Vitality Beat Gambit To Secure Playoffs Berth, Complexity Eliminate Sprout At IEM Summer

Vitality have become the first team to secure a playoffs berth at IEM Summer following a 2-0 win against Gambit in Group A’s upper bracket semi-finals. The French side will next face the winner of FunPlus Phoenix and G2 in the upper final, while Gambit have fallen to the lower bracket to lock horns with either Astralis or Extra Salt.

It was much thanks to an inspired performance from the combination of Kévin “⁠misutaaa⁠” Rabier and Mathieu “⁠ZywOo⁠” Herbaut that Vitality were able to take down the current No. 1 team, with the 18-year-old leading the way on Dust2 and helping his team come back from an 8-13 deficit with a key 1v2 clutch before ZywOo took over on Overpass.

misutaaa’s impressive performance helped Vitality lock down Dust2

The high-profile triumph and a quick progression to the playoffs of the tournament will serve as a big boost to Vitality‘s confidence after the French side struggled in the early stages of their first two tournaments with newest addition Jayson “⁠Kyojin⁠” Nguyen Van at DreamHack Masters Spring and at Flashpoint 3.

Meanwhile, Sprout are the first team eliminated from the tournament after conceding a narrow series to Complexity in the first round of Group A’s lower bracket. With the victory, Benjamin “⁠blameF⁠” Bremer‘s men move on to match up against the losing side of the second upper bracket semi-final encounter between FunPlus Phoenix and G2.

Sprout put up a commendable showing in the series as they took Complexity to the limit on both Dust2 and Mirage, but the favorites prevailed in the end after securing the opening map in overtime, denying the German side a promising comeback attempt, and their own pick 16-14.