ZywOo’s 42 kills propel Vitality into StarSeries grand final
Vitality beat FURIA 2-0 in the StarLadder StarSeries Fall lower-bracket final, winning Cache 13-5 and Anubis 13-8 to advance to a best-of-five grand final against Aurora later the same day, with the result turning on a veto gamble that saw FURIA leave Anubis open instead of using their usual ban. FURIA opted to take Dust2 away from Vitality with their first ban, and Vitality immediately punished the opening by picking Anubis themselves. The full context of Vitality’s dominance in this head-to-head against FURIA at StarSeries shows a pattern that continued here.
Vitality turn the veto gamble into a sweep
FURIA looked promising early on Cache, with Mareks ‘YEKINDAR’ Gaļinskis finding openings on the T side before Vitality’s individual quality took over. Robin ‘ropz’ Kool produced several important multi-kills on the B bombsite, including one with a Five-Seven, while Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut held A with the AWP to fuel a run of Vitality rounds that only ended with a Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo 1v2 in the final round of the half.
FURIA couldn’t generate much on their own defense. A YEKINDAR multi-kill got them their only round of the half before Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan closed out a 1v2 to hand Vitality the map.
Anubis followed a similar script. Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire’s clutch broke FURIA’s 2-0 start on the T side and Vitality carried the momentum to an 8-4 halftime lead. FURIA briefly threatened a comeback after winning a force-buy, with a FalleN 4K through A main giving them footing, but ZywOo again drove Vitality forward to close the map and the series. Details on the StarSeries Fall format and prize pool outline the stakes riding on this bracket path.
ZywOo drives Vitality forward
ZywOo finished the series with 42 kills against 16 deaths, the standout statline on either roster. His 102.8 ADR and 79.5% KAST underpinned a 1.88 Rating 3.0, comfortably the highest mark of the match, with his AWP hold on Cache and his closing impact on Anubis singled out as the difference-makers.
ropz backed him up with a 32-20 kill-death record and a 1.36 rating, while flameZ added 27-19 and a 1.23 rating. FURIA’s best returns came from Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato at 26-28 with a 1.03 rating, but no FURIA player matched Vitality’s top three across the two maps.
Bracket and what is next
The win sends Vitality into the StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 grand final, a best-of-five against Aurora scheduled for later on 20 September. FURIA are eliminated from this stage of the bracket following the loss.
What Sid Macedo said about the veto
Sid ‘sidde’ Macedo explained FURIA’s decision to leave Anubis open after the match, telling James ‘BanKs’ Banks the team wanted to experiment with a different map pool against Vitality.
“We wanted to experiment playing a different map pool against them,” Macedo said. “We figured we might maybe throw Anubis in there, we expected them to pick it, and it was a map we felt comfortable playing against them. In the end we couldn’t win it, but the idea was playing something other than Dust2 against them.”
Source: HLTV
