Surrounding IEM Melbourne 2025, much of the conversation surrounding Team Vitality had become quite tedious. “Are they having an Era?” people continued to ask. The definition of that E-word has been much debated throughout Vitality’s recent dominant spell, with fans splitting hairs over whether they truly deserve the status. Frankly, there’s no doubt about it for me now.
Following their awesome victory over Falcons to win IEM Melbourne 2025, there’s simply no debate: the Vitality Era is here. 21 consecutive series wins, a run only beaten by 2019 Liquid and 2012-13 Ninjas in Pyjamas. Four consecutive trophy wins, a feat only matched by prime Astralis and Team Liquid. We’re talking legendary numbers now, so it’s getting harder and harder for people to deny that we’re looking at a true Vitality Era in Counter-Strike.
A Grand Slam is great, but a Major would be better
Victory at IEM Melbourne 2025 also means that Vitality are champions of the ESL Grand Slam Season 5. They’ve left the competition in the dirt to take home the gold bars and $1,000,000 prize. Given the challenge of completing the ESL Grand Slam, it is arguably one of Counter-Strike’s greatest achievements, just another plus in the “Vitality era” argument. I mean, just look at the teams to have won it before: prime Astralis, 2019 Liquid, 2021 NAVI, and 2022 FaZe Clan. All rosters undeniably among the best we’ve ever seen in the game.
But there is one thing this Vitality team are missing: a Major. Sure, they won it as an organization back in 2023, but that doesn’t count for anything in the current conversation. An ESL Grand Slam is more confirmation of Vitality’s greatness, but a Major win would put this roster among Counter-Strike’s immortals. The BLAST.tv Austin Major isn’t a necessity for Vitality to have an Era (for me, at least), but getting it under their belt would undoubtedly silence the conversation. And in current form, would you really bet against them?
IEM Melbourne’s Grand Final shows the competition is heating up
So, Vitality are great. There’s no denying that. But in their last two Grand Final wins against MOUZ (BLAST Open Spring) and Falcons (IEM Melbourne), they’ve been pushed to the brink, finishing up both in 3:2 fashion. In the IEM Melbourne Final, they needed to come back from 12:6 down on the last map to stay in the contest. Pushing back and thriving in this kind of adversity is what true legends are made of, but on most other days, Falcons wouldn’t choke and get that over the line. These close calls are a sign that, despite Vitality lifting the big trophies, the competition around them is certainly heating up.
A couple of months ago, Vitality looked genuinely unbeatable. Nothing lasts forever, and neither will this epic run. As the teams around them continue to improve, let’s just take a moment to enjoy this Vitality Era of dominance. We don’t need to squabble over fine definitions of words – this is all about celebrating what is starting to feel like one of the best Counter-Strike teams of all time.
