Vitality fell in the quarter-finals to Falcons invigorated by karrigan, their kryptonite at Majors.
Vitality have stomached their worst loss in 2026, falling in the quarter-final of the Major for the first time since 2024. They were in position to mount a 6-11 comeback on Dust2, until disaster struck.
At 11-10 Rene ‘TeSeS’ Madsen was the hero, somehow finding a double kill on low HP, first with a five-seven. It was enough for Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov to finish the round, leaving Vitality dumbfounded. This marks the third time Vitality has been eliminated from a Major by Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen.
The series was marked by the stellar performance of Maksim ‘kyousuke’ Lukin, playing his best under pressure.
Anubis was a battle of streaks
It was kyousuke to set the tone early on Anubis, finding a 4k in the opening pistol round. Falcons went up 5-0 after that, looking to finish it quickly.
It was anything but that. Vitality’s T-side came online and abused karrigan’s poor fragging on the B-site. It wasn’t long before they had tied up the game, and even went up 6-5.
Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan lived up to kyousuke’s standards, getting entry kills that left Falcons at a constant disadvantage. However, Falcons managed to tie the game 6-6 at the half.
Right of the bat, Robin ‘ropz’ Kool came in hot to the second half. In his usual composed style on-stage, he got a stunning double opener in round 8 that essentially gifted Vitality the round.
Vitality were a step ahead, getting to 10-6 on their CT-side. But then, Falcons T-side started having success, and with that, karrigan’s mind games.
At 10-10, Falcons made a concerted effort to go A, until they spotted Vitality’s defense. At that point, they hard-committed to the other site, completely vacant.
From there, Falcons looked dominant. They annihilated Vitality’s A defense in round 23, getting to map point. Vitality got to 11, looking to reach overtime.
In the final round, kyousuke landed a prodigious spray transfer on two peeking players in cave, giving Falcons the opening map.
ZywOo carried Vitality through Anubis
On the second map, Falcons won the pistol, but something seems to have switched in Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, finding an abusrd 180-degree flick in the second round of the map.
A few rounds in, ZywOo was already at over 10 kills, helping his team take a 6-3 lead. Falcons didn’t let up, though, They replied with three of their own thanks to kyousuke, still firing.
The second half was incredibly back-and-forth, and it was m0NESY’s chance to take over the server. He and ZywOo were neck and neck, as he closed round after round in post-plant situations.
In round 20, he and Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovac melted a retaking Vitality on A, tying the map at 10-10. But then, ropz came through in the next round, punishing Falcons with a 3k with an MP9.
That brought back Vitality, and in round 23, they took a 12-11 lead thanks to a 2k from ZywOo on the retake. In the final round, they clinched it with a ballsy push from Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire.
Vitality beaten on their home turf
The opening stages of Dust2 were back-and-forth, as Falcons looked to take early control of the economy on the T-side. They looked poised to do so, but a strong 3v3 retake from Vitality in round 6 prevented that.
It was only delaying the inevitable. Falcons’ onslaught was constant, as kyousuke was firing and m0NESY closing. The latter also found kills through the doors, killing two while crossing.
The result was that Vitality was down 4-8 at the half, their Major in danger.
Vitality camer through with a necessary pistol round win thanks to a great fake that diverted everybody away from their point of attack. Then, they won the conversion, albeit closely.
However, then cracks began to show. They lost to a near full eco, with karrigan finding two kills with a USP. This put Falcons at an 11-6 scoreline.
Then, Vitality began to show their best. They won round after round, first with a B attack, then switching it to A – a weakness for Falcons.
One round saw a brilliant A attack occur, with apEX dropping into CT-spawn, killing a m0NESY who had no chance facing two people at once at different elevations.
At 10-11 for Vitality, they were against pistols. TeSeS decided to push tunnels. He took damage from a molotov down to red HP, and somehow domed ropz who was at full. Then, he went into mid, and killed a full HP apEX who tried to peek him from above, flicking upward to his head cleanly.
All the while, Falcons had found all Vitality players except one, and it came down to a 1vs1, which m0NESY won with a well-timed flank.
Vitality bounced back with a round. It was a classic ropz and ZywOo 2vs4, that Falcons regretted not converting. But then Vitality opted to make a fast short execute, with no prior setup to the round. They went into the meat grinder, as Falcons destroyed them and won the map 13-11.
Player of the match: kyousuke
The duo of Maksim ‘kyousuke’ Lukin and Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov proved indomitable today, combining for 23 opening kills throughout the series and only 11 opening deaths.
However, kyousuke was more impactful due to the amount of difficult entry kills he found, consistently breaking apart Vitality’s defense. He was also stellar on CT-side, with the highest CT rating on the server (1.30).
