Vitality makes a triumphant return to form, winning StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2026
Aurora came into today looking like this event's favorite, seemingly finally figuring out this iteration of its roster.
They even beat Vitality yesterday, sending them down to a consolidation final against FURIA to be played on the same day as the final. That match kicked off the day's proceedings, but we won’t cover it in full. Instead, we’ll say that it was more of the same for recent FURIA. They were far from their best, with no one playing well. They seemed resigned to losing, even looking relatively unbothered afterward.
What we will cover in full, however, is the actual final, the game we all wanted to see.
Vitality 3-1 Aurora
With Vitality’s loss to Aurora yesterday, most of us thought Aurora had a decent shot at making this a close affair.
Unfortunately, map one, Anubis, was a different story. Despite it being Aurora’s comfort pick, they got no consolation. Their T-side looked really poor, which became a trend in these finals and turned some eyes to kyxsan. But on Anubis especially, it really struggled. Mezii owned the map on CT; anything Aurora tried would get shut down by the Englishman. Thanks to his efforts, Vitality kept Aurora to three, which just wasn’t a platform to do anything with, so the map ended quickly, 13:4.
Map two, however, was a bright spot for the Serbian organization.
Inferno mirrored the previous series between these teams. Wicadia went crazy, carrying the two other stars on his team on this map. Both Jimpphat and XANTARES struggled, but it didn’t matter, as woxic stepped up and helped Wicadia enough to push the game in their favor. Coincidentally, they won it 13:11, whereas they lost it 13:11 last time, a true mirror. This was a super hard-fought win for Aurora, which gave them a chance to win this final.
But instead of taking that chance, they fumbled.
Or maybe we should say they rolled over dead, because it’d be a much more accurate description of Mirage for Aurora. Starting on T-side wouldn’t have helped, since it was their pick, but again, only Wicadia showed up on offense. Unfortunately, even he couldn’t show up for CT. It was more like what we’ve seen from Aurora in recent weeks. They lacked cohesion, probably because of ongoing communication issues, or potentially the rumored “tilt” some of Aurora’s players have been struggling with. Either way, they lost 13:4.
The final map, Cache, wasn’t much better.
Starting on CT gave Aurora a chance to play. They didn’t play well, mind you, but they did enough to actually compete, which was a big step forward. They got five rounds to Vitality’s seven, but they had to go to T-side, which, as we established, has been a rough time for them. As you can figure, this was no different. Though there’s no point in being overly harsh. Aurora was already mentally defeated. This T-side won’t be representative of their real level. Still, it was poor. Vitality got a swift six, converting the last map 13:7 and taking the trophy.
Congratulations to Vitality; you guys clearly aren’t done yet. Yet.
