"Obviously it's a good feeling. You cannot be sad!"

ZywOo walked out to a wall of noise and hype and did not disappoint the French crowd.

"We had a lot of stress, obviously, because we're in the semi-final again."

Neither map were complete blowouts and Apeks had a part to play in an excellent semi-final, but eventually the giants took control and choked out the underdogs.

Magisk had huge moments that proved why he has three Majors to his name, and Spinx looked excellent in both maps.

Stephanie Lindgren

"I don't think anyone shined individually, we just played really good as a team."

Vitality move on to face GamerLegion tomorrow, and ZywOo doesn't really seem all that bothered by the prospect of taking on the big team reapers.

"Against underdogs we just don't think about them. Obviously they are really good, and GamerLegion in the final... we just play like we're playing against a tier one team."

"We're not going to think "ah we should beat them" or "ah we should do that"."

Vitality strike first

Vitality edged a tight Mirage despite some superb composure from Apeks in the late round.

It was a hot start from Vitality who shut down everything Apeks threw at them for the first few rounds, riding the wave of energy from the crowd.

To Apeks' credit, they managed to soften the crowd a little bit in the next few rounds and put up a string of impressive mid-rounds to turn the tides and put themselves on seven at the half.

Stephanie Lindgren

The home town team raced ahead at the start of the second half with the pistol, and barrelled to a 14-9 lead and looked like they might just shut it out there - but Apeks had something to say about that.

jL won a clutch on 5HP with a split-second defuse, and another as he found dupreeh hiding in CT as the time winded down.

Vitality hit 15, but Apeks immediately shut down a fast A hit to move to within one round, but a vintage dupreeh headshot got the ball rolling on round 30 as Vitality found every kill they needed to run over Mid and set the crowd alight.

The party begins

That crowd didn't stop, either.

Vitality won the pistol and the place erupted, but was quickly muted by back-to-back clutches from the Apeks boys, who looked like they might move into a sizeable lead.

STYKO was putting up a whole lot of Deagle headshots, much like he had on Mirage, but it wasn't enough to stop Magisk zipping up the B Stairs and cutting the Apeks defence in half.

And again, and again...

Stephanie Lindgren

Magisk was the hot hand, and the B Site became a real thorn in Apeks' side. By the time they'd solved it they were already five rounds down, and went into the half down five.

They made something of a fightback at the start of their T side, as kyxsan found his way up ramp and found entry kills on apEX and ZywOo, but just as things started to fall apart for Vitality, Spinx and Magisk both put up massive rounds to quell the Apeks momentum.

Eventually it became inevitable, and even as nawwk continued his crazy clutching form to keep it competitive, Spinx mowed down three to deliver the win for Vitality.

And the party began.

"I thought Rio was insane but being on home soil... it's really nice."

Understated as ever, ZywOo.