Vitality continue their reign of terror by winning yet another big event, this time it’s IEM Kraków 2026. The Bees clinched the title by besting FURIA 3:1 in a comfortable Grand Final victory.
Bar a single comeback Mirage loss to FURIA, it could have been a flawless tournament run from the Bees, who are now just one step away from claiming their second ESL Grand Slam.
Another one. Credit: © Vitality
Many CS2 fans thought that we would never see a similar level of domination to that of the Astralis era, when the Danes would win virtually every event they attended. They were wrong.
Vitality are currently the undisputable best CS2 team, having won 10 S-tier titles in the last 12 months. More importantly, they seem just seem to be getting better.
No one posed a threat to the champions in this tournament. They only lost a single map throughout the competition, and it was in the Grand Final against FURIA, where they let a 9-3 lead slip due to a lack of concentration.
What’s incredible is the depth of this roster. If one or two players are having a worse day, the other three will step up and pick up the slack.
Robin “ropz” Kool and William “mezii” Merriman were cold in the first two Grand Final maps, but their teammates perfromances bought them time to get into the game and deliver impact from there on.
ZywOo ascended to another level in Kraków. Credit: © ESL
Everyone knew that Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut is one of the most consistent and overall best CS2 players. However, fans sometimes criticized him for the lack of pop-off moments, flashy flicks, and hard carries.
Well, at IEM Kraków, ZywOo brought all of that and then some to the server. The Chosen One played his best-ever S Tier event, as confirmed by his in-game leader, Dan “apEX” Madescalire, in our IEM Kraków Champion apEX interview.
ZywOo ended the tournament with a KD (kill/death) ratio above 2. He is only the second player ever to do so, after Nikola “NiKo” Kovac’s infamous ESL One New York 2017 performance.
The Frenchman controlled the server with the AWP, constantly delivering high-impact openings, multikills, and utility. It was truly a coming-of-age performance, akin to Danil “donk” Kryshkovets’ crazy IEM Katowice 2024 debut.
In 2025, Vitality were comfortably the best team in the world without this ZywOo. If he manages to dial in and channel this sort of level more often, they will be virtually unbeatable for the foreseeable future.
Only one more trophy needed for Vitality. Credit: © ESL
With their IEM Kraków 2026 victory, Vitality are now only one ESL tournament win away from completing their second ESL Grand Slam. No other team has ever accomplished such a feat.
They will have two opportunities to make history in the upcoming CS2 events at IEM Rio and IEM Atlanta. If they fail to do it at those two events, they might complete it by lifting the IEM Cologne 2026 Major trophy in June.
It’s fascinating to witness another Counter-Strike era unfold before our very eyes with Team Vitality.
Feature image credit: © Vitality
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