An ominous performance from Team Vitality saw them cut down Cloud9 in two and put the bow on a successful first two days in Abu Dhabi.

Cloud9 ran them close on Anubis but were inexorable on Inferno as they collected nine rounds on the T side before ambling over the finish line.

Perfecto's glorious 1v4 slowed down the inevitable march, but couldn't stop it entirely, on Inferno - but was a glorious clip regardless.

Credit: Michal Konkol

The new boy steps up

Vitality had mezii to thank on Anubis as he helped power them past a resilient Cloud9.

He almost pulled off an outrageous ace from an impossible position, picking up four kills in a 2v5 before just falling short of the full monty in the first half - but that would simply have been the icing on the cake.

Vitality raced into an early lead with mezii and ZywOo combining multiple times, dropping just one of the first seven maps, and mezii's attempted clutch nearly stopped Cloud9's recovery.

Cloud9 did pick up four on the bounce at the tail end of the half, in large parts thanks to Ax1Le - who at times felt like the only person capable of handling the threat.

Vitality reached double figures early on in the second half, but a string of bomb site explosions helped Cloud9 grind their way back into the game.

Unfortunately for the Russians, it was all for naught - a retake from Vitality gave them three map points, and they closed it out on the final one.

Credit: Michal Konkol

A champion's performance?

As mezii quietened down, Spinx and ZywOo got louder.

ZywOo proved too great a threat both as an aggressive rifler and a sniper, as he found opening after opening despite Cloud9 winning the opening round.

The first pistol was answered back with five on the trot for Vitality as apEX manoeuvred his pieces masterfully to find weaknesses in the Cloud9 defence, with openings provided by every member of the team from time to time.

Cloud9 had no answer for the Vitality offence, picking up just two rounds after the pistol; ZywOo had the freedom of the map to do what he willst.

Though Cloud9 matched Vitality's five round streak to break back after Vitality's pistol win, the map victory felt inevitable and mezii and Spinx's shutdown of short and apts made sure of that late on.

Perfecto's sumptuous 1v4 added some gloss to Cloud9's performance, but ultimately was immaterial in the outcome.