ZywOo carries Vitality to EPICENTER triumph over mousesports

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 VitalityMatchpage 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

Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Age: 25 Team: OG Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1665 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.66 FORZE #16 Dmitriy 'facecrack' AlekseyevAlmaz 'almazer' AsadullinEvgenii 'FL1T' LebedevBogdan 'xsepower' ChernikovAndrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov Cédric 'RpK' Guipouy Age: 30 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 1256 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.68 Evil Geniuses #5 Peter 'stanislaw' JarguzTarik 'tarik' CelikVincent 'Brehze' CayonteEthan 'Ethan' ArnoldTsvetelin 'CeRq' Dimitrov HEROIC #21 Marco 'Snappi' PfeifferCasper 'cadiaN' MøllerPatrick 'es3tag' HansenJohannes 'b0RUP' BorupMartin 'stavn' Lund David 'frozen' Čerňanský Age: 17 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 783 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.65 Robin 'ropz' Kool Age: 20 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 704 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.61 EHOME #84 Tzu-Chi 'Marek' HuangJiaMing 'DeStRoYeR' GuQingHui 'FIOURN' KongKelun 'SLOWLY' SunXueBing 'B1NGO' Dai Richard 'shox' Papillon Age: 27 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1590 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.66 MOUZ #4 Finn 'karrigan' AndersenChris 'chrisJ' de JongÖzgür 'woxic' EkerDavid 'frozen' ČerňanskýRobin 'ropz' Kool Chris 'chrisJ' de Jong Age: 29 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 1520 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.66 Virtus.pro #15 Dauren 'AdreN' KystaubayevSanjar 'SANJI' KulievTimur 'buster' TulepovAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' Ali Finn 'karrigan' Andersen Age: 29 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 1591 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.68 Natus Vincere #10 Ladislav 'GuardiaN' KovácsEgor 'flamie' VasilyevOleksandr 's1mple' KostylievDenis 'electroNic' SharipovKirill 'Boombl4' Mikhailov Vitality #8 Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautRichard 'shox' PapillonCédric 'RpK' GuipouyDan 'apEX' MadesclaireAlex 'ALEX' McMeekin Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Age: 19 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.30 Maps played: 558 KPR: 0.87 DPR: 0.62 Alex 'ALEX' McMeekin Age: 24 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 942 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.71 Özgür 'woxic' Eker Age: 21 Team: MOUZ Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 779 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.62