Vitality has joined the list of teams that made it through the IEM Cologne play-in and into the group stage. The French team beat Sprout on three maps, winning by a very small margin.
The first map was the Vertigo chosen by Sprout. Sprout was effective in the early rounds, scoring six points in a row, but gradually Vitality managed to even the score and gain a slight edge. The team built up the pressure and as a result, the fate of this card was decided in overtime. Sprout managed to keep it with a score of 22 – 20 thanks largely to the efforts of Viktor «Staehr» Staehr.
However, Sprout was not able to maintain and build on this success. After losing a few rounds on Dust2, Vitality took the lead and achieved a margin of 10 – 5. Although Sprout later closed the gap, the card remained Vitality's with a score of 11 – 16. Thus, the outcome of the match hinged on the outcome of Overpass, and Sprout again lacked the level to maintain control throughout the card draw. Vitality won it with almost the same score (10 – 16) and advanced to the next stage. Emil «Magisk» Reif and Peter «dupreeh» Rasmussen were the most effective players for the French team in this match.