The Vitality European Open Recap

The Vitality European Open was set to be possibly Europe’s biggest yet. It boasted a €15,000 prize pool, the consensus top 3 teams in the region, and official Riot support as part of the Ignition Series. It was also our first look at a truly major European team, G2 Esports. With so many good teams and players, the action was tight and hectic. Who came out victorious, and how?

Group A

Group A’s marquee matchup was G2 Esports vs SKADE. The brand new powerhouse faced off against one of Europe’s most consistent and deadly teams. FABRIKEN took the first map 13-9, but G2 only let up 5 more rounds all series as they dominated from that point on. Oscar Cañellas "m1xwell" Colocho led the way for G2 with 59 kills over the series.

HEET had been highlighted as an up-and-coming EU team with fantastic recent results, but they couldn’t quite stack up against G2 or FABRIKEN, and lost 2-0 to both. The biggest surprise was the fantastic Sage play of G2 stand-in David "davidp" Prins. His effective, aggressive playstyle led to many calls for him to be signed as G2’s fifth member. At the end of the day, G2 led the group at 3-0, while FABRIKEN also made it out at 2-1. Need more DM ended at 1-2, while Apexis couldn’t really stand up to the rest of the group, and finished 4th.

Group B

Group B was very close. Orgless seemed to be the best team on the day, beating their tight competition, Guild Esports, and the group’s favourites, PartyParrots. However, a late upset by breadHUNTERS left them at 2-1. As the other games played out, it all came down to a final series between bonk and PartyParrots to decide who would be the second team to exit the group. After trading maps, Split came down to the wire. Led by Andrey "Shao" Kiprsky and Vyacheslav "Art1st" Lyadnov, PartyParrots pulled it back from an 11-7 scoreline to take the win, 13-11.

Playoffs

The first semi-finals match was G2 vs. PartyParrots, and it went much the same way as G2’s group match vs FABRIKEN. G2 dropped the first map, 13-5, but promptly dominated there on out, losing only 9 rounds across the next 2 maps to take the win. Prodigy beat FABRIKEN quite handily, but that rematch would be seen soon.

G2 took a relatively close series vs. Prodigy, 13-8 and 13-7, to book their spot in the best-of-5 finals, while in the loser’s bracket, PartyParrots and FABRIKEN finally met. This series was incredibly close, with no team ever scoring less than 9 rounds on a map. As is usual for each of those teams, Shao and Pontus "Zyppan" Eek led the way for their respective teams. FABRIKEN ended up taking the close victory.

They would then head to a similarly close series, the lower bracket finals against Prodigy. Split went FABRIKEN’s way, and Ascent nearly did, but Prodigy defended very well to take the series to map 3. This final map, Bind, was even closer. After two 6-6 halves and great plays from every player on the field, Emir "rhyme" Muminovic scored four kills to bring Prodigy to the finals.

Finals

In a rematch of the upper bracket finals, G2 matched up against Prodigy for the championship. It was a best-of-5, with G2 starting with a one-map advantage due to coming out of the winners bracket.

G2 had not been good at opening up series thus far, and that continued as they dropped map 1, Haven, 13-7. But they roared back on Ascent, shutting down anything Prodigy tried to do and winning the map 13-4. It would go to Split, with G2 on match point.

G2 started off Split just like they ended the last map, with a dominant 10-2 attacking half. Ardis "ardiis" Svarenieks was huge on Raze, putting together many great rounds. It got hairy, though, as Prodigy came back with their own great attack. They won 6 out of seven rounds, bringing the score to 11-8. Ultimately, however, G2 had built too large of a lead, and won the next two rounds to be the winners of the Vitality European Open.

Final Standings for The Vitality European Open:

1. G2 Esports - €10,000 2. Prodigy - €2,000 3. FABRIKEN - €1,000 4. PartyParrots - €1,000 5-6. need more DM - €250 5-6. bonk - €250 7-8. Apexis - €250 7-8. breadHUNTERS - €250