IEM Dallas 2025Vitality edge past Falcons to secure sixth consecutive grand final and 29th straight win
apEX's men needed all 24 rounds to close out the Inferno decider in another hard-fought series against Falcons.
Vitality are through to the grand final of IEM Dallas after beating Falcons for the fourth time in 31 days, surviving a late rallying cry from Damjan "kyxsan" Stoilkovski's side in the late stages of Inferno to scrape a 2-1 victory (13-7 Dust2, 6-13 Train, 13-11 Inferno).
It is the sixth consecutive grand final for Dan "apEX" Madesclaire's men and extends their historic match winstreak to 29 in a row, with a best-of-five against MOUZ now standing between them and a sixth consecutive trophy.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Dallas 2025 | ||
| 25/05/2025 |
21:30
|
Match |
Vitality came out swinging to steal Falcons' Dust2 pick but couldn't convert on Train, a map pick that Janko "YNk" Paunović made his feelings clear on pre-game despite Vitality having an unbeaten 7-0 record on coming into the series.
"I hate it," the Serbian analyst said on the desk.
Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov proved too much of a menace on the map, making up for a poor showing on Dust2, but bad starts to both halves on Inferno (0-6 and 7-12) proved too much for Falcons to overcome with Vitality able to lock down a narrow victory.
"I dunno, these games are getting a lot closer than we want I think, but it's so exciting to play these games and it's so fun to know we have the squad to get through anything," William "mezii" Merriman said post-game on the analyst desk.
"Whether we're behind or whether we have a big lead and we feel the [other] team is getting a bit of momentum as well, everyone is so switched on to be able to stay focused and to really close it out when it matters."
The crowd was behind Falcons
"Fuck you apEX" chants from the crowd were momentarily silenced in the second round of the semi-final following a 1v2 clutch by mezii, which robbed Falcons of any momentum from their pistol victory and instead let Vitality drum up an early lead.
A quad kill from kyxsan in the first full gun round offered his side small solace with Vitality up 6-2, and though a triple kill up Catwalk by Nikola "NiKo" Kovač let Falcons salvage five rounds at the break, things quickly turned sour.
Vitality hit double digits shortly into the second half, winning the pistol and making up for another kyxsan multi-kill by pulling back a 3v5 in round 16.
NiKo was left looking distraught after a Shahar "flameZ" Shushan 3k then put Vitality in touching distance of a victory, and the Bosnian's best efforts were simply not enough to make up for a complete disappearance from m0NESY as Falcons had their pick stolen away.
Falcons hand Vitality their first loss on Train
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut's 1.28 rating and 5:0 record in opening duels on Dust2 stood in stark contrast to m0NESY's 0.69 rating, but 'The Flash' was back to his best on Train.
Falcons gave away an early 5v3 and had their CT economy ruined after a flameZ triple kill, going from 4-1 up to a 4-4 tie, but Vitality's questionable attempts to push smokes at T Main and Ivy backfired.
m0NESY's openers and multi-fragging, combined with an excellent B defense from Emil "Magisk" Reif and well-timed aggression into B Halls, allowed Falcons to win out the half and lead by four at the break.
The Russian phenom then put the icing on the cake by converting a 1v2 clutch on 4HP to win a force-buy, with Falcons wasting no time closing out the map after René "TeSeS" Madsen set his side on 12 after lurking out Ivy to grab a quad kill.
Vitality were back with a vengeance on Inferno and dominated early doors, triples from apEX and ZywOo completely locking down the defense for a six-round spree, but consecutive B attacks and multis from TeSeS and m0NESY saw Falcons flip the script and tie the game at halftime.
What had shaped up to be a competitive game seemed to fall by the wayside in the second half as, despite Falcons having excellent reads and setups, every late-round scenario and clutch seemed to go Vitality's way.
flameZ and mezii combined to win two key rounds as Vitality surged toward victory, and even a miracle round win by Falcons wasn't enough to get them back into it after the Israeli entry fragger spray transferred to open up B.
Vitality hit map point immediately after, but Falcons started to claw back, only for NiKo to get caught out against pistols at 12-10. Magisk offered his team the real miracle, a 1v3 clutch to keep them alive, but it wasn't enough to get them a win as Vitality overcame a four-man A defense on round 24 to claim the win.
More highlights from Vitality vs. Falcons:
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flameZ 3k and 1v1 recovers 3v5 in all-important pistol round
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flameZ's spray transfer double entry destroys Falcons' recovery effort
  Vitality |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50 - 45 | +1.17% | 77.0 | 69.8% | 1.16 | |
| 46 - 41 | +1.80% | 73.8 | 69.8% | 1.09 | |
| 40 - 44 | -0.95% | 75.6 | 73.0% | 1.03 | |
| 31 - 42 | -1.63% | 67.6 | 61.9% | 0.90 | |
| 34 - 40 | -0.35% | 65.8 | 73.0% | 0.89 |
 Falcons |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51 - 43 | +0.80% | 87.0 | 77.8% | 1.22 | |
| 45 - 42 | +1.05% | 73.7 | 68.3% | 1.12 | |
| 39 - 36 | -0.11% | 71.0 | 77.8% | 1.11 | |
| 44 - 37 | +1.20% | 74.9 | 84.1% | 1.11 | |
| 32 - 45 | -2.96% | 63.8 | 71.4% | 0.81 |
Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin
Ádám 'torzsi' Torzsás
Jimi 'Jimpphat' Salo
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