This Major has been a crazy journey for lots of different teams. Pickems ruined left right and centre, but one thing remains consistent, UK CS will appear on the stage as Vitality qualifies for the PGL CS2 Major Playoffs in Copenhagen.
Previously in the major, UK CS was represented by Sebastian “volt” MaloÈ™ and Ashley “ash” Battye on GamerLegion, however, after they failed to make it out of the opening stage, eyes were turned to William “mezii” Merriman on Vitality.
The reigning Major champions went straight to the Elimination Stage after going 3-1 in the Europe RMR B, only losing 1-2 to Cloud9. The #3 team in the world got off to a rough start against Eternal Fire. The kings of Turkey have been carrying their region on their back this Major and couldn’t have started it better as they beat Vitality 13-10 on Inferno. Unfortunately, Ismailcan ‘XANTARES‘ DörtkardeÅŸ proved too strong as he boasted 114 ADR. The Turks ended up qualifying for the Playoffs 3-1 as they beat Virtus.Pro in the game-to-go, the first time a Turkish team has qualified for the Playoffs stage at a major.
mezii playing for Team Vitality at the PGL CS2 Major | Credit: João Ferreira & PGL
Looking to bounce back, Vitality took down TheMongolz 13-9 on Nuke and then took down Brazilian powerhouse Imperial 13-9 on Overpass. The boys in green had scrapped through the Opening Stage, fighting hard every game eventually besting GamerLegion 3-2, but they were no match for Vitality.
For UK CS this meant that Vitality was 2-1, and the scene was one BO3 away from having representation at the major playoffs. Their opponent? The best team NA had to offer, Complexity.
The Americans had started the Major strong as they beat Pain and HEROIC in the opening stages to go 2-0. Now back in their modern jerseys with owner Jason Lake hyping them up like the old days, Complexity looked strong as they entered Inferno, map one of the series.
“Bring me the pistols” Jason Lake hyped his team up at CPL Winter 2004 | Video: complexity: Redemption
Complexity did indeed bring Jason Lake the pistols as they won both on Inferno and the Americans seemingly had Vitality’s number as they landed themselves three match points with a 12-9 lead. Even with Complexity defusing a bomb with milliseconds left to force it into a second Overtime, Vitality closed out the match 19-16 with mezii securing himself a 1.13 HLTV rating.
The second didn’t go the same way as the first despite a freak PC crash for Jonathan ‘EliGE‘ Jablonowski leading the Brit to clutch up a pivotal “1v4” to start the comeback. Complexity closed out the game dominantly 13-7 as Norwegian AWPer HÃ¥kon ‘hallzerk‘ Fjærli went nuclear dropping a 1.89 HLTV rating, pushing us to Anubis, map three.
INSANE "1v4" from @kingmezii 🇬🇧👑 pic.twitter.com/sjq8niZ0or
— UKCSGO (@ukcsgo) March 23, 2024
Map three was a tight contest with both teams eager to make it to the Final stage, but in the end, Vitality gasped the victory and held on with both hands. mezii secured his place in yet another Major playoff stage as Complexity lost the final map 13-10.
The last time Vitality was in the Royal Arena they won BLAST Premier Fall Final over FaZe giving mezii his first Tier-1 tournament, can they repeat history?
