16 series wins in a row as ZywOo and co. continue their season of domination.
Team Vitality's grip on the top spot in competitive CS2 has only tightened after the Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut-led lineup secured their third trophy in a row at BLAST Spring Lisbon today.
Vitality is fast on its way to establishing one of the most dominant eras in the esport, with the 3-2 (13-0, 11-13, 11-13, 13-7, 13-7) win over MOUZ their 16th in a row. From here, they'll head to IEM Melbourne and pursue the million-dollar ESL Grand Slam before shaping to make history at the BLAST Austin Major.
ZywOo unmatched as Vitality survive MOUZ scare in Lisbon
All eyes were on the BLAST Spring Lisbon final between Vitality and MOUZ but after the opening map, many believed they were in for a flat grand final. Vitality shot out of the gates with force, obliterating MOUZ 13-0 behind a ZywOo (13-2, 2.19 HLTV rating) masterclass.
You'd be forgiven for thinking a swift 3-0 was on the way. MOUZ bounced back to take the next two maps at max regulation. First, they held off a fast-finishing Vitality on Mirage, and then led from the front on Dust 2 with back-to-back 13-11 wins thanks to former Vitality rifler Lotan "Spinx" Giladi.
Pushed to the brink, Vitality shifted up a gear on Nuke with a nine-round CT hold before a map five Train special from Shahar "flameZ" Shushan (21-12, 1.59 rating) saw off the challenging MOUZ outfit.
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Each Vitality member had their moments but it was their ever-consistent frontman in ZywOo who was supreme as always in Lisbon this week; the star AWPer dropped 83 kills (+28 kill differential) in the grand final and claimed his record 23rd MVP medal — now two ahead of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev.
"I'm really proud of my players. It was a long month, we are f*****g exhausted, but we wanted to prove we could win again." Vitality coach Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam said post-game.
"We lost two maps 13-11 but the other maps I think there were no fight," captain Dan "apEX" Madesclaire added. "Props to [MOUZ], but I think we played really well. It's been a really long month, we played a lot and grinded the game as much as we could. I'm really happy to have everyone around and winning the third trophy in the year."
This was MOUZ's third final in a row after winning PGL Cluj-Napoca and getting swept by Vitality at ESL Pro League Season 21, and while their effort in Lisbon showed improvement, Vitality remain the supreme squad and heavy threat to win it all at the Austin Major.
Their 16-straight series wins is good for fourth all-time and the run of events to start 2025 has many pundits declaring this the "Vitality era." But, as many have said, it's not an era without the biggest win of all: a Major championship. Vitality will have to wait until June for a shot at the pinnacle event.
Before that, Vitality will enjoy a few weeks break before they head Down Under to IEM Melbourne. A win there will secure the squad's first ever ESL Grand Slam win.
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