Team Vitality beat G2 Esports 2-0 in the second upper semifinal at Champions Shanghai, taking Abyss 13-11 and Split 13-4 to lock in a berth in the upper final and a trip to the Mercedes-Benz Arena.
The Europe No. 1 seed stays alive for a top-three finish and will meet LOUD again on Friday, Oct. 16. G2, the North America No. 4 seed, drop to the lower bracket and face T1 tomorrow in an elimination match.
The series was played on Abyss and Split, and G2 once again chose Abyss as their home map after beating Team Liquid and 100 Thieves there in their last two matches. Both teams used Harbor-Astra backlines with different double-duelist looks. G2 went with Neon and Waylay, while Vitality answered with Jett and Yoru.
Vitality survive the Abyss comeback
Vitality set the pace early on Abyss. On attack, they converted the bonus round with a patient 3v5 hit onto the B site, then kept stacking rounds through clean postplants on both bombsites. That control carried them to a 9-3 halftime lead, even though G2 had one bright moment to point to before the switch.
That moment came from trent, who won a 1v3 clutch to give G2 their third round. The play slowed Vitality down for the rest of the half, but it did not stop the EMEA side from controlling the map’s tempo through the opening stages.
After halftime, G2 started to claw back from the same side Vitality had dominated on. They converted their own bonus, then kept finding success in site hits and postplants as the round count rose. The comeback stretched all the way to 11-11 and briefly threatened to erase the deficit entirely.
Vitality answered when it mattered. The team closed out the final two rounds of regulation to stop the surge and escape with a 13-11 win. Jamppi finished Abyss with 22 kills on Yoru, just behind BABYBAY’s 23 for G2.
The map stayed close because both teams found value in the same kinds of situations. G2’s attack rounds often came down to postplant play, while Vitality kept winning the late moments that decided whether those rounds turned into a real run or a one-round break in the scoreline.
Split becomes a quick finish
Vitality carried the edge from Abyss into Split and looked in control almost immediately. Even after losing the pistol, the team built an 8-4 attacking half by leaning on A-site postplants and slower midround work that opened space for their duelists to take clean fights.
The second pistol only widened the gap. Once Vitality had it, G2 tried to respond with four straight force buys, but every attempt was shut down and the map never recovered for the North American side. Vitality closed out Split 13-4.
Derke and Chronicle led the scoreboard on Split, combining for 35 kills in 17 rounds. Their pressure, along with the rest of Vitality’s steady attack timing, kept G2 from settling into the map long enough to build any momentum of their own.
Vitality also looked sharper in the late-round work that had decided Abyss. They found their entries when needed, but just as often they waited for the right timing, used utility to pull G2 out of cover, and then punished the openings that followed. The result was a much more comfortable finish than the first map suggested.
Across the series, Vitality’s win came from repeated control of postplant positions and a cleaner read on the midround than G2 could manage. The first map still asked questions, but Split gave the answer quickly.
JoshRT and Jamppi react
After the loss, G2’s JoshRT said the team lost composure on Abyss and let several advantageous situations slip away.
“I think we lost our composure a little bit,” JoshRT said.
He added that the team ran into a string of basic errors and said Vitality handled the same style of map much better.
“There were just a lot of fundamental mistakes that we’re making…”
JoshRT also said the matchup felt like both teams were looking at themselves in the mirror stylistically, before crediting Vitality for doing the better job in the key moments.
“They like to play the map a little bit, work out what to do, and today they did a much better job in beating us there.”
For Vitality, the win meant more than a place in the upper final. Jamppi said playing in the Mercedes-Benz Arena felt unreal and called the top-three finish the best result of his career so far.
“It feels insane…I don’t think I’ve ever played in that big [of an] arena,” Jamppi said.
He said the crowd was amazing and that reaching the milestone with this roster made it feel even better. Chronicle also looked ahead to the rematch with LOUD and said the team was ready for another meeting in the upper final.
“It’s always fun to play against some rookies because they give a lot of energy with these matches,” Chronicle said.
LOUD now meet Vitality again with a grand final place on the line. The Brazilian side already reached the upper final after their own run, and the rematch gives Vitality another shot at a team that has already made a deep playoff push in Shanghai. G2, meanwhile, must reset quickly for their elimination match against T1 if they want to stay alive at the event.
The bracket leaves Vitality one win away from the grand final and G2 one loss away from heading home. After a close fight on Abyss and a one-sided Split, the two teams leave the upper semifinal headed in very different directions.
jamppi on yoru is kinda filthy
of course the yoru main farms when it matters. very normal valorant behavior
Yoru diff on split too, apparently the arena buff is real. G2 probably opened the scoreboard and chose pain.
yeah split was the bigger problem imo. abyss was still close and G2 had chances, but once vitality got rolling on split it looked like every retake was already dead before the plant.
Yoru and Jett on the same team is a crime scene if it works
did G2 tilt after abyss?
how bad is losing your home map after that run?
It depends how much of the loss is map choice versus execution. If they picked Abyss because they were comfortable there and still got punished on the exact postplant scenarios they wanted, that is a bigger issue than just a bad veto. The 13-4 on Split makes it look like Vitality had them figured out once the first map broke open.
yeah, that’s the part. if your comfort map turns into a coin flip and then split gets away that fast, the veto stops mattering much.
pretty rough
if the map pool is not ready, very bad. one map can kill the whole series
Abyss pick was a mistake
nah, they nearly won it
sure, close doesn’t mean good. they got to 11-11 and then still lost the last two rounds, that’s where you can see the map control slip.
you talk like a coach bro, abyss was still 13-11 not 13-2
close loss is still a loss