Vitality easily took care of the Saudi super-team in the grand finals.
Team Falcons fell short of expectations again, this time to a revitalized squad with a stellar entry fragger performance.
Team Vitality and Team Falcons faced off in the grand final of ESL Pro League Season 22. This marked their third grand final matchup this year, as they both looked for their first tournament win of the season.
This was Maxim ‘kyousuke’ Lukin’s grand final debut, who joined in June 2025, costing “around 2 million euros” as confirmed by Team Spirit. He fell drastically short of expectations here, managing
Vitality looked to recover their winning ways, as they lost their first grand final as a roster to G2 Esports in a shocking upset only a month ago.
In the semi-finals, Falcons cleanly dealt with MOUZ in 2-0 fashion, while Vitality struggled against a red-hot Twistzz on his honeymoon with FaZe. Their difficulty in overcoming FaZe didn’t seem to matter, as apEX and his men took control of the series from the beginning.
A dominant Inferno with a close scoreline
The series kicked off on Vitality’s map pick of Inferno. Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan set the tone for the match, bagging a 1v2 clutch on the B-site to keep Vitality level with Falcons at 6-6. Falcons managed a good start but were unable to keep it up.
Once it switched sides, Vitality took control and didn’t let go. Falcons almost managed a comeback at the closing stages but it was too little too late.
Vitality on a runaway Train
Falcons hoped to change their fortunes on Train, but it was anything but. Vitality took home an 8-4 lead at the half, cleaning up the defensive side. Falcons were unable to close out rounds, partially due to an underperformance of Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovac.
NiKo came back on the defensive side with help from Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, but it was also a cosmetic comeback. FlameZ continued to be a nightmare as Vitality closed the second map 13-9.
Dust2 was the last chance saloon for Falcons, and they started off well with a dominant pistol round going up 4v1. However, William ‘mezii’ Merriman turned up unexpectedly to win the 1v4 situation behind a smoke in the car position on A-site. He continued his excellent form at this event, capping off the last map by topping the scoreboard.
Falcons crumbled under this pressure from Vitality, as kyousuke had his third negative map in a row, managing only just over 11 kills per map. FlameZ was unstoppable, getting 17 opening kills over the series.
Vitality back to winning ways
Vitality lifted their first trophy of the season, their eight of the year at this EPL. Their next tournament will be in November at IEM Chengdu, as they make their run towards picking up their second Major title of the year at Budapest.
Match Statistics
Team Vitality vs Team Falcons – | ESL Pro League Season 22 Grand Final
13-10 (Inferno) – flameZ | 1.71 rating
13-9 (Train) – flameZ | 1.42 rating
13-5 (Dust2) – mezii | 1.81 rating
