Vitality defeated FaZe 3-1 on December 14, 2025, in the StarLadder Budapest Major grand final to claim a second straight Major title, the first team to do so since Astralis in 2019. FaZe opened the series with a dominant performance on Nuke, taking map one 13-6 as Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken set the early tone with a triple in the pistol and a rapid pace that left Vitality flat-footed. Vitality answered emphatically over the next three maps, however, with commanding wins on Dust2 (13-3), Inferno (13-9), and Overpass (13-2).
apEX stood out for his tactical reads and late-round calls, particularly on Dust2, where Vitality exploited FaZe’s information plays and walked into B site after multiple late-round decisions. FlameZ and mezii produced several clutch moments on Dust2, while ZywOo returned to form with a quad-kill to close the map and finished the tournament as the MVP. Robin “ropz” Kool put together the best map of his career on Overpass, going 22-7 with 144.1 ADR and a 2.89 rating to seal the series. ZywOo’s MVP award is his third Major MVP medal, and he becomes the second player to win back-to-back Major MVPs after Marcelo “coldzera” David.
The victory caps a dominant 2025 for Vitality, a season that included seven titles and an extended run of match and series wins. apEX now ties Emil “Magisk“, Nicolai “device“, Lukas “gla1ve“, and Andreas “Xyp9x” on total Majors won, behind Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen. Vitality’s path through the event also intersected with other storylines at the Major; Spirit advanced to the semifinals after a strong run earlier in the playoffs, led by Ivan “zweih” Gogin, and Danil “donk” Kryshkovets posted outstanding numbers in the lead-up to the late stages of the event.
The grand final was the first best-of-five Major final in Counter-Strike history, and Vitality closed it out with a mix of aggressive individual plays and methodical team calling that FaZe could not counter after the opening map.
Match clips
Follow Console & PC Gaming on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.
