The MongolZ go back-to-back against Vitality to reach EWC grand final

Techno tallied the second-highest-rated LAN map of his career after obliterating Vitality on Nuke.

The MongolZ are through to the grand final of Esports World Cup after becoming the only team to beat Vitality twice in 2025.

The Austin Major champions had been indomitable in the first half of the year, winning seven titles in a row and putting up an unbelievable series winstreak, but have now stumbled three times after the tournament break with losses to MOUZ at IEM Cologne, The MongolZ at BLAST Bounty Season 2 Finals last weekend, and again to Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren's men in Saudi Arabia.

Different veto doesn't pay off

Vitality had regularly been The MongolZ's maker in 2025, beating them in six out of their seven meetings before bLitz's men finally got their first-ever win over the Austin Major champions in Malta, cruising to victory on Mirage before shutting down a comeback on Inferno to clinch the series.

The MongolZ stayed true to their Mirage pick in this series as they have in five of those past matchups, while Vitality opted for Dust2 like they had in Austin and removed Inferno, letting Nuke through as the decider.

A bLitz double entry opened up the accounts for The MongolZ, who were up 7-1 in no time after uncharacteristic mistakes by Vitality poured in.

Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan left Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut for dead in the first gun round and pushed through a smoke in Connector to his death in the next, with two triples from the French phenom and a pair of doubles from William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman just barely keeping their side afloat at halftime.

Vitality lost the second pistol but countered with a force-buy to give themselves a lifeline, but severed it on their own after dying to a Zeus and double Deagle from Azbayar "⁠Senzu⁠" Munkhbold and then again to Usukhbayar "⁠910⁠" Banzragch's Deagle two rounds later. That was enough for The MongolZ to seize control and close out their pick, 13-8.

The script was flipped on Dust2, where Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool scored a pistol ace and added a 1v2 clutch as Vitality ran rampant over the defense. The MongolZ got away with murder near the end of the half to pull back a 1-8 deficit to 4-8, and slowly began chipping away at Vitality's lead in the second half with flameZ and mezii barely scraping together a first CT round.

Vitality were about to be on the ropes before Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire found a miracle, two MAG-7 frags on A bagging Vitality a half-buy win which they seized upon to close out the map.

Techno unstoppable

All that work came undone on Nuke, where Sodbayar "⁠Techno⁠" Munkhbold dominated Vitality round after round in a masterclass CT side. The Mongolians were up 9-0 before Vitality even got a look in, barely salvaging two rounds at halftime before immediately getting put up against the wall after losing the final pistol and conversion.

Heroics from ZywOo, ropz, and apEX kept their tournament lives hanging by a thread for the briefest moment, but doubles from Techno and 910 put that comeback to rest as The MongolZ closed out.

Techno finished the map with a monstrous 27-11 K-D, 148.3 ADR, +10.31% Round Swing, and 2.09 rating, making it the second-highest-rated LAN map of his career.

More highlights from The MongolZ vs. Vitality:

• Techno picks Vitality apart in Connector

• mezii saves a bLitz 1v3 attempt

• ropz and mezii combine for the force

• 910's Deagle 3k wins The MongolZ another force round

• ropz kicks off Dust2 with an ace
  ropz clutches 1v2 on B

• mzinho and Techno win clutch on low HP

• 910 clotheslines apEX for double at Long

• mzinho does it all with 4k in 2v4 against pistols

• Vitality barely scrape first CT round after mezii triple and flameZ 1v2

• The MongolZ win pistol with Senzu's sensational one taps and bLitz clutch

• Senzu rips apart Vitality's half-buy A execute

• ropz and flameZ finally halt The MongolZ's 9-round spree