Agincourt without the longbows

Every good Major has a Cinderella run. It’s just that this time around, we had about seven.

None were more impressive, though, than Into the Breach. A run that now, has come to an end.

Counter-Strike threatened to come home, with the Brits taking a 10-5 lead over Vitality on Vertigo. CYPHER was wide-swinging ZywOo harder than a level five on FACEIT with a Deagle, and maybe, just maybe, we started believing.

But once the half switched the gulf in quality was clear. Magisk was abusing the hero of the first half, CYPHER, on B with multi-kill entries. ZywOo woke up, and just like that map one had slipped.

ITB had flown close enough to the sun to see what lay inside, but their wings were melting and they were falling — literally, in CRUC1AL’s case.

Map two was Anubis and it was another heartbreaker, ending 16-12 in Vitality’s favour

There are some Cinderella underdog runs that are a bit.. Mickey Mouse, but ITB was not one of them. The Brits beat FaZe, ENCE, and fnatic. They ran Liquid close on map one, and Vitality close on both maps despite the hostile crowd. It is a story worthy of the last CS:GO Major.

There is just as interesting a story developing on the other side of the server, however.

Vitality beat Into the Breach 2-0, sure. But it was not as convincing as it might be — and tougher tests await the home favourites.

When we next write to you on Sunday, they will have faced those tests. Vitality, home crowd behind them, are in their first-ever Major semi-final.

Ahead of them lies the path to glory, and to shame. Vitality cannot be satisfied taking any prize home other than the trophy, in all its gooey glory.

The Golden Hornets need it. The organisation craves it. And the team is **capable of it.

It’s an opportunity they cannot take for granted. It’s now or never.