Inner Circle Beat Vitality at the Start of BLAST Open Porto

Inner Circle pulled off a major upset by defeating Vitality 2:0 in their opening Group B match at BLAST Open Porto 2026. The Ukrainian team won Anubis 13:8 and Cache 16:13, sending their opponent to the lower bracket.

On Anubis, Inner Circle immediately took the initiative and went up 7:1 on the T side. Vitality managed to reduce the deficit before the side switch, but after the break, the Ukrainian lineup accelerated again and quickly reached match point. The main hero of the map was Arseniy “cptkurtka023” Derevinskyi, who finished it with a 1.64 rating.

On Cache, Vitality came close to tying the series. The team started the map confidently, then won six of the first seven rounds in the second half and gained a noticeable advantage. However, Inner Circle gradually fought back and brought the score to 12:12.

In overtime, the decisive moment came from Eduard “zeRRoFIX” Petrovskyi, who found two quick opening kills on the A site. After that, Inner Circle took control and closed out the map 16:13.

cptkurtka023 was the best player of the series with a 1.58 rating. Meanwhile, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut had one of the worst CS2 matches of his career: on Anubis, he started with a 0-7 scoreline and finished the series with a 0.78 rating.

FURIA Crush paiN at the Start of BLAST Open Porto 2026

The match was also the debut of jL in Vitality’s lineup as a stand-in for mezii. After the loss, Vitality will continue the tournament in the lower bracket, while Inner Circle advanced to the next round of the upper bracket.