Leviatán overcome Team Vitality to claim playoff berth

LEVIATÁN LEVIATÁN Latin America South Rank #1 Demon1 Max Mazanov tex Ian Botsch kiNgg Francisco Aravena C0M Corbin Lee have defeated Team Vitality Team Vitality Europe Rank #2 trexx Nikita Cherednichenko Derke Nikita Sirmitev Kicks Kimmie Laasner Sayf Saif Jibraeel Less Felipe de Loyola Basso 2-0 in the group C decider at Champions 2024 to send Vitality home and end their 2024 season. Leviatán have advanced to playoffs as the second seed from their group and their first opponent will be drawn later tonight.

Prior to this match, both teams had suffered 2-1 upset losses against Trace Esports Trace Esports China Rank #2 LuoK1ng Zhang Zhanpeng (张展鹏) Kai Lu Zhinan (卢智楠) FengF Song Xuefeng (宋学锋) heybay Ho Shun Hei Biank Zhong Jianfei (钟剑飞) and taken comfortable 2-0 wins over TALON TALON Asia-Pacific Rank #10 Killua Tanate Teerasawad thyy Anupong Preamsak Crws Thanamethk Mahatthananuyut JitBoyS Jittana Nokngam primmie Papaphat Sriprapha . Leviatán sought to claim their first international playoff berth since Champions 2022, while Vitality continued to chase the first of their own.

“One of us is going home, and that's not going to be me,” said kiNgg in the day 10 hype trailer.

Leviatán's pick of Icebox saw constant back-and-forth swings between the two teams. Leviatán opened with the first pistol, which Vitality responded to with a thrifty round in round 5 using a full mid push. Leviatán stabilized to a 7-5 half in their favor with the help of their own thrifty in round 8 and effective B retakes.

The map remained on a knife's edge; Vitality made it to a 12-10 scoreline off of heroics from Sayf and trexx , but were unable to close it out. Leviatán rallied to secure four rounds in a row and take Icebox 14-12. kingg and aspas came online for Leviatán with 22 kills and 229 ACS for the in-game leader and 21 kills and 222 ACS for the duelist. trexx topped the scoreboard for the hornets with 22 kills and 225 ACS of his own.

While Icebox was a brawl, Sunset was a stomp; Leviatán ended the first half with a 10-2 scoreline thanks to strong defensive setups and individual plays from C0M and aspas. Even when Vitality were allowed to plant the spike, they were unable to withstand the opponent's retakes.

Vitality managed to take the second pistol round, but after a narrow failure to convert the bonus round by Sayf, Leviatán easily won the last three rounds to take Sunset 13-4.

Every player on Leviatán put up impressive numbers on the map, with four out of five of them having more than 140 ADR. Mazino eked out the top rating in the server with a 1.45 rating, 15 kills to 12 deaths, and 169 ADR, while C0M barely trailed behind with a 1.43 rating and 16 kills to only 8 deaths. aspas ended the series with 36 kills to 26 deaths overall.

With this victory, Leviatán have secured their first international playoffs berth as an organization since Champions 2022, while Vitality will end their first global appearance since LOCK//IN with a 1-2 record.

Leviatán's first playoff opponent will be drawn later today. When asked who he would prefer to face in the post-match interview, C0M declared, “Give us anyone. We'll beat them.”

Leviatán will look to follow through on C0M's statement when they return for the playoffs, which begin on Aug. 14.