Keep calm and carry on: Vitality do not need to panic

Vitality's insane streak was bound to be broken, and now is not the time for the team to lose their heads.

Seven Big Event wins in a row. A 37-series streak of wins. A brand-new Porsche for Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool. There were plenty of reasons for Vitality to be utterly thrilled with their exploits across the first season of 2025 as they racked up a number of impressive records and cemented themselves as one of the greatest teams in CS history, whilst grabbing plenty of silverware to back it up. Talk of an era was rumbling across the community and plenty of people expected to see Vitality's name etched into a litany of further trophies as the year progressed.

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Instead, we got something of a crashing down to Earth for Vitality. Three events into the season and we haven't seen the team in a grand final, let alone lift a trophy. Player form has dipped, even that of the ever-consistent Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut. Teams they once had firmly in their back pocket, like The MongolZ, have now found a way to beat them.

The change in fortune has clearly affected Vitality. ropz told HLTV of games at BLAST Bounty being "a red flag," and ZywOo told HLTV at Esports World Cup that the team have lost confidence. That is apparent when watching Vitality on the server; there are moments of hesitation and ponderousness that were simply not present in their game before the player break. A few losses have taken their toll on Vitality, such that they seem in danger of losing their heads and slipping further down the pecking order.

Whilst Vitality have certainly not hit the heady heights of their immense seven-event run from the first half of 2025, and the contrast is such that it perhaps feels very doom and gloom within the team, there is absolutely no need to panic. Vitality are still an elite team, it was unlikely for them to continue their streaks, there are more than enough reasons to look forward to the future with the optimistic hope that they can return to winning ways and continue to build a potential era for themselves.

Constantly winning is not sustainable

The first truth that needs to be fully accepted and internalized by Vitality is that winning absolutely everything is simply impossible. It is statistically inevitable that at some point, you will lose a game and therefore miss out on a trophy. Considering the nature of modern CS, that fact rings even more true. There are too many elite players, teams, and coaches, too many tools to use for preparation and analysis, to continue to stay one step ahead of the opposition.

With teams like MOUZ, Spirit, The MongolZ, Falcons and even FURIA breathing down your neck, there's no shame in eventually slipping from the untouchable pedestal you occupied for nearly six months. All of those teams either made changes in personnel to try and catch up, or were certainly studying your demos and analysing your team from every statistical angle, making plans to take you down. They were always, eventually, going to succeed.

Vitality's results have still been good

It is a luxury to be able to consider a run of three top-four finishes in a row a bad set of results. It is a folly to let such a run hit your confidence in the way it seems to have done for Vitality. As previously mentioned, the eco-system at the top of Counter-Strike is a ruthlessly competitive one, and there are plenty of dangerous predators ready to latch on to a single sign of weakness and go for the jugular. Being able to, even in a time where you are not at your best, still come out towards the top of the pile and make semi-finals and deep runs is an impressive feat.

Perhaps their current run seems dreadful when compared to seven Big Event wins on the bounce, but rearrange Vitality's results and swap one of the event wins of last season for a win say at Esports World Cup, would the noise from the Vitality camp be quite so negative?

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Every giant stumbles

Even the best teams of all time have moments where their greatness deserts them, at least for a time. Already Vitality have put themselves in a class of their own in the modern era of CS with their unforgettable winning streak, they have performed a feat no other team in history can match. When it comes to the era-defining teams, or even just year-defining teams, not only could they not win as consistently as Vitality did, they also had slumps worse than that of Vitality right now.

Astralis, in 2019 during the midst of their era, went five consecutive tournaments without a trophy before taking home the StarLadder Major Berlin title. In 2022, FaZe won everything up to PGL Major Antwerp 2022, before finishing 5-6th at IEM Dallas and BLAST Premier Spring Final and second to BIG in Roobet Cup 2022, only to win IEM Cologne in their next outing.

Just because Vitality's red-hot streak of tournament and series wins is at an end, does not mean their trophy-winning days are over, or even far from reach. The team could very well come back to win every single tournament from now to the end of the year, and this short dry spell would be but a footnote in the annals of their dominance.

