Vitality crowned StarLadder Budapest Major Champions; mezii claims second Major trophy
Image Credit: Monster Energy
Vitality defeated FaZe 3-1 to secure back-to-back Major titles at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, becoming the first team to successfully defend a Major title since Astralis in 2019.
Vitality had dominated much of 2025, but had only won one tournament in the second season of the year. The Major saw the roster reclaim their championship form as the team deservedly won their ninth big title in 2025.
The final was the first Counter-Strike Major Grand Final to feature a Best of 5 final, a fact that benefited a Vitality who showed their overall superiority across the breadth of CS’s map pool.
Britain’s William ‘mezii’ Merriman provided perhaps his finest performance for Vitality, standing out amongst the star-studded roster, providing huge impact on the pivotal map of Inferno.
How Vitality won the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025
FaZe ride momentum-based Counter-Strike on Nuke
The biggest threat to Vitality was that FaZe would get the ball rolling quickly, and run away with the contest through momentum alone.
That script played out instantly, with FaZe winning the first pistol, the conversion, and an albeit messy anti-eco that followed.
Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken made a Mini drop reminscient of the IEM Cologne 2022 final, as FaZe quickly demolished Vitality’s first fullbuy.
Dominance outside gave FaZe a strong lead. Vitality began to somewhat rally, but they could not take advantage of breaking FaZe’s economy, with Jakub ‘jcobbb’ Pietruszewski delivering a deagle triple kill to give FaZe eight on the half.
jcobbb continued that pistol form to get another 3k, giving FaZe the second pistol round.
What truly encapsulated FaZe’s dominance was IGL Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen’s individual performance on the CT-side, delivering two startling triple-kills against Vitality’s stars, the second of which gave FaZe map point.
By contrast, the ability of karrigan to take down Robin ‘ropz’ Kool, Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, and Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan showed that Vitality’s stars had not settled into the series.
FaZe did not give Vitality the time or space to do so as they raced to a 13-6 victory on map 1 of Nuke.
Vitality strike back on Dust 2
After suffering a similarly slow start against Spirit in the semi-finals, Vitality managed to rally from 12-6 down.
In the Grand Final, they could not recover in time to salvage Nuke, so Map 2 was where the recovery had to start.
They did so in Dust 2, dictating the pace on the T-side as they expertly manipulated FaZe, drawing rotations to punish FaZe’s B site holds.
FlameZ had demolished Spirit on the same map, with several opening kills, and continued that form on Counter-Strike’s most iconic locale.
mezii, one of Vitality’s brighter players on Nuke, kept the pressure on in the clutch to bring Vitality to a lead of 8-1.
FaZe finally managed two strong rounds at the end of the half to recover to 9-3, shutting down Long and B plays but the map still was yet to feel competitive.
ZywOo shut down any hope of a recovery from FaZe as he delivered a clean USP 4k on Long to give Vitality the second pistol.
A clean shutdown of the forcebuy and eco brought Vitality to map point.
The final round began with FaZe’s pieces being chunked down by HE grenades, summarising their complete read on FaZe on the map.
The Austin Major champions would close out the map there and then, in FaZe’s one and only T-side gunround as Vitality won 13-3 on Dust 2.
mezii’s finest hour for Vitality on Inferno
David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský delivered three to give FaZe the T side pistol on Inferno, and important step in what is an economy-dominated map.
A ropz put masterclass gave Vitality their first round, to make it 3-1, and a mezii clutch gave Vitality a defuse by the finest of margins.
After back and forth rounds, Vitality began to roll on the CT-side, with their each player having highlight moments.
Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire and flameZ B-holds, mezii and ZywOo retakes, ropz’s head on a swivel, holding Short and Moto at once.
mezii was the hero once again in the last round of the half, displaying expert trigger discipline to hold on to his boosted position in secrecy before dismantling FaZe’s B-site attack.
frozen’s smoke spam gave FaZe their second pistol, which they converted with a disadvantaged retake which saw Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants save FaZe from economic ruin.
Another followed with karrigan winning a 1v1 against ZywOo, who again came close despite inferior weaponry.
Once the guns came out, Vitality started to deliver some of the most expertly executed textbook Counter-Strike possible on Inferno.
Their Banana control scaled to B-site executes which left FaZe’s defense blinded, nowhere to look or stand.
Even with the B-site often featuring frozen, karrigan, and support from broky, Vitality still prevailed.
After a failed attempt at A, Vitality ran in back, again mezii delivering two to give Vitality map point.
frozen had seen enough on Banana, charging down with a rapid 3k to deny Vitality’s first attempt at closing the map.
Yet in trying to control Banana again, Vitality blew the smoke on the bottom on Banana, punishing an advanced frozen.
The death pulled a rotation, leaving A with only two defenders for the Vitality hit that broke the conditioning FaZe were used to.
Mezii again delivered two on the way to the round as Vitality closed the map 13-9, putting them in touching distance from back-to-back Majors.
Vitality dominate Overpass
Overpass was an ominous map to come up next in the veto for FaZe. The roster showed severe struggles early in the tournament on the map, with Ninjas in Pyjamas exploiting their vulnerable B site.
That fear was soon realised as ropz and mezii made a fast start to get Vitality’s T side activated on the heavily CT-sided map.
The first gun round saw Vitality stretch their legs on the map, ending with a decisive A hit.
A consistent pattern of FaZe’s recent Overpass struggles was their inability to secure trades when that first defender falls.
In truth, those trades would normally still be suboptimal, as the two of three defenders must fight off the T-side site invaders.
Yet with FaZe, the site defenders could not even cover each other, and Vitality were well aware of it.
The B-site hits were came cleanly, with jcobbb and Twistzz unable to get those trades.
When Vitality moved towards A, FaZe lacked the map control to cause Vitality issues on their approach.
A triple entry from apEX on the B-site perfectly encapsulated the rings he was running around FaZe.
It was utter domination from Vitality on the least favourable Terrorist side in Counter-Strike.
FaZe managed only one CT-side round, and the second pistol as Vitality romped to victory behind an exceptional ropz highlight reel.
Vitality’s forcebuy showed exactly what FaZe lacked on their CT-side, with FlameZ taking water control, allowing a fast flank and yet more five-seven mayhem.
The French fans began chanting La Marseillaise as Vitality melted throw FaZe once again, and Vitality were crowned once again as the kings of Counter-Strike.
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