No team had ever won three straight Counter-Strike Majors. Vitality walked into Cologne holding the Austin and Budapest trophies, seeded first, and were gone by Friday night without reaching a semi-final. The bracket had warned everyone this was coming. Almost nobody listened.
Vitality at the IEM Cologne Major 2026: The Case Against the World No. 1
The draw was the story before a single map
Buchholz seeding put Vitality, Team Spirit and FURIA on the same half of an eight-team single-elimination bracket. Vitality first, Spirit second, FURIA third. The arithmetic was brutal and public: at least two of the three most-favoured teams in the field would be eliminated before the June 21 grand final. Whoever survived that half would arrive at the LANXESS Arena having beaten two top-ranked sides. Whoever came from the other half would arrive fresh.
Falcons were the wrong quarter-final
Vitality drew Team Falcons. Falcons had beaten them in their previous three meetings. In April, karrigan’s move to Falcons gave a roster of NiKo, m0NESY and TeSeS the in-game leader it had lacked through seven grand finals without a Major. Kyxsan was benched to make room. That is not a squad you want in a best-of-three on the second day of quarter-finals, and Vitality lost.
Ranking rewards consistency. The bracket does not.
This is the case against the world number one, and Cologne made it plainly. Vitality’s 2025 was as complete a season as Counter-Strike has produced: six LAN titles, an ESL Grand Slam, a thirty-match win streak. None of it converts. ESL made every Stage 3 match a best-of-three for the first time in Major history, which rewarded depth across three weeks, then handed the survivors a single-elimination bracket where one bad map veto ends a dynasty.
Falcons beat FURIA 3-0 in the final. M0NESY took his first Major MVP. Vitality still hold three Majors, not four, and Astralis keep the record. The Grand Slam VII race runs on, and the team best equipped to win it just proved that being first in the standings and first out of the arena are entirely compatible.