Form is temporary, class is permanent

Vitality have to realise that the superlative individual form they enjoyed in the first half of the year was also never going to be sustainable. Every single Vitality player was putting up best-in-slot statistics, and even unc Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire was producing monster performances and carrying games, such as he did in the BLAST.tv Austin Major final.

In elite sports, and such thinking has transferred to esports, there is an acknowledgement that you cannot perform at 100% constantly, and so instead you must aim to peak at the right moments. Vitality enjoyed the absurd luxury of peaking across virtually the entire season, across every single player. Such a feat is impossible to maintain forever, and the individual pieces of Vitality were always going to regress towards the mean at some point.

Individual drop-offs are always going to be a particular problem for Vitality because of the way their team is structured. HLTV's own Harry "NER0" Richards touched on Vitality's relatively unique approach on the Come Here podcast, an approach which emphasises specialists over generalists; flameZ is a hard entry the likes of which are rarely seen in modern CS, for example.

When your team is a finely-tuned machine of particular parts, coming together to serve the function of winning CS games, there is little room for one piece to fail. There is not much chance, like there is for more generalist teams, to conduct slight tweaks to hide your underperformer and bring an in-form piece to the forefront. Much like an F1 car, it won't take much going wrong for the machine to start slowing down.

Regardless, all five of Vitality's players are still the same players they were across the first half of the year. ZywOo is still a prodigious talent comparable only to Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, ropz is still among the best of those who aren't named ZywOo or donk, apEX is still the best IGL in the world right now, and flameZ and William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman are still best-in-role candidates. Those facts haven't changed, and individual form will eventually begin to tick in the right direction.

Even a weighted coin sometimes lands tails up

Part of Vitality's spectacular success was predicated on the fact they were always able to squeak their way through tight maps or series. Somehow, some way, they were always on the right end of the 13-11, or made the right adjustments in overtime, or came through on the final map of a hard-fought battle.

Of course, this is at least partially due to the fact Vitality are so damn good. When you have five pieces at your disposal who are capable of at least occasionally turning a round on its head or carrying a map, the coin flip of a close map or series isn't really 50/50, it's weighted in your favour.

Eventually, however, even a weighted coin lands on the unfavoured side. Eventually Vitality were going to lose a crucial clutch, be on the wrong end of a fortunate smoke break, or suffer from a strong individual performance by an opposing player. Once again, you just can't win everything forever.

The perfect remedy could be just around the corner

In qualifying for BLAST Open London's LAN finals, and considering the teams in attendance, Vitality have the perfect chance to get back to winning ways.

Spirit stumbled in the group stage and did not make it to the LAN portion of the event, eliminating a potentially dangerous opponent. The MongolZ and Falcons, two teams who have recently defeated Vitality, did not participate in the tournament at all. This leaves MOUZ and FURIA as the two most in-form challengers for Vitality, and they can expect to play the former in the semi-finals and the latter in the final.

Making it directly into the semi-finals is a boon for the team as it gives them plenty of time to prepare for MOUZ, time to right the wrongs of their defeat by MOUZ at IEM Cologne, and prepare for a potential matchup with FURIA. Vitality have every chance to restore themselves to trophy-winning status.

Time heals all wounds

Beyond BLAST Open London, Vitality have what is perhaps an even better restorative on the horizon: a break. The team will have essentially a full month between their trip to London and ESL Pro League S22, a month in which to wash the bad taste of previous losses from their mouths and practice. It's hard to snap a bad streak when you are constantly travelling from tournament to tournament, and some time to rest and reset mentally could be exactly what the doctor ordered for Vitality.

In any case, there are innumerable reasons for Vitality to keep their hand well away from the panic button for the time being. Perhaps if their BLAST Open London campaign ends poorly and they return from their month at home to a weak showing at ESL Pro League, that situation may change. But as of right now, there is no reason to think Vitality can't get back to winning ways and stack some more trophies in their cabinet, firmly making 2025 their year. In fact, I would bet they do exactly that.