Can MOUZ, Team Spirit, or Team Falcons put a stop to Team Vitality's era of dominance in the Austin Major?
The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is set to kick off on Tuesday (3 June) with 32 of the best Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) teams in the world fighting to win the first Major Championship of the year in Austin, Texas.
But let's be real, one team stands above them all: French juggernaut 
Team Vitality. Led by the superstar duo of 
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and 
Robin “ropz” Kool plus a stellar supporting cast in 
Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, 
William “mezii” Merriman, and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, Vitality have won six straight tournaments and are on a historic streak of 30 consecutive matches won.
Put simply, the Austin Major is Vitality's tournament to lose. Should they raise the Major trophy in Austin as almost everyone expects, then CS2 will bear witness to an era of dominance not seen since the days of prime 
Astralis.
With that said, Vitality are not without their challengers. While the French juggernauts ultimately emerged victorious time and time again, the likes of 
MOUZ, 
Team Spirit, and 
Team Falcons have been putting up a worthy fight and stand as the biggest contenders to Vitality's Major campaign in Austin. Read on as we break down which of those teams have the best chances at denying Vitality the Major trophy and ending their dominance.
MOUZ
Match record vs Team Vitality in 2025: 3-15
MOUZ have been Vitality's most frequent opponent so far this year, with the French squad besting them in three grand finals at ESL Pro League Season 21 and BLAST Open Spring Lisbon 2025 in March as well as Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Dallas 2025 in late May. However, MOUZ have only managed to win three maps against Vitality in 18 attempts.
Since Lotan “Spinx” Giladi left Vitality for MOUZ in January, the team have steadily risen to become arguably the second best team in the world. While most top squads rely on one or two star players, MOUZ boasts a more balanced lineup with any one of Spinx, 
Adam “torzsi” Torzsás, 
Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo, and Dorian “xertioN” Berman popping off to lead the team to victory in any given map. 
Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin has also blossomed into one of the best IGL's in the scene, despite being basically thrust into the role when Spinx joined the team.
MOUZ's experience against Vitality, even if that involves them losing most of the time, will be their calling card should they face the French juggernauts once again. In the IEM Dallas 2025 grand finals, MOUZ notably had Vitality on the ropes in Dust II and were on the verge of pulling off a comeback in Mirage and Inferno, only to collapse in the later rounds. If MOUZ can find a way to deal with the relentless pressure Vitality puts on their opponents, then they stand as good a chance as any to finally hand them defeat.
With MOUZ starting the Austin Major in Stage 3 alongside Vitality, there is potential for them to end the latter's match streak in the treacherous best-of-one series in that stage. With that said, their likely encounters in the best-of-three matches in the Playoffs will be where this rivalry is truly decided.
Team Spirit
Match record vs Team Vitality in 2025: 1-7
Team Spirit looked like they were about to start an era of dominance of their own just six months ago, as 
Danil “Donk” Kryshkovets had a historic rookie year and made his case as the best player in the world by leading his team to the championship of the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024. However, Spirit will be looking to defend their Major title in the shadow of Vitality.
Spirit faced Vitality in only eight maps so far this year and only managed to win one, with three of their losses to the French juggernauts notably coming in the grand finals of IEM Katowice 2025 back in February. With all due respect to Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov, Donk will need some real help to take on ZywOo, ropz, and the rest of Vitality.
Spirit's lone win against Vitality, a 13-5 stomp in Nuke in game two of their semifinals clash in BLAST Open Lisbon 2025, saw all five Spirit players put up at least 12 frags while Vitality as a whole underperformed. Almost every single one of Spirit's seven losses saw Donk essentially fight all of Vitality by his own. If Spirit has any hope of defeating Vitality, Donk and sh1ro both have to be putting on superstar impact while any one of 
Myroslav “zont1x” Plakotja, Boris “magixx” Vorobiev, or Leonid “Chopper” Vishnyakov have a life game. It can happen in a best-of-one in Stage 3, but it's very unlikely to happen twice in a best-of-three in the Playoffs.
Out of all three contenders in this list, Spirit are arguably the biggest underdogs versus Vitality. But it likely won't be a clean sweep for the French squad by any means. We've all seen Donk perform miracles on the server to claim unwinnable rounds for Spirit before, he just needs his teammates to help him push past the finish line.
Team Falcons
Match record vs Team Vitality in 2025: 5-10
Team Falcons have played Vitality closest so far this year, winning five maps out of 15 attempts, including back-to-back five-game thrillers in the grand finals of IEM Melbourne 2025 and BLAST Rivals Spring 2025. The secret to Falcons' near-success versus Vitality? The only other star pairing that can match the ZywOo-ropz duo: Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and 
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač.
In terms of how they formed their respective squads, Vitality and Falcons are polar opposites. Vitality slowly built their current era-defining squad over multiple years around ZywOo and apEX, with ropz being the missing piece the team needed to finally get over the top. Meanwhile, Falcons simply handed star players big bags of cash to get them to join, first came NiKo at the start of the year followed by m0NESY in April.
With that said, Vitality and Falcons' respective rosters follow very similar formulae. M0NESY and NiKo are a superstar AWPer/rifler duo just like the ZywOo-ropz pairing (though ZywOo is a much better rifler than m0NESY), 
René “TeSeS” Madsen is a solid entry fragger who can really pop off just like flameZ, Emil “Magisk” Reif is a solid anchor player content to set his teammates up for success, while both 
Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski and apEX have become renown fragging IGLs.
But no matter how much the supporting pieces for both sides contribute, the result will ultimately be decided by their respective superstar duos. And while m0NESY and NiKo may have the most firepower of any pairing we've seen in CS2, ZywOo and ropz can match their frags and beat them out in consistency. This fact is readily apparent in all three matches where Vitality and Falcons have faced off so far.
Of course, we also have to consider that m0NESY just only joined Falcons in April and has yet to fully synergise with the team. If Falcons have played Vitality the closest with m0NESY still not fully integrated, what happens once the team as a whole finally clicks? It remains to be seen, and hopefully it will happen in the Austin Major. But as things stand, Falcons arguably have the biggest chance to topple Vitality.
The BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 is the first CS2 Major Championship of the year. From 3 to 6 June, 32 of the best CS2 teams in the world will gather in Austin, Texas to fight across four grueling stages of competition to claim the third CS2 Major title and the lion's share of the tournament's US$1.25 million prize pool.
For everything you need to know about the BLAST.tv Austin Major, check here.
