Vitality, the best team in the world at the end of CS:GO‘s life cycle, had a shocking performance and finished last place at IEM Sydney—the first big CS2 tournament—after losses to BetBoom and FaZe Clan on Oct. 16.
The reigning Major champions lost three out of four maps played in their first time competing in CS2. Vitality were upset by Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov’s BetBoom in the first round (16-14 on Mirage) and were reverse-swept by FaZe Clan in the elimination match.
Although Vitality weren’t on top of their teamplay, what caught everyone’s attention was ZywOo’s lack of impact. The back-to-back best player in the world in 2020 and 2021, and the current best player of 2023 finished with a neutral K/D difference in three out of the four maps played as he couldn’t collect lots of frags like he did in CS:GO.
Though IEM Sydney is the inaugural CS2 event, fans were hoping that Vitality once again had a deep run because of how great they were towards the end of CS:GO‘s cycle. ZywOo’s drop-off was so high that the community is already theorizing if the AWP is as useful in CS2 as it was in CS:GO and if he’ll be able to adapt.
Valve didn’t make changes to the AWP in CS2, but players might have to change the way they use the sniper rifle because of how peeker’s advantage works in the new game.
Not only Vitality played their first official CS2 matches at IEM Sydney, but they were also debuting under returning coach Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam, who was signed this month to fill the void left open by the departure of zonic.
The French skipper unfortunately couldn’t travel to Australia in time to stand behind the players, so who knows how much this affected their performance.
