Vitality make Budapest Grand Final as flustered donk departs

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 13/12/2025

Vitality became the first team to make the Grand Final of the StarLadder Budapest Major following a 2-0 victory over Spirit.

A Mirage comeback gave way to a dominant victory over Spirit on Dust 2, with the Austin Major champions running over Spirit’s defence in every position.

Vitality now have the chance to be the first team to go back-to-back at a Counter-Strike Major since Astralis’ StarLadder Berlin Major victory in 2019.

mezii performance keeps Vitality in Mirage before classic comeback

The pistol saw Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets activate immediately, with a quick triple in the pistol as Vitality tried to walk out mid.

Losing a pistol is not something to worry about at any level, especially for a Vitality that has made so many great comebacks in 2025; however, the game instantly felt different from much of 2025.

Vitality responded to losing the pistol with a series of limp rounds. The first sign of life came from William ‘mezii’ Merriman, whose crisp deagle shots seemed to wake Vitality up, despite losing the fourth round where they came.

The following round mezii combined with Robin ‘ropz’ Kool to provide Vitality’s first round, in a well-worked 2v4, but Vitality could not turn that into momentum.

Vitality managed to piece together a few more rounds as the half drew to a close, but it was always laboured and often off the back of mezii’s impact, outpacing Vitality’s team form.

Spirit’s 8-4 half-time lead became a runway to a quick victory after yet another pistol victory behind Ivan ‘zweih’ Gogin’s decisive B hold.

Before Vitality were awake in the server, they were facing map points, with Spirit leading 12-7.

At that most dire moment, Vitality’s stars began to wake up as they demolished Spirit’s rather predictable site hits.

Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut became a wall, finding openings B, A, and Mid, playing fully in a flow state.

Spirit’s last true chance at converting the map was lost as mezii tapped down a desperate Spirit who needed to plant the bomb before time expired.

Vitality, seemingly not alive in the semi-final at all, had earned an overtime that seemed impossible only 15 minutes before.

Suddenly, it seemed the fear of choking had left Spirit as Andrey ‘tN1R’ Tatarinovich pulled off a 1v2 to get Spirit moving again.

An audaciously Sandwich drop saw donk find a triple kill and secure Spirit two more map points on their first CT-side round.

Vitality were not finished, however, as two decisive T-side rounds, and yet more impact from ZywOo forced a second overtime.

Despite losing an inconceivable 1v3 to Leonid ‘chopper’ Vishnyakov, Vitality took their first map point after an exhilarating 1v1 clutch from ropz.

A Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan finally gave Vitality room to breathe, as it created a 5v3 from which Vitality easily converted the map and round to lead the series 1-0.

It seemed that donk took the loss particularly hard, visibly showing signs of frustration which matched the exasperated comms shown on broadcast.

Vitality’s T-side runs over Spirit at Dust 2

It was Vitality who had the fast start on Dust 2, with a 4-0 hot start that saw ZywOo activate early, and donk struggling to find openings.

Spirit fought back with their own run of four rounds to equalise, finding success on the B site.

The streaks stopped, as Vitality and Spirit traded rounds to end the first half in an even fashion.

The half was notable for Spirit’s recovery despite donk’s relatively quiet showing, prior to the eleventh round, where he secured two AK and two AWP kills.

Spirit won the second pistol, but a failed chopper play behind Vitality allowed the Austin champs to win their first gun-round.

Two pacey B site hits led to more success for the team of the year, as flameZ showed his explosive best to take the site.

Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire began to join in, playing his old role of entry to demolish a three-man Spirit hold on A.

Suddenly, it seemed that Vitality could go wherever they wanted and have success.

Spirit were simply sitting on sites and waiting to die, and with that, so did their Budapest Major hopes as Vitality closed the map and series, 13-8.

Darragh Harbinson, Senior Editor

Darragh Harbinson is an esports writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK, Esports Insider, UKCSGO, Dexerto, and Rush B Media.

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