British Counter-Strike player William “mezii” Merriman, alongside Team Vitality, took home the trophy at the BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 finals. This only solidifies their title as the best team in the world right now, after also securing the ESL Grand Slam title just a few weeks ago and BLAST Open Spring 2025 earlier this year.
Team Vitality eased through the Group Stage of BLAST Rivals Spring after defeating Wildcard and MOUZ and securing their spot in the semifinals. They would then face off against Team Spirit who also looked in good form, despite their loss to Team Falcons during overtime on the final map.
Mezii and Team Vitality would eventually make their way into the Grand Final after defeating Team Spirit in two close games to take the series 2-0. Meeting them in the Grand Final was Team Falcons, who had shown great performance against some of the strongest teams to make it to the finals.
Trading map for map and blow for blow, it all came down to the final map to decide who would become the BLAST Rivals Spring 2025 champion. During the final map on Nuke, Team Vitality were able to consolidate each round victory into win streaks, which gave them the space to pressure Team Falcons when needed. Partly thanks to Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut’s 4k in the first pistol round, which contributed to earning his 25th tournament MVP award.
The Grand Finals saw a peak of 1,037,291 viewers, according to Esports Charts. This set the record for the highest ever peak viewership for a non-Major BLAST event, and second amongst all BLAST-hosted events. Only falling short of the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023, which Team Vitality also won.
Mezii and Team Vitality continue to dominate the Counter-Strike esports scene with this latest victory, adding to their now 25-match win streak. This puts them at the second-longest match win streak in the history of Counter-Strike 2 and proves why this lineup is undoubtedly the greatest on Counter-Strike esports right now.
Their next challenge will be at Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2025 later this month.
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