Vitality and FURIA meet in the upper-bracket semi-final of StarLadder StarSeries Fall on Friday evening. Only one position separates the teams in the latest HLTV world ranking, with FURIA fourth and Vitality fifth. However, Vitality enter the match as favourites after winning the most recent meeting between the teams.

Vitality begin with a comfortable victory

Vitality opened their tournament with a 2–0 victory over magic, winning Mirage 13–6 and Dust2 13–9. apEX, ZywOo and ropz all delivered strong performances as Vitality avoided an early upset.

Their form has not been completely consistent, but the combination of ZywOo and ropz gives them the individual quality to take control of any map. Vitality also defeated FURIA 2–1 at BLAST Open Porto earlier this month.

FURIA can challenge the favourites

FURIA needed three maps to defeat MIBR in their opening match. They lost Inferno 11–13 before responding with convincing 13–6 victories on Nuke and Cache. KSCERATO led the team with 51 kills, while molodoy and YEKINDAR also played important roles.

The map veto should give FURIA an opportunity. When the teams met in Porto, FURIA dominated Nuke 13–6 before Vitality recovered to win Cache and Dust2. That result showed that the Brazilians can take a map even if Vitality remain the stronger team across the full serie

Verdict

Vitality deserve to be favourites, but a straightforward 2–0 victory is far from guaranteed. FURIA have already demonstrated that they can punish Vitality on Nuke, while KSCERATO and molodoy provide enough firepower to keep the series competitive.

Vitality may eventually secure another victory, but the best betting angle is to back both teams to win a map.

Tip

Over 2.5 maps