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With the support of the home crowd behind them, Team Vitality have claimed the final-ever Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major — defeating GamerLegion 2-0 in the BLAST.tv Paris Major at Accor Arena on Sunday.
Vitality began their BLAST.tv Paris Major campaign with high expectations, as they had just come off a dominant IEM Spring (IEM Rio 2023) victory a few weeks beforehand, while many esports betting sites had them pinned as one of the favourites to claim the title.
The last CS:GO Major Champions @TeamVitality 🔥
And they've done it on home soil!#BLASTTVMajor | 📸 @theMAKKU pic.twitter.com/tLr7XdcbwL
— HLTV.org (@HLTVorg) May 21, 2023
Of the five players on the Vitality roster, the two hometown boys in Dan “apEX” Madesclaire and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut had a lot riding on this Major, with the in-game leader searching for his second Major of his career and ZywOo seeking his first.
Emil “Magisk” Reif now has four Major wins in his career, having claimed three during his time with Astralis.
Magisk’s former Astralis alumni Danny “zonic” Sorensen and Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen also added to their impressive career records, with dupreeh now owning more CS:GO Major wins than any other player in history.
The sixth and final piece of this Vitality roster is Lotan “Spinx” Giladi, who was signed in August last year and has become the first ever Counter-Strike Major winner from Israel.
Vitality completed the Paris Major without losing a single map — thus matching Natus Vincere, who also managed to win 10 consecutive maps at the PGL Major Stockholm in 2021.
As for the runners-up, GamerLegion surpassed all expectations, with many people predicting them to be knocked out in the Challengers Stage.
However, in front of a hostile French crowd, the inexperience of the GamerLegion roster showed and Vitality took advantage of their mistakes and put them to the sword.
THE CHOSEN ONE 🇫🇷@zywoo finally wins his first Major and claims his first Major MVP award from HLTV & @1xBet_Esports #BLASTTVMajor pic.twitter.com/MqReZUeg3x
— HLTV.org (@HLTVorg) May 21, 2023
To go with his first Major of his career, ZywOo took home his first Major MVP award, finishing the event with an impressive 1.39 overall rating including a server-high rating in the final of 1.54.
With the final CS:GO Major now over, the next Counter-Strike Major will be played on the new game – Counter-Strike 2 – kicking off in Copenhagen, Denmark, on March 17 next year.
