After their victory over The MongolZ in the Grand Final of the Austin Major, Team Vitality has become one of the most dominant teams in the history of Counter-Strike.
Even the likes of Astralis, FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere, Fnatic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and SK Gaming, at their peak, won three or four consecutive S-tier trophies. With seven in a row, Vitality’s record will be hard to match in the coming years.
In Counter-Strike, we often see several teams dominating the rest and establishing a rock-paper-scissors relationship between themselves. But in Vitality’s case, we are witnessing a team that knows how to consistently beat all opposition.
The synergy between Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Robin “ropz” Kool is simply unstoppable. At the moment, ZywOo is easily the best player in the world while ropz is in the top five. When they both play well, and they usually do, nobody can beat Vitality.
Vitality’s Victory at the Austin Major
Vitality entered the tournament in stage 3 and were expected to win every single match. But Legacy caught them off-guard and ended their 30-win streak with a dominant victory (13 – 3) on Inferno.
Immediately after this defeat, Vitality’s roster bounced back and won the next three matches, against Nemiga Gaming, 3DMAX, and Virtus.pro. Every single time, victory was obtained with ease.
By contrast, in the Austin Major playoffs, every match was hard. Vitality’s opponents, NAVI, MOUZ, and The MongolZ, came close to winning and pushed Dan “apEX” Madesclaire to his limit. As the team’s IGL, he did a phenomenal job keeping everyone on the same page and optimistic.
ZywOo, who won the MVP award, declared that despite winning seven trophies in a row, he has no intention to stop. It’s very difficult to maintain the same level of motivation for many months in a row and stay ahead of your opponents when everyone is studying your game. But so far, Vitality has been successful.
