Image: ESL
ZywOo, ropz, and the rest of Vitality made Donk look mortal as they finally broke the curse of Katowice.
French Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) powerhouse
Team Vitality have finally claimed the trophy that has long eluded them, after they soundly swept Shanghai Major champions 
Team Spirit, 3-0, in the grand finals of Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Katowice 2025 on Monday (February 10).
With this victory, Vitality's decision to sign 
Robin “ropz” Kool to pair with 
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut during the offseason has already paid dividends. Not only did the team earn the grand prize of $400,000 out of the tournament's $1 million prize pool, they also erased the disappointment of bombing out of IEM Katowice 2024 in 13th-16th place – all while making 
Danil “Donk” Kryshkovets look mortal and handing the world's #1 ranked team arguably their most deflating loss yet.
This championship should also be extremely satisfying for ropz, as he has avenged his losses to Spirit in IEM Katowice 2024 and the Shanghai Major during his last year with 
FaZe Clan. Ropz has now also won IEM Katowice for the second time, with his first victory in one of the most iconic CS tournament series coming in 2022 with FaZe.
Meanwhile, Zywoo was named the IEM Katowice 2025 MVP for his excellent gameplay all throughout the tournament. He has now matched 
Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev's record for most MVP awards won in the history of CS at 21, and could very well be the new record holder later in the year.
Vitality cap off dominant IEM Katowice run with 3-0 grand finals sweep over Spirit
Vitality's march to the championship of IEM Katowice 2025 saw them drop just one map across the five matches they played in the tournament's Group Stage and Playoffs. The team started their Group Stage campaign in Group A with a 2-0 sweep over
3DMAX.
The next round then saw the eventual champions suffer their only map loss of the entire tournament, as ropz took on his old team in FaZe in a three-game thriller. Vitality emerged victorious after a 19-16 double overtime win in Dust II. The French squad then capped off their Group Stage run with a 2-0 sweep over 
Virtus.pro (VP) to earn a direct berth to the semifinals in the Playoffs.
Vitality then secured their spot in the grand finals by sweeping 
The MongolZ in Mirage (13-7) and Nuke (13-9), behind ZywOo's 41 frags on 23 deaths and ropz's 32 frags on 24 deaths.
Meanwhile, Spirit's path to their grand finals showdown with Vitality was not as easy. While the Shanghai Major champions started their Group Stage campaign in Group B with a 2-0 sweep over 
Astralis, they were defeated by a familiar foe in 
Natus Vincere (NAVI), 2-1, in the next round and were dropped to the lower bracket. Spirit had to sweep through 
Team Liquid before taking down 
GamerLegion in three games to advance to the Playoffs.
Spirit then swept VP in the quarterfinals. The team then avenged their previous loss to NAVI by sweeping their rematch in the semifinals, 2-0, to advance to the grand finals versus Vitality. Despite their more arduous road to the championship round, Spirit were still favoured by many to win IEM Katowice 2025 by virtue of winning the last two tournaments they played and Donk's sheer starpower. ZywOo and ropz, as it turned out, didn't seem to care about the odds at all.
3-0
Team SpiritThe grand finals kicked off in Spirit's map pick of Dust II, where Vitality started strong with a 5-1 lead after the first six rounds before their opponents bounced back to trim their lead down to 7-5 by halftime. After both sides traded the first two rounds of the second half, ropz sparked a dominant five-round run that allowed Vitality to steal Spirit's map pick with a 13-6 score.
Map one of the grand finals was, to put i succinctly, the ropz show. He put up 26 frags and seven assists on just nine deaths. In a sign of things to come for Spirit, Donk only had 10 kills and two assists against 16 deaths in the opening map of the series.
Game two was at Nuke, where ZywOo took the reins as Vitality surged to an 8-4 first half lead as the T side. Much like Dust II, Spirit could only manage one round in the second half, as Vitality secured a commanding 2-0 grand finals lead with the 13-5 win in Nuke.
ZywOo notably racked up 26 frags and one assist on a map-best six deaths, including a M4 4K on the defense to secure the map win. On the side of Spirit, only Donk showed up with 15 frags and three assists on 13 deaths, while the rest of his team only managed eight or fewer kills.
Mirage would be the final map of IEM Katowice 2025, where Vitality once again dominated the first half to the tune of an 8-4 lead as the CT side. The French squad then continued rolling in the first three rounds of the second half to extend their lead to 11-4 before an unlikely Ace from Boris “magixx” Vorobiev in round 17 sparked a seven-round run for Spirit that had both sides in a deadlock after 22 rounds.
However, Vitality kept their composure and methodically won the next two rounds to close out their championship run in IEM Katowice 2025 with a 13-11 win in Mirage. ZywOo led his team to the finish line with 22 frags and eight assists on a map-best 13 deaths. Dan “apEX” Madesclaire added 19 frags and eight assists on 17 deaths. Donk was notably silent in the closeout game, only managing 15 frags and three assists against 20 deaths.
With the conclusion of IEM Katowice 2025, the next S-Tier event for CS2 will be PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, which will see 16 teams battle it out for their cut of a $1.25 million prize pool in Romania from 14 to 23 February.
