After a six-hour marathon, Team Vitality has won the 16th season of the "Counter-Strike: Global Offensive" league ESL Pro League. In the final, the team played in five matches with 3:2 (7:16; 16:7; 21:25; 19:17; 16:11) get through and get the first big title with the current line-up.

"It wasn't a nice counter-strike from us today. We've played better before, but we were able to show mental strength," Vitality announcer Dan "apEX" Madesclaire said in an interview after the game. "It could have gone more smoothly, but I'm proud of my boys. We delivered together for the first time, hard work pays off.»

Vitalitys CS:GO team rewards itself for good form

In the group stage, Vitality had remained undefeated, and had eliminated the also up-and-coming G2 Esports in the semifinals. The final against Liquid, however, cost a lot of strength: after two clear cards, both teams took one game in extra time, but on the fifth card Vitality convinced from the start and made the first success of the year perfect.

Most recently, Vitality had triumphed at the IEM Winter at the end of last year, but then with the trio of Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, who came from Astralis, it initially fell short of expectations. Since the signing of Lotan "Spinx" Giladi, Vitality has been playing much better than before, and should therefore be one of the favorites at the major tournament IEM Rio at the end of October.

New addition YEKINDAR takes liquid to a new level

Despite the narrow defeat, the tournament is also a small success for Liquid. The team had last been one of the world leaders in CS:GO before the corona pandemic, but the shape curve is pointing upwards with Mareks "YEKINDAR" GaļInskis. But his future is uncertain: the Latvian is officially still with the Russian organization Virtus.pro under contract, a firm transfer is probably difficult so far due to sanctions.