IEM Cologne 2025Eighth time is the charm as MOUZ beat Vitality to reach Cologne final
Vitality’s series streak is broken after 37 straight victories and seven consecutive titles.
MOUZ have finally done it, they have finally beaten their arch-nemesis Vitality after losing to them on seven different occasions this year, and in doing so deprive the Dan "apEX" Madesclaire-led squad from defending their IEM Cologne title on Sunday.
Instead, MOUZ will be taking on Spirit in the best-of-five series for one of the most coveted trophies in the Counter-Strike circuit.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| IEM Cologne 2025 | ||
| 03/08/2025 |
17:00
|
Match |
The semi-final series kicked off with two early triples, one by Shahar "flameZ" Shushan in the opening pistol round of Mirage in a B defense, and a beautiful A defense by Robin "ropz" Kool with a FAMAS, put Vitality on a strong early lead and threatened to batter MOUZ’s mentality.
Down 4-8, a dominating pistol round win on the B site put MOUZ back in contention, and they ran away with the half. A 1vs3 by ropz, who was a human highlight machine and a shining star on a night that Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut went silent, was the only round tallied by Vitality in what ended up being a 13-9 first map.
By the end of it, ZywOo had an 8-19 scoreline and a 0.53 rating, his worst on a single map since 2022.
Vitality had their map pick to look forward to, Train. Many times have Vitality given up a map in a series just to turn it around and win it in three on the road to their 37-series winning streak. This time around, however, it was different.
Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin and Lotan "Spinx" Giladi’s pistol doubles early on in Train, after losing the pistol round, set up a competitive first half, which they won 7-5 before the switch. ZywOo, who was having another poor map, grew visibly frustrated after pushing a smoke out of Main and dying in vain.
After the switch, MOUZ won a crucial second round that set them up with the economic advantage as Vitality failed to settle on the CT side, only linking two rounds together when up against match point before falling 13-8.
As ZywOo struggled in Mirage, flameZ went missing on Train with a 0.27 rating, and even posted on X that he's "waiting for that 12 sec. highlight video after this Train."
With this Vitality’s title streak, which stood at seven, also comes to an end along with their series streak. Their title defense in Cologne, too, comes to an and, and a new winner will be crowned on Sunday.
More highlights from Vitality vs. MOUZ:
  Vitality |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37 - 30 | +3.57% | 83.9 | 60.5% | 1.12 | |
| 24 - 28 | +0.21% | 62.0 | 69.8% | 0.83 | |
| 23 - 34 | -0.98% | 70.5 | 62.8% | 0.78 | |
| 21 - 37 | -5.44% | 59.6 | 53.5% | 0.63 | |
| 14 - 36 | -4.82% | 50.7 | 53.5% | 0.51 |
 MOUZ |
K - D | Swing | ADR | KAST | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 - 29 | +3.51% | 109.8 | 81.4% | 1.58 | |
| 40 - 19 | +4.96% | 89.2 | 90.7% | 1.48 | |
| 29 - 21 | +0.27% | 73.1 | 81.4% | 1.24 | |
| 28 - 26 | +0.77% | 76.5 | 79.1% | 1.15 | |
| 28 - 25 | -2.36% | 64.9 | 67.4% | 0.96 |
Dennis 'sycrone' Nielsen
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia
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