Vitality have done it again. The French side closed out BLAST Rivals Spring 2026 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on 3 May with a 3-0 sweep of Natus Vincere in the grand final, locking in their fifth consecutive trophy of the year and pocketing the $125,000 winner’s cheque from a $350,000 prize pool.
Your BLAST Premier Rivals Fort Worth Champions, @TeamVitalityCS 🏆🐝#BLASTPremier pic.twitter.com/pgoH62PwzV
— BLAST Premier 💥 (@BLASTPremier) May 3, 2026
The headline number is the streak, but the headline moment was Nuke. Vitality were 11-0 down on map one, the kind of hole that 99% of teams never climb out of, and somehow turned it into a 16-12 win in overtime. After that, the result felt inevitable, even if Anubis went the distance at 13-11 before Dust2 closed it out 13-3.
The 11-0 Comeback That Decided The Final
NAVI came out of the gates on Nuke and looked completely in control. They stormed to an 11-0 lead, hitting good timings Outside, Secret, T Red, and under Silo, and constantly catching Vitality’s utility on the wrong foot. On paper it was a demolition. In practice, NAVI were 4-0 in clutches during that run and had been gifted several 4v4s off Drin “makazze” Shaqiri’s deaths Outside, which left a thinner margin than the scoreboard suggested.
Vitality grabbed a round before the half, then went flawless on their CT side. Robin “ropz” Kool, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and William “mezii” Merriman all won crucial 1v1s in the second half, including a 4HP clutch from ropz that swung the momentum entirely. Dan “apEX” Madesclaire said on stage afterwards he picked Nuke because he “knew what they would do” on T side, and the second-half read showed it as Vitality smothered every NAVI execute with smoke spam in the yard.
Anubis And Dust2 Closed The Series Out
Anubis was where NAVI had their second real chance. They led 11-9 and were two rounds away from forcing a fourth map, only for Vitality to win the last four straight and take it 13-11. From there, Dust2 was a write-off. NAVI didn’t get a sniff, and Vitality ran out 13-3 to seal the sweep.
The defeat extends an ugly head-to-head trend. NAVI have now lost 12 maps in a row to Vitality, a run that goes all the way back to the IEM Cologne 2024 grand final. They are the world number two side and still cannot land a clean punch on the world number one.
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Final Map Scores And Player Stats
Here’s how the grand final broke down across all three maps and both rosters.
BLAST Rivals belongs to Vitality 🏆 pic.twitter.com/9wwOHpYIcJ
— HLTV.org (@HLTVorg) May 3, 2026
ropz was the standout performer of the series despite a quiet group stage and zero clutch wins heading into the final. He posted 60 kills, 38 deaths and an 81.6 ADR with a 1.55 rating across the three maps. Within his own team he sat ahead of ZywOo (1.29), flameZ (1.28), mezii (1.24) and apEX (0.81). On the NAVI side, Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov topped the scoreboard with a 1.07 rating, with Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen the worst performer at 0.66.
ZywOo Takes MVP Despite Calling It His “Shittiest Tournament”
ZywOo walked away with the HLTV x 1XBET MVP medal, the 32nd of his career, after a 2.18-rated Dust2 pushed him over the line in a tight race with flameZ. Across the playoffs the two were almost identical, with ZywOo at 1.32 and flameZ at 1.33, while ropz topped them both at 1.42 but couldn’t make up the ground from a slow group stage.
The Frenchman wasn’t shy about how he felt about the award. Speaking in the mixed zone in Fort Worth, he said he thought the medal was going elsewhere and called it his worst individual showing of the year.
“I thought it was ropz or flameZ who were going to get it. But for once, I’ll say I robbed them. ropz robbed me in Rotterdam, and now I rob him, so I’m happy for that.”
He went on to admit Vitality had barely practised heading into the event, with a major patch dropping during their five days off. “The spray changed, the movement changed. We came and we were like full noobies, but somehow, god bless,” is how Shahar “flameZ” Shushan described it from the desk after the win.
Vitality’s Run Of Records Keeps Growing
The Fort Worth title is Vitality’s fifth in a row this year, and BLAST Bounty’s curtain raiser remains the only event they attended in 2026 where the trophy did not go back to Paris with them. They have now won 27 playoff maps and 15 grand final maps in a row.
That 27-map playoff streak puts them ahead of every era-defining team of the modern era, with one exception. Here’s how the comparison stacks up.
| Team | Playoff Map Win Streak |
|---|---|
| Ninjas in Pyjamas | 36 |
| Vitality (active) | 27 |
| fnatic | 15 |
| Liquid | 11 |
| Natus Vincere | 11 |
| Astralis | 8 |
Only NIP’s 36-map run from 2012-13 sits above them, and Vitality are still active. The win in Texas also follows back-to-back ESL Grand Slam titles, a feat no other organisation has managed in the CS2 era.
Atlanta Is Next, Then The Major
The roster is heading into a short break before regrouping for IEM Atlanta, with the IEM Cologne Major waiting in June. ZywOo confirmed he and flameZ are planning a hike during the downtime, with other players splitting off to New York and San Francisco, but said the team’s mentality going into the next event won’t change.
“We always have fuel. We say we’re not here to waste our time. apEX says that every time we play a non-priority tournament for us, but every time we play a tournament, we’re here to win it.”
For NAVI, Atlanta represents another shot at finally landing a series win against the side that has owned them for nearly two years. flameZ openly said Vitality’s “floor” might drop further in Atlanta after their fatigue catches up, which gives the world number two team a real opening if they can take it. The longer the head-to-head streak runs, though, the more it starts to look less like a slump and more like a permanent ceiling.