Vitality has been unstoppable so far in 2025, having shown a level of dominance not seen since the glory days of Astralis.
One player who’s experienced it first-hand is the former Vitality rifler Lotan “Spinx” Giladi, who now plays for MOUZ.
Along with the rest of the scene, Spinx has watched ZywOo and company rack up title after title.
But that must change now, according to Spinx.
– Fuck my life (laughs). It’s my ex-team, and they have beaten us six times this year, Spinx told Pley when asked to put some words on the one-sided rivalry.
– But I have told the team I’m done losing to them. We have to stop it [the losing streak] at some point. Of course, I want it to be in the grand final. We can’t have that every time they face us, they have the mindset of “Eh, it’s MOUZ. We know how to handle them”
Before MOUZ headed to Texas for the BLAST.tv Austin Major, we caught up with Spinx to talk about the Vitality rivalry and the mental toll of constantly falling just short.
Tough not winning trophies
Ranked #2 in the world, Spinx and MOUZ have for a long time been Vitality’s closest competitors this year.
Since winning PGL Cluj-Napoca – which Vitality did not attend – MOUZ has reached five consecutive semifinals or grand finals without a title to their name. A stretch that Spinx admits has been mentally challenging.
– I think it’s really hard mentally to be reaching five semi-finals or grand finals, but still go home without a trophy. I think it’s not easy mentally. But at the same time, we talked about it and we are just talking and focusing on what we can do better next time.
– It’s definitely not easy, but I also believe we can hit that ONE tournament to put us back on the trophy list.
Major magic?
Anything can happen at a Major. Something the Austin Major has already proven several times.
Best-of-one matches and the special atmosphere oozing from the most important event this year can switch the narrative.
A point Spinx also made:
– They are beating us every single time, and they have this huge win streak, so they are coming in hot. But I also believe in the Major, it’s here that stuff can happen in a way. And now it’s suddenly best-of-ones. That could change things up, because we know how fast it can be in CS2.
Despite having set sights on Vitality, Spinx explains that there is much more to focus on at the Major.
– We still have to focus on so many other teams as well. If we reach the game against Vitality, we will handle it then, but we can’t focus on Vitality yet before actually facing them.
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Are they coming closer?
When asked if he believes they are catching up on Vitality, Spinx gave a mixed answer:
– I do feel we get closer [to beating them], but it’s a bit of a cliche, because I feel like I say it every time we lose to them. So, at this point, I’m not sure. The first time we played them, we got demolished. No question about it.
– But I think it was much closer in the other two times after it. We had the upper hand in many situations in the game, we just didn’t close it out. It’s also back to them having so much momentum. But I don’t think we’ve played our A-game against them yet.
Playoffs are not enough
With Falcons out of the way, MOUZ seem as the top candidate to take down the favourites from Vitality. But what is their goal for the Major, we asked Spinx.
– When you’re making it to the playoffs at almost every single tournament, then the goal can’t just be to make it to the playoffs. That goal is not big enough. I think we, as a team, believe that we can take the trophy home. So, for us, when we go to the tournament, of course, we focus first on qualifying for the playoffs. But eventually, the goal is to lift the trophy.
Spinx and MOUZ kick off their Major campaign in Austin tomorrow, when Stage 3 will go live. Here they are set to face off against Virtus.pro in the opening round.
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