- The team defeats GamerLegion at the last CS:GO Major finals
- GamerLegion were the underdogs of the tournament but performed quite well
- The victory has motivated Vitality’s players to win more Majors in the future
Vitality won the last ever CS:GO Major in front of a home crowd in the French capital and took home the grand prize of $500,000.
Vitality Become Champions
After two weeks of intense battle, the BLAST Premier Paris Major, the last such event to be held on CS:GO, before the game renews to CS2, has concluded with Team Vitality lifting the trophy above their heads. This is the European team’s first Major title for Vitality, and will see them go down in history as the last-ever CS:GO world champions.
Vitality went up against underdogs GamerLegion in a match on Overpass and Nuke, winning both to grab the $500 000 grand prize. Meanwhile, their opponents go home with $170 000, the second place in the Paris Major, and a newfound reputation the team created during their run in the tournament. GamerLegion scored some amazing matches during the Major, including eliminating favorites MOUZ on their way to the finals.
It’s somewhat poetic that Vitality managed to win the final CS:GO Major on home soil, France being the origin of the organization and two of its players – Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. Throughout their campaign, Vitality were supported by an adamant crowd, which likely played a huge factor in the team’s success.
“It's just unreal. When I joined Vitality, I set an individual goal for myself that I wanted to achieve winning one more Major because I knew that if I could win one with a new team, I would be the one with the most Majors since I was no longer playing together with my old friends in Astralis,” said the team’s Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen after the match.
The victory at the tournament has motivated the 30-year-old rifler to continue playing his best in the future when Counter-Strike 2 launches this summer. “I'm done winning just because I win my fifth Major and set a new record,” dupreeh said. “It's more that now I've achieved something that no one else has achieved, and of course that's been on my mind for a while.”
The match itself was somewhat one-sided, with Vitality controlling the flow of the game in three of the four halves played. The two teams first faced off Overpass, where the soon-to-be champions took the lead and dominated their opponents, ending the map with the scoreboard reading 16-6 in Vitality’s favor.
But GamerLegion were not about to just roll over and gift Vitality the victory. Nuke was the second map and it started more competitively, with GamerLegion taking the lead in the first half. By the time the sides switched, the team managed a healthy lead of 10-5. Unfortunately, this is all the team had, so Vitality clawed their way back up in the second half eventually evening things up at 13-13. From there Vitality won the crucial rounds, taking the second map 16-13 to become Major champions.
With this, the end of competitive CS:GO and CS:GO majors come to an end. The game will transform into Counter-Strike 2 in the summer, with future Majors being played on it instead. However, we will not see such an event until 2024.
