Vitality Edge Natus Vincere in Mirage Decider as ZywOo 1v4 Clutch Swings EPL Season 24 Swiss Tie

Vitality are one win from the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 24. They got there by beating Natus Vincere 2-1 in a Swiss round two series that turned on a Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut 1v4 clutch in the Mirage decider.

The result put Vitality into the 2-0 pool, where they meet Falcons on day three in a rematch of the IEM Cologne Major quarter-finals. Falcons won that series after three 13-11 maps.

Trading map picks

The series followed its veto order. NAVI removed Dust2 first, Vitality removed Ancient, and NAVI then picked Anubis. Vitality answered with Nuke, each side removed one more map (Inferno by NAVI, Cache by Vitality), and Mirage was left as the decider.

Vitality won Anubis 13-5, with an 8:4 first half and a 5:1 second half. NAVI won Nuke 13-5, a mirror image in which they took the first half 9:3 and the second 4:2. In both cases the team playing its opponent's pick won comfortably.

The decider went almost entirely Vitality's way. They led 8:4 at the half and closed out 13-4, winning all five second-half rounds they needed.

The clutch that tilted Mirage

ZywOo's 1v4 clutch was the swing moment on Mirage, with the match coverage crediting it as the play that helped Vitality take over the decider. NAVI had traded first-half rounds evenly enough to stay within reach, and Vitality led by four at the break before taking the map by nine.

Elsewhere in the series, the match highlights flagged two standout rounds. On Anubis, ropz took four AK kills (two of them headshots) in round 14 on an offensive onto the A bombsite. On Nuke, b1t picked up four AK headshot kills in round 12 on Ramp defense in a 4v5 situation, part of NAVI's one-sided map win.

Day three: the full picture

With day two complete, the Swiss bracket now splits into qualifying and elimination matches. The 2-0 matches carry a playoff spot.

BETBOOM beat M80 in two maps on the B stream, avoiding the elimination pool. That leaves M80 to face TYLOO on Monday with their tournament life on the line. G2 head into their own elimination match against ShindeN after what the coverage described as a miserable start to their EPL campaign.

Spirit bring a notable streak into their qualifying match with MOUZ: a 32-0 record in Swiss group stages since their last loss, to FURIA in their opener at the Perfect World Shanghai Major.

What comes next

Vitality will spend day three trying to avoid a second consecutive defeat to Falcons in a high-stakes setting. The Cologne Major quarter-final was decided by three 13-11 maps, and a win here would send Vitality straight into the playoffs. Spirit and MOUZ play the other qualifying match, with elimination games for M80, TYLOO, G2 and ShindeN running alongside.

One correction to flag before publishing: your raw material lists BETBOOM as the winner against M80 but doesn't say who M80's elimination opponent is beyond TYLOO, so the table row above is worded loosely. Replace it with a clean "M80 vs TYLOO" row if you prefer.