After their statement opening series against ULF Esports, Team Vitality carry on their winning ways, despite both teams fielding a substitute, against Team Liquid in a 2-1 inseparable series where both teams looked like they could take the win at any moment.
Breeze was the Team Vitality’s choice for the opening map in this series. Both teams opted for an old school Jett/ Yoru composition alongside Sova and Viper, with the only difference between the compositions being taht PROFEK chose the Omen and the sub for Wayne, Kicks, went for Astra.
The map started off leaning the way of Vitality on their defence half, however, Liquid managed to fight back and tie up at the end of the first half ending it 6-6. With Derke as their main duelist, it was always a question of when not if he would take over, and it definitely came to fruition on the attack half, with jamppi used primarily for taking space, it was Derkin’ time for the Finnish due to clean up and take control of the sites ending with a 13-11 map win for Vitality, despite the fighting back of purp0 on the mirror Jett.
Map 2 went to Pearl, where a gruelling OT series caught the eyes of spectators in Berlin and all over the world. Team Vitality opted for a solo Duelist composition with Derke taking up Yoru duties whilst Jamppi went to Tejo rather than accompanying his teammate on the duelist. They went for a Yoru/Fade/ Sage/ Astra/ Tejo composition. Meanwhile, Team Liquid opted for a Double Duelist composition of Yoru/ Waylay/ Fade/ Brimstone/ Killjoy. With differing comps, it was down to coaching and mid-rounding from the IGL’s to control the map.
The map started off with Team Liquid taking complete control of the sites on their attack half, utilising the extra space and damage they can get from their Double Dive Duelist composition. They ended the first half 8-4 in their favour. However, it was Team Vitality who answered back and managed to climb back to a 12-12 end of regular time with PROFEK and Chronicle stepping up when they needed a clutch or a multi-frag round. In the end, Team Liquid ended victorious taking the map 14-12 after a mad map where both teams controlled and dictated rounds one after another.
Corrode was the final map to decide who would advance in this heavy hitter of a match. With Team Vitality choosing Corrode against ULF and winning that Corrode 13-1, they seemed very confident coming into the final map with their strange composition of Phoenix, Chamber and Yoru combination.
The map, once again, went the way of Vitality with a 13-9 scoreline, cementing themselves in the Upper Round 3 and sending Team Liquid down to the Middle bracket.
Team Liquid will now look ahead to face off against Karmine Corp, where they will look to regain their 2025 form, whilst the winner, Team Vitality will face off against BBL Esports who just majorly upset FNATIC in today’s earlier series.
Valorant Digest 
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