Vitality smash Spirit in three maps to top IEM Rio, claim second ESL Grand Slam in a row
Vitality have continued their era with a dominant win over Spirit to top IEM Rio 2026, smashing the Russian team 3-0 to win the event outright while also claiming their second ESL Grand Slam in a row. Vitality's win today adds another tally to their score card in the debate of who is the greatest Counter-Strike team of all time, with this Vitality roster certainly making a strong case for that accolade.
The grand finals itself is a bit of an afterthought as almost everyone, including Spirit's Boris "magixx" Vorobyev, expected Vitality to win it. However, the first two maps in the series did manage to deliver some thrills. On mirage, Spirit forced overtime thanks to strong play from Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich before conceding it 16-13, while Nuke went the distance before Vitality claimed it 13-10.
Moving onto Dust2, this is where the wheels began to fall off the wagon for Spirit and Vitality were unsurprisingly dominant on their best map. Vitality started their CT-side with a 5-0 lead before locking down the half 8-4, and were then able to lock down a 13-5 victory on the map to take the series 3-0.
SpiritVitality| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets |
49 - 59 | -10 | 77.5 | 67.1% | 1.00 |
| Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
34 - 50 | -16 | 57.7 | 68.6% | 0.92 |
 Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia |
38 - 52 | -14 | 60.1 | 65.7% | 0.87 |
 Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich |
39 - 55 | -16 | 61.1 | 55.7% | 0.83 |
| Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
39 - 51 | -12 | 60.6 | 70.0% | 0.77 |
| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
62 - 35 | +27 | 93.4 | 82.9% | 1.38 |
 Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
59 - 39 | +20 | 83.8 | 78.6% | 1.36 |
 William 'mezii' Merriman |
50 - 40 | +10 | 74.6 | 85.7% | 1.12 |
| Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
54 - 42 | +12 | 79.7 | 71.4% | 1.12 |
 Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
42 - 44 | -2 | 61.0 | 84.3% | 1.07 |
With the grand finals done and dusted, the Vitality organization has claimed their second ESL Grand Slam in a row, Robin "ropz" Kool has claimed his third Grand Slam, and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut has picked up his 32nd HLTV MVP award.
With Vitality to NA next month for BLAST Fort Worth and IEM Atlanta, one can't help but feel two more trophies are about to fall into their laps, with the teams at both events hard-pressed to find an answer to the Vitality question.
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