The best CS2 team in the world was eliminated from IEM Katowice 2024, which they entered as the main favorites after two consecutive defeats and without winning a game in the tournament.
Vitality who ended the year by winning the BLAST Premier Fall Final and BLAST Premier World Final, Vitality who won the only Major held last year and Vitality who took home the awards for Best Team, Best Player and Best Captain in CS2 esports at the HLTV Awards, experienced disaster at the first major tournament of the new year.
Not only will Vitality not continue their streak of winning titles, but like in Sydney last year, they were eliminated at the very start of the tournament.
Vitality first surprised ENCE at the start of the Group B battle, which in itself is completely surprising when you consider the results of the players who now form the backbone of the ENCE team, in the last year.
Despite that, Vitality was the absolute favorite to reach the playoffs through the losing streak, and Heroic was waiting for them in the first round of the fight for survival, which provided excellent resistance to G2 Esports at the start of the tournament, but given that it is a new a team that still did not have enough opportunity to play, it was expected that Vitality would easily score points.
Instead, Heroic won twice after extra time and showed a truly superior mentality even against the toughest possible rival.
Heroic took a 16-14 lead with a victory on Mirage, the match continued with a close fight on Anubis where Vitality in the last round of regular map flow prevented two tied 6-6 halves and won 13-11.
Vertigo was the deciding map, with Heroic managing to build a big 9-3 lead on the T side, only to falter on defense down the stretch and allow Vitality to turn the tide. However, they manage to win extra time and play better in them once again for a 16-13 victory and a total of 2-1.
Vitality will need to make some immediate changes to their game if they want to defend their title as Major champions, while Heroic continues its push for the playoffs with a matchup against GamerLegion.
