Team Vitality Claims IEM Melbourne 2025 Title and Completes Counter-Strike 2 Grand Slam

Team Vitality’s Counter-Strike team secured the ESL Grand Slam over the weekend after a hard-fought battle against Team Falcons to win IEM Melbourne 2025. Teams that have been awarded the Grand Slam will receive an extra $1 million in addition to the prize money they’re taking home from the tournament.

The Grand Slam is awarded to teams that have won four S-tier events by ESL within 10 consecutive events and should include an IEM Katowice, Cologne or an ESL-operated Major. With Team Vitality winning IEM Melbourne 2025, it became the fifth team to win the ESL Grand Slam, joining the ranks of FaZe, NAVI, Team Liquid and Astralis.

In their way was the strengthened roster of Team Falcons. Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov joined the team after winning PGL Bucharest 2025. Falcons and Vitality met in the group stage, where Vitality convincingly defeated Falcons 2-0.

However, the Grand Final was a different story. It spanned a full five-map series where Team Falcons challenged Vitality’s dominance. It was a back-and-forth series, with both teams winning the map they picked.

The breakthrough happened in the fifth map, where Vitality had to come from behind after suffering a 9-3 loss in the first half, a six-round deficit. Vitality crawled their way back to tie the match at 12-12, which forced an overtime. The series ended 22-20 in favor of Team Vitality, with Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut being awarded the MVP.

The next Counter-Strike 2 S-tier tournament is Blast Rivals Spring 2025. It runs from April 30 until May 4. Both Team Vitality and Team Falcons will be in the tournament, which sets up a potential rematch.