ZywOo carries Vitality to EPICENTER triumph over mousesports-bloddycase

Powered by a red-hot Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, Vitality became the champions of EPICENTER after beating MOUZ in a three-map series.

Vitality have finished off their 2019 run with their first title since replacing Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt with Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon in September, concluding the year on a high note following a largely underwhelming period with their newest player. The Frenchmen denied MOUZ a fourth consecutive title, as the European side finish off the year with a runner-up finish.

The title decider began with Vitality getting off the line first on Inferno, picking up a 5-1 lead on the T side, with Alex "⁠ALEX⁠" McMeekin denying MOUZ an eco victory with a 1v2 clutch along the way. The lead didn't last long, though, as the European mixture came back with six in a row on the back of a couple of multikills from Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, setting up a one-round lead before going over to the second half.

Vitality hoist their first trophy with shox

There, the Frenchmen once again won the pistol round with a defuse in a 2v2 situation on B before the two teams started going back and forth, as clutches went both ways, courtesy of David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský and ZywOo.

It looked like Vitality won the battle when they pulled away at 14-11, but MOUZ held on, in part thanks to a 2v5 victory starring Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong and ropz, taking the opening map to overtime. There, the Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen-led team put in a perfect offense thanks to more heroics from ropz and Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker and finished off the map at 19-16.

Vitality won their third pistol round of the series at the beginning of Mirage with another defuse in smoke, this time by ALEX in a 1v2, while the first gunrounds went the way of MOUZ. A halfbuy win swung things back in the French team's favor, but with a Deagle buy and an unbelievable 1v3 AWP clutch from frozen the tide turned again as mouz switched over to the defense with a one-round advantage.

mousesports end the year just short of a fourth consecutive title

karrigan's quad-kill in the second pistol round gave way for a 12-8 lead as MOUZ had their eyes on the prize, but there was still life left in Vitality, who went on a dominant streak once they won a close scenario on the B bombsite and never let go, forcing the deciding map at 16-12.

Cédric "⁠RpK⁠" Guipouy opened up Nuke with a quad-kill and a 1v2 clutch and with shox adding a 1v1 of his own to save a hairy antiforce, Vitality set themselves up for a dominant defense. Things looked dire for MOUZ at 1-10 and even though they gave themselves a chance with the last four rounds, a fifth pistol round loss in the series put them in a difficult situation.

Winning the forcebuy war, as well, Vitality reached 14 rounds and went on to deny MOUZ a real comeback attempt, in large part thanks to a 1v1 clutch from ALEX in a halfbuy scenario, which led to a 16-9 victory on the deciding map and a 2-1 win in the series.

EPICENTER 2019Best of 3

Vitality

Matchpage 2 1 22nd December 2019

MOUZ 16Inferno 19 16Mirage 12 16Nuke 9

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautZywOo	87 - 48	+39	100.8	1.58
Alex 'ALEX' McMeekinALEX	60 - 57	+3	80.2	1.17
Cédric 'RpK' GuipouyRpK	61 - 54	+7	66.5	1.07
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	55 - 56	-1	71.3	1.00
Richard 'shox' Papillonshox	39 - 56	-17	50.6	0.74

MOUZ	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Robin 'ropz' Koolropz	72 - 58	+14	86.7	1.17
Özgür 'woxic' Ekerwoxic	51 - 51	0	61.2	1.00
David 'frozen' Čerňanskýfrozen	52 - 62	-10	64.1	0.91
Chris 'chrisJ' de JongchrisJ	51 - 62	-11	68.1	0.86
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	44 - 70	-26	65.0	0.76

EPICENTER 2019 final standings:

1. Vitality - $250,000
2. MOUZ - $120,000
3-4. Evil Geniuses - $40,000
3-4. HEROIC - $40,000
5-6. Natus Vincere - $15,000
5-6. FORZE - $15,000
7-8. Virtus.pro - $10,000
7-8. EHOME - $10,000