B8 shock Vitality as 100 Thieves depart Esports World Cup

We don't want to call the Vitality era completely over just yet, but every empire falls and this feels like final days of Rome as B8 defeated Vitality in a three-mapper.

B8 are a completely serviceable team and capable of an upset, but Vitality in their pomp would never let themselves get upset. They simply crushed the rebels under their imperial boot, but at 9-3 up on map two today Vitality let it slip in a way unbecoming of such a legendary team.

While we could talk all day about how poor Vitality were, we'd like to give some credit to B8 and especially s1zz1, who has evolved his game remarkably quickly. He was one of the weakest AWPers in our database last season, but by the end of it we started to see some signs of rapid progression and this might just be a watershed moment for the kid.

He was imperious as B8 won 23 of 29 rounds to turn the tide from an almost certain 0-2 to a 2-1 win, and looked every bit the prospect that B8 wanted him to be.

apEX blamed himself for the loss, which is honourable, but there's more than just an off-day of calling going on here.

Still, Vitality are not out, they just miss out on semi-finals for now - as do MOUZ, who lost a close one to FUT.

This was quite simply an enjoyable game of CS between two top tier teams without any sweeping judgments to be made. This is a big season for FUT to prove they are not just a top ten team but capable of even more, and results like this will do a lot to suggest it's possible.

New kid on the block xfl0ud was knocking it out of the park in this one, including one of the most ridiculous aces you'll ever see in a 2v5. Ridiculous in both senses of the word.

All of the other four games saw a team go home, with the most notable probably being 100 Thieves. Hopes were high for this team, but they got absolutely nowhere near landing a punch on PARIVISION as Jame danced his way to almost a 3 K/D.

He was absolutely phenomenal in this game. Just truly untouchable. Though it helps 100T weren't very good.

NIP finally got some good news as they destroyed BetBoom on Nuke and won a close one on Anubis, with a similarly astounding showing from xKacpersky. 23-6 he went on Nuke. That's what it takes for NIP to win!

Lynn Vision crushed TYLOO in an all-Asian derby, and MIBR knocked out K27 in relatively simple fashion. It remains a tragedy that insani is confined to this team.