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Team Vitality have claimed the Gamers8 Counter-Strike title after defeating ENCE 2-1 in the grand final.
After being completely dominated on the opening map of the series (16-7), Team Vitality responded with back-to-back map victories (16-12, 16-9) to claim the US$400,000 winners’ cheque.
WELCOME IN THE VITALITY ERA #VforVictory
YOUR #Gamers8 CHAMPIONS 🏆 pic.twitter.com/wqUN3B7Ocu
— Team Vitality 🐝 (@TeamVitality) August 20, 2023
The current world number two entered the tournament as slight favourites with most esports betting sites, after their third-fourth finish at IEM Cologne earlier in the month.
Throughout the five-day event, Vitality and ENCE were the standout performers among the 16 teams that made the trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and they were deserving finalists for the US$1 million event.
ENCE came into the match with a point to prove after they were convincingly beaten by G2 Esports in the final of IEM Cologne just two weeks earlier.
However, even with a dominant victory over Vitality on Anubis, they went on to drop the next two maps and finish as runners-up again.
As for the champions, Vitality are expected to overtake Heroic as the world’s number one CS:GO team, as their Gamers8 triumph represents their third title success in the last four months.
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut was rewarded for another stellar tournament with the Most Valuable Player title after he recorded the third-best average rating (1.26) at the event and carried his squad to victory in the grand final.
ZywOo picked up the 16th MVP award of his career and his third of 2023, cementing his claim as the world’s best CS:GO player.
Vitality and ENCE will now look ahead to ESL Pro League Season 18, which begins on August 30.
They will go into the $850,000 event as equal favourites with G2 Esports at +350 with BetOnline.
