2 lead at half-time.

SAW managed to stem the bleed temporarily thanks to the force-buy win. But apEX marked the end of the Portugese run to lock in matchpoint 12-5. And Vitality quickly closed it out to lock-in finals at IEM Cologne over SAW.

apEX's relationship with IEM Cologne hasn't been all sunshine and roses in the past. The French entry-fragger smashed his way into Cologne playoffs in 2014, with a 1.38 rating. But he was denied a finals appearance by the Virtus.Plow. He exceeded that result by making finals alongside rookie ZywOo in 2019, before being outclassed by the Grand Slam Team Liquid. Now he enters the Cologne finals, with MOUZ or NaVi up against him. That means for the first time in his career, apEX will be leading the favorites of IEM Cologne. Can he finally get the elusive trophy?

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