Image: Blast.TV
Team Vitality have won the final CS:GO Major before Counter-Strike 2's launch.
Team Vitality made history this week, following their dominating win at the BLAST Paris Major Grand Finals. The team beat 
GamerLegion 2-0 and have now become the final CS:GO world champions, seeing as Counter-Strike 2 drops later in 2023.
This was a big win for Vitality, seeing as this is also the team’s very first Major title. The team didn’t drop a single map, beginning with the first of the finals: Overpass. The team scored a confident 16-6 win against GamerLegion, the latter of whom were capable underdogs who seemed a little out of their depth in this first map.
The finals then moved to the final map: Nuke. The competition got much more fierce here, with GamerLegion scoring an early lead against Vitality by the halfway point. Vitality bounced back despite it being an uphill fight for the rest of the finals, before both teams evened the odds at 13-13. GamerLegion couldn’t shake the team’s efforts at catching up, and Vitality eventually won by 16-13.
Vitality takes home a trophy and bragging rights, and the staggering winning sum of $500,000. GamerLegion takes home $170,000, having suffered a rough series of games. 
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut also received the Paris Major MVP trophy, which must look gratifying next to his team’s Major trophy. The actual major received strong viewership numbers, with over 1.5 million viewers tuning in to the grand finals. Despite that, 2021 PGL Stockholm maintains the all-time peak viewership count for a CS:GO tournament event: 2.7 million.
Valve was sadly a no-show at the Paris Major Grand Finals, but the company might take more of an interest once these tournaments start running Counter-Strike 2. The first-person shooter sequel is set to be released sometime this summer, though no firm date has been set.
