Team Vitality wins IEM Katowice and VCT EMEA Kickoff in the same weekend

Team Vitality has recorded two impressive achievements over the weekend, winning Counter-Strike 2’s Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice 2025 and VALORANT’s VCT EMEA Kickoff 2025.

Throughout the tournaments on February 7th-9th, the French esports organisation’s CS2 and VALORANT roster recorded successful upper bracket runs, defeating IEM opponent Team Spirit and VCT contestant Team Liquid in each of the Grand Finals.

Team Vitality’s run at IEM Katowice, one of CS2’s most prestigious tournaments, began in the Group Stage with a 2-0 win against fellow French team 3DMAX. The roster then defeated FaZe Clan (2-1) and Virtus.Pro (2-0) to secure a spot in the Playoffs.

In the Semifinals, Vitality’s dominant display continued with a 2-0 victory against TheMongolZ. The Grand Final against Shanghai Major winners Team Spirit was yet another decisive series from the French team. According to esports data platform Esports Charts, nearly 1.3m fans watched Vitality triumph 3-0 with consecutive wins on Dust II, Nuke and Mirage.

“It took time, but I feel like I’ve completed the game! I’ve finally won every big tournament and I think it was my best individual performance in a final. I wanted this win so much, it’s crazy. We were really confident today and we delivered with the win,” shared Team Vitality in-game leader (IGL), Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire, in a press release.

Securing first place in Katowice as well as the IEM Cologne 2024 has made Team Vitality back-to-back IEM champions. Moreover, Katowice MVP Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut has now become one of 16 athletes to have won IEM Katowice, IEM Cologne and a CS2 Major. He’s also the third player to be awarded MVP in all three competitions.

With its success at the first IEM event of the year, Vitality is in a strong position heading into the ESL Pro League Season 21 in March. The team will then compete at BLAST Open Spring 2025.

Having built a stacked roster of international players, Team Vitality stood out at VCT EMEA Kickoff with a 2-1 win against fellow French organisation Karmine Corp that placed the team in the Upper Bracket Semifinals.

Following two 2-0 sweeps against FUT Esports and Team Heretics, Team Vitality faced underdogs Team Liquid in the Grand Final. Unexpectedly, Liquid took the lead in the series, winning Split and Haven. However, the French organisation defeated its opponent in a reverse sweep across Lotus, Bind and Fracture.

”We were just confident in our maps, I think our map pool is strong. Even though we lost Split and Haven, when we got to the third map we started believing in ourselves, we took it round-by-round and tried not to stress out too much, and it worked,” said new Vitality recruit and two-time international trophy winner, Nikita ‘Derke’ Sirmitev.

With its first-ever tier one VALORANT trophy, Team Vitality has seeded advance at the upcoming Masters Bangkok.

From February 20th until March 3rd, the first international tournament of the VCT 2025 season has invited eight teams, including fellow EMEA contestant Team Liquid, as well as the Kickoff winners of the other VCT regions, Edward Gaming, G2 Esports and DRX.