Team Vitality usually look invincible, even against the strongest teams in CS2, with the exception of MOUZ, who gave them a run for their money at the recent BLAST Open Spring 2025 and eventually lost 2 – 3.
But in the Grand Final of IEM Melbourne 2025, Team Falcons came closer than any other team to beating Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut’s formidable squad.
Despite losing the first map 2 – 13 and being one point behind after the first three maps, Falcons found themselves winning the 4th map and then leading 9 – 3 on the 5th. But just when it looked like they couldn’t lose the match, Vitality made a spectacular comeback from 12 – 6.
The final score on Nuke, the 5th map of the match, was 20 – 22. The Melbourne audience could not have asked for a better Grand Final. This was by far the best Final of 2025 so far and hundreds of thousands of fans around the globe enjoyed every minute of it.
What This Victory Means for Vitality
Winning IEM Melbourne 2025 is not, in and of itself, something incredible. After all, this was just a $300.000 tournament, which is peanuts in today’s esports scene.
But because of their previous victories, Vitality also completed the ESL Grand Slam, winning its 5th season and the $1 million that comes with it. That is worth as much as two Major trophies!
Furthermore, this was Vitality’s first ESL Grand Slam victory. For ZywOo and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, this incredible achievement marked the completion of Counter-Strike.
ZywOo will probably be around for another decade or so. But for apEX, who is 32 years old, this achievement cements his legacy and should give him some peace of mind if he decides to retire in a few years.
