Vitality vs. 9z at BLAST Open Porto 2026:The Cologne Upset,Revisited
Vitality face 9z in Group B's lower bracket — the same two teams that split a genuine upset at the IEM Cologne Major just three months ago, now with jL standing in for mezii.
Vitality and 9z meet in Group B's lower bracket at BLAST Open Porto 2026 on August 29 — both teams coming off Opening Round losses, Vitality 0-2 to Inner Circle, 9z 0-2 to MOUZ. Unlike most of Group A's Lower Round 1 matchups this week, this pairing has real history — one of the more even head-to-heads in the field, and a very real upset in its most recent chapter.
Match
Vitality vs. 9z
Tournament
BLAST Open Porto 2026Stage
Group B · Lower Round 1
Date
August 29, 2026
Time
11:00 CEST
Format
Best of 3
Player names link to their HLTV.org profiles.
The Cologne Upset
The two teams' last meeting was at the IEM Cologne Major in June — and 9z won it, 2-1. Vitality took Inferno comfortably, 13-4, but 9z answered by winning Mirage 13-9 and Dust2 13-11 to close out the series. It was widely covered as a genuine upset at the time, not a close call that could have gone either way on paper.
The overall head-to-head backs that up as more than a one-off: across their history, Vitality and 9z sit at 4 map wins apiece plus one overtime map, as even a rivalry as exists anywhere in the 16-team field.
One Change Since Cologne
The Vitality that lost in Cologne had mezii on the server. Here, jL is standing in while mezii is on paternity leave — the same swap that was already in place for Vitality's opening-round loss to Inner Circle. Two roster-affected losses in a row is a small sample, but it's the same variable both times, and 9z have already shown once this year that this specific matchup doesn't automatically go Vitality's way regardless of who's on the server.
What's on the Line
Same Lower Round 1 rules as the rest of the group stage: win, and there's a second life in Lower Round 2 against an Upper Semis loser. Lose, and the tournament is over. For 9z, backing up the Cologne result here would turn a single upset into an actual pattern against one of the sport's biggest rosters.
More BLAST Open Porto 2026 Coverage
See the full bracket, schedule and every result so far.
