The Gamers8 champions had no difficulty dispatching of the Polish team in their opening match in Malta.

Spinx crushed ORKS on Nuke

Vitality made short work of ORKS to begin their ESL Pro League Season 18 campaign on the right foot, absolutely dominating the Polish team with a 15-0 half on Mirage before later closing out the map 16-7, and then comfortably taking their Nuke pick over the line, 16-6.

It was the team's superstar duo of Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut and Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi who were on fire throughout the series, the former taking the reins on Mirage and the latter outdoing his French teammate with an even better performance on Nuke.

The match was so one-sided that Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan had little to say on broadcast after the win, only touching on how Vitality go into all matches with the same preparation, something that was evident in this series.

Read more flameZ: "I wouldn't say my role is to have good stats, but it allows me to perform well"

A flawless defensive half on Mirage saw Vitality almost completely humiliate Arek "⁠Vegi⁠" Nawojski and company on the Polish team's map pick, but that was narrowly avoided in the second half after a pistol victory allowed ORKS to put up some rounds before Vitality closed things out.

ORKS had a better start to Nuke as they remained neck-and-neck with Vitality early on, with Łukasz "⁠mwlky⁠" Pachucki denying the international composition a handful of early rounds. It wasn't nearly enough to put a halt to a relentless performance from Spinx, however, who dominated the Polish team on the map from start to finish.

A 1v3 clutch from the Israeli rifler added insult to injury as Vitality recovered from their slow start, and from there they quickly ran away with the lead, conceding just two rounds en route to a 16-6 victory with Spinx mustering a 2.18 rating.

ESL Pro League Season 18Best of 3 VitalityMatchpage 2 0 30th August 2023 ORKS 16Mirage 7 16Nuke 6

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Lotan 'Spinx' GiladiSpinx	44 - 19	+25	92.3	1.64
Mathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautZywOo	40 - 24	+16	87.0	1.39
Emil 'Magisk' ReifMagisk	35 - 29	+6	79.9	1.19
Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireapEX	29 - 24	+5	70.0	1.12
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanflameZ	30 - 26	+4	75.3	1.12

ORKS	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Patryk 'olimp' Woźniakolimp	27 - 39	-12	79.4	0.83
Rafał 'sNx' SnopeksNx	22 - 37	-15	67.1	0.76
Kevin 'HS' TarnHS	25 - 35	-10	56.8	0.73
Arek 'Vegi' NawojskiVegi	27 - 36	-9	69.7	0.72
Łukasz 'mwlky' Pachuckimwlky	21 - 31	-10	50.3	0.68

Arek 'Vegi' Nawojski Age: 23 Team: ORKS Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 946 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.70 Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan Age: 20 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 586 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.67 Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut Age: 22 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.27 Maps played: 1200 KPR: 0.84 DPR: 0.61 ORKS #52 Kevin 'HS' TarnArek 'Vegi' NawojskiŁukasz 'mwlky' PachuckiPatryk 'olimp' WoźniakRafał 'sNx' Snopek Jesper 'TENZKI' Plougmann Łukasz 'mwlky' Pachucki Age: 20 Team: ORKS Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 194 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.68 Lotan 'Spinx' Giladi Age: 22 Team: Vitality Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 617 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.64 Vitality #1 Dan 'apEX' MadesclaireEmil 'Magisk' ReifMathieu 'ZywOo' HerbautShahar 'flameZ' ShushanLotan 'Spinx' Giladi Danny 'zonic' Sørensen