ZywOo dismantles FURIA again as Vitality reach StarSeries Fall 2026 final

Vitality booked their place in the StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026 grand final with a commanding 2-0 victory over FURIA, winning Cache 13-5 and Anubis 13-8 in the consolidation final.

The result sent Dan “apEX” Madesclaire’s side into a best-of-five title match against Aurora and completed a brutal tournament double over FURIA. Vitality had already beaten the Brazilians 2-0 in the upper-bracket semi-final, taking Mirage 13-8 and Dust2 13-5. Across the two series, Vitality won all four maps and allowed FURIA only 26 rounds. 

Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut was the defining player once again. The French AWPer finished the rematch with 42 kills, only 16 deaths, 102.8 ADR and a 1.88 Rating 3.0. His output was not simply the product of one explosive map: he led Vitality on both Cache and Anubis, while Robin “ropz” Kool and Shahar “flameZ” Shushan supplied enough secondary firepower to keep FURIA from building sustained pressure.

FURIA’s veto gamble opens the door for Vitality

The series began with a significant departure from FURIA’s usual map-pool approach. Rather than using their first ban on Anubis, they removed Dust2—the map on which Vitality had dismantled them two days earlier. Vitality answered by picking Anubis, while FURIA selected Cache. Ancient and Mirage were removed later in the veto, leaving Nuke unused as the decider.

FURIA coach Sid “sidde” Macedo explained after the match that the team wanted to test a different map pool against Vitality and felt comfortable allowing Anubis through. The idea changed the shape of the series, but not its outcome. FURIA lost their own pick first and then failed to turn the gamble into a victory on Vitality’s choice.

That distinction mattered. FURIA had entered the consolidation final with momentum after beating MIBR 2-0 and had also taken down MOUZ 2-1 in the lower bracket. Against Vitality, however, their improvements disappeared: the opening map was less competitive than either map in their earlier win over MIBR, and the team again struggled to produce enough simultaneous individual impact.

ropz and ZywOo shut down FURIA’s Cache pick

FURIA showed some early promise on Cache. Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis created openings on the T side, and the team often identified the correct bombsite to attack. Vitality repeatedly rescued the rounds through individual defensive plays, particularly from ropz on B and ZywOo with the AWP around A.

ropz’s multi-kills—including a damaging Five-SeveN sequence—helped Vitality seize control of the economy and the half. ZywOo then reinforced the opposite side of the map, denying FURIA the space needed to turn their early reads into a stable scoreline. FalleN’s 1v2 in the final round limited the halftime deficit to 8-4, but it offered only temporary relief.

FURIA managed one CT round. Vitality repeatedly found the cleaner opening and traded efficiently on their way to a 5-1 attacking half, with flameZ’s 1v2 delivering the final blow in a 13-5 win.

The map illustrated Vitality’s advantage in distribution. ropz led Cache with 23 kills, 95.8 ADR and a 1.57 rating, while ZywOo contributed 24 kills and a 1.41 rating. Every Vitality player finished the map at 1.04 or higher. FURIA, by contrast, had no player above a 0.81 rating on their own pick.

ZywOo turns Anubis into a rout

FURIA opened Anubis with a 2-0 lead on the T side, but the match changed when apEX won a clutch against a superior buy. The round broke FURIA’s early rhythm and gave Vitality control of the half, which they converted into an 8-4 advantage.

FURIA briefly threatened a comeback after the break. A force-buy victory gave them a route back into the map, and FalleN’s four-kill push through A main helped close the gap. This time, however, ZywOo refused to let the recovery develop.

He finished Anubis with 18 kills against six deaths, 131.6 ADR and a 2.64 rating. That performance lifted him from an already excellent opener to a 1.88 series rating and allowed Vitality to close the map 13-8 before FURIA could force Nuke.

Match statistics

KSCERATO was the only FURIA player to finish above a 1.00 rating, and even his 1.03 was far below what the team needed against ZywOo’s output. The sharper contrast came from FURIA’s supporting core: yuurih, FalleN and molodoy all ended below 0.75, leaving YEKINDAR’s early aggression without sufficient conversion behind it.

ZywOo improves on an already dominant first meeting

ZywOo’s performance continued the clearest individual trend in this matchup. He had led the first series with a 1.63 rating and 39-25 K-D, including a Mirage takeover that dragged Vitality back from a 1-5 start. In the rematch he climbed to 1.88, improving his K-D differential from +14 to +26 while again topping the server. 

FURIA’s response from the previous round did not carry over. YEKINDAR had produced a 1.35 rating and KSCERATO a 1.28 in the 2-0 win over MIBR, but they fell to 0.86 and 1.03 respectively against Vitality. molodoy also dropped from 1.06 in the MIBR series to 0.66, the lowest rating in the consolidation final. 

Vitality’s route was less direct. They opened with a 2-0 win over magic, swept FURIA in the upper-bracket semi-final and then lost 1-2 to Aurora in the upper final. The consolidation-final victory therefore served two purposes: it restored momentum immediately after that defeat and proved that the first rout of FURIA was not a one-off.

FURIA leave the event in third place after a 3-2 series record. Their victories over MIBR twice and MOUZ demonstrated their ability to recover through the lower bracket, but both losses came against the same opponent and produced a combined 0-4 map record.

Vitality, now 3-1 in series and 7-2 in maps, advance to the BO5 grand final for a rematch with Aurora and an immediate opportunity to reverse their only loss of the tournament.