Team Vitality keeps winning and take BLAST Austin Major as well
24 June 2025
Is there anyone in the international Counter-Strike community who can stop Team Vitality at the moment? After becoming only the fifth team in history to complete the illustrious ESL Grand Slam earlier this year, which means winning three ESP Pro Tour Masters and one Championship tournament inside a span of ten consecutive events, the French organization went on to win IEM Dallas 2025 as well. In real “now that we are here”-fashion, Team Vitality stuck around in Texas to compete at the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 after that, and guess what? They won that one as well.
Comeback in the final
As you can imagine, Team Vitality was the all-out favorite for the final victory at the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, which was played from June 3rd to June 22nd at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas. It looks like they are building a true international esports dynasty, at least as far as Counter-Strike is concerned. The French side delivered as expected with a relatively comfortable run all the way to the Grand Final. Mongolian organization The MongolZ was waiting for them there after having eliminated, amongst others, American organization FaZe Clan and Brazilian organization paiN Gaming themselves.
The MongolZ started off the Grand Final in a fury, fighting themselves to a 7-5 lead on the first map (Mirage) by halftime and then finishing the job 13-5. In response, Team Vitality picked Dust II as the second map and for good reason, because a quick 13-4 victory forced the battle into a third and final map, Inferno. Despite taking the first map, the French side turned out to be simply too much for their Mongolian counterparts as they decided the first half in their favor: 9-3. It would eventually end 13-6, which meant that Team Vitality clinched yet another major trophy as well as $ 500.000 in prize money. Runners-up The MongolZ took home $ 170.000 from the prize pool, which totaled no less than $ 1.25 million.
Most-watched Counter-Strike tournament ever
Those people who are doubting the ongoing allure of international esports would be wise to check the spectator statistics for the recent BLAST.tv Austin Major. That’s because it recorded no less than 76,1 million hours watched across the event’s total airtime of 135 hours. No other Counter-Strike tournament in the history of the hugely popular game managed to record more hours watched than the 2025 BLAST.tv Austin Major.
It probably does not come as a surprise that champions Team Vitality featured in three of the five most-watched matches of the 2025 BLAST.tv Austin Major. Each of these five matches recorded peak viewing figures of over one million.
More surprising perhaps is the fact that their fellow finalists, The MongolZ, were actually the most-watched organization during the tournament. They recorded 13,4 million hours watched in total, which represents almost 18% of all hours watched. Champions Team Vitality recorded 11,4 million hours watched, making them third-most-watched organization of the 2025 BLAST.tv Austin Major.