Vitality - IEM Melbourne 2025 Champions

Apr 27, 2025

In the final, Falcons and Vitality faced each other, and after a tough battle across 5 maps, Vitality emerged stronger.

This matchup was highly anticipated for several reasons:

Right after m0NESY's transfer to Falcons, they reached the final and had a chance to win the trophy.
Vitality were on a long 20-match win streak and hadn't lost for over three months.
IEM announced a $100,000 reward for the team that could defeat Vitality.

More about the maps:

Vitality's first pick — Inferno — ended very quickly, with the "bees" crushing with a score of 13-2. The best player on the map was ZywOo.
The map Dust2 was Falcons' first pick, and a tough battle took place there. It went into overtime, but in overtime Falcons gave no chances to their opponents and finished 16-12, despite the efforts of ropz.
The next pick from Vitality was Train, where there were many turnarounds. The turning point was a round won by Vitality with pistols against a full-buy from the opponents, thanks to smart tactics from captain apEX. The map ended with a 13-9 score.
The fourth map Mirage was dictated by NiKo and m0NESY, who showed excellent play, first on offense and then on defense. As a result, the map ended with a 13-10 score and the teams moved to the decider.
The final and deciding map, Nuke, delighted the audience for a long time as the teams were well-prepared for each other and fought hard for the trophy. The map ended with a 22-20 score in favor of Vitality, making them the trophy winners.

The MVP of the tournament was recognized as Mathieu "ZywOo", whose CS2 config and CS2 crosshair settings are very popular among fans. Vitality demonstrated a high level of preparation and focus on the opponent, which led them to the trophy at IEM Melbourne 2025.

It’s also worth noting that one of the spectators in the arena managed to unbox a CS2 knife during the match. At tournaments, it’s been a tradition for some spectators to open CS2 cases right in the hall, but as usual, they mostly get low-tier items. Maybe if they did it on the best CS2 case opening sites, the results would be much better.