Team Vitality's stranglehold on Counter-Strike 2 tightened again at IEM Rio 2026, with the French organisation sweeping aside Team Spirit in a lopsided Grand Final to claim their second ESL Grand Slam and extend the tournament winning run that has defined the 2026 competitive season.
The Rio result, delivered in front of a packed Brazilian crowd on April 19, marks Vitality's fourth consecutive major tournament victory and sees them go unbeaten through the playoff bracket. Bracket wins over NAVI in the quarter-finals and FURIA in the semi-final preceded the final demolition of Team Spirit, the Russian-rostered super-team that had been widely tipped to provide Vitality's toughest test of the calendar year.
Star rifler ZywOo has been central to the run and, speaking after the victory, placed the current Vitality roster alongside - and above - the Counter-Strike dynasties that have defined the game's history.
"We know the capacity of this team. If we play well, no one has any chance, to be honest," ZywOo said.
He then went further, delivering the line that immediately circulated through the global CS community.
"Of course, we couldn't believe this before we picked up ropz, but now we beleive we are the best CS team of all time."
The ropz reference is key. Since the Estonian veteran joined Vitality in late 2025, the roster has acquired a stability and tactical versatility that previous iterations of the Vitality project lacked. The results bear it out: four trophies, a playoff win streak that is now deep into double figures, and a Grand Slam that places them in the conversation with Astralis and NAVI for all-time Counter-Strike supremacy.
The IEM Rio final itself offered little resistance from Spirit. Vitality's trio of ropz, ZywOo and flusha dominated the opening map, and the second map went Vitality's way with only perfunctory resistance from a Spirit side that looked tactically out of ideas. The scoreboard told a similar story to most of Vitality's 2026 results - decisive, efficient, and with answers for every problem Spirit could pose.
The wider Counter-Strike narrative now faces a familiar question: who can beat this Vitality team? Spirit have the firepower on paper. MOUZ and NAVI both field rosters with credible grand-final-level players. But on recent evidence, no one has yet shown the tactical or mental capacity to take Vitality down in a best-of-five.
The ESL Grand Slam, a trophy designed to reward exactly this kind of sustained dominance, is now secured for the second time in Vitality's history. With the PGL Bucharest Major still to come later in the year, ZywOo's claim of 'all-time' status will face its ultimate test: a Major win.