ZywOo: Vitality’s StarSeries Fall win ends a surprisingly long trophy drought

Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut has described Vitality’s StarSeries Fall 2026 victory as an important return to winning form after the team went more than four months without lifting a trophy.

Vitality defeated Aurora 3-1 in the Grand Final in Barcelona on September 20, securing their first tournament victory since BLAST Rivals on May 3.

For a team that spent much of the previous period establishing itself as Counter-Strike’s dominant force, that gap felt unusually long. ZywOo acknowledged the situation after the final while stressing that Vitality still have plenty to improve before the Singapore Major.

Vitality return to winning ways

StarSeries Fall represented a significant turnaround for Vitality.

The team had struggled to reproduce its earlier dominance during the second half of the season, while mezii’s parental leave also forced the roster to compete with jL as a stand-in at BLAST Open Porto.

Back with their regular five-man lineup in Barcelona, Vitality finally looked closer to their strongest version.

• Vitality won StarSeries Fall with a 3-1 Grand Final victory over Aurora
• The trophy was their first since BLAST Rivals on May 3
• mezii returned to the regular lineup for the event
• ZywOo finished the tournament as the clear MVP

The final itself completed a demanding Championship Sunday in which Vitality first had to defeat FURIA in the consolidation final before facing Aurora shortly afterward.

For ZywOo, the trophy mattered not only because Vitality won again, but because it proved the team could recover after a difficult stretch without losing confidence in its system.

ZywOo dominates the event

ZywOo was comfortably the best individual player at StarSeries Fall.

He finished the tournament with a 1.50 Rating 3.0, the highest of any player at the event and 0.24 ahead of second-placed KSCERATO.

His Grand Final performance was similarly dominant.

Statistic	ZywOo at StarSeries Fall
Event Rating 3.0	1.50
Grand Final rating	1.51
ADR	92.2
Kills per round	0.89
Career MVP medals	33

Those numbers earned him his 33rd career MVP medal and his first of the current season.

The award also extends his record as one of the most decorated individual players in Counter-Strike history.

Aurora had already beaten Vitality

The final victory was especially important because Vitality had already lost to Aurora earlier in the tournament.

Aurora defeated them 2-1 in the upper-bracket final, taking Anubis 13-7 and Nuke 13-8 around Vitality’s 13-11 victory on Inferno.

That loss exposed significant weaknesses in Vitality’s T sides.

Aurora repeatedly punished poor trading and limited offensive structure, leaving Vitality with just six T-side rounds across the three-map series.

The rematch looked very different.

• Vitality won Anubis 13-4
• Aurora responded on Inferno 13-11
• Vitality dominated Mirage 13-4
• Cache ended 13-7 to complete the 3-1 victory

The response showed that Vitality were capable of quickly correcting problems identified less than 24 hours earlier.

FURIA win adds to demanding final day

Before the Grand Final, Vitality first had to eliminate FURIA.

The consolidation final ended 2-0, with Vitality taking Cache 13-5 and Anubis 13-8.

That meant the roster played six maps across two series on the same day.

ZywOo highlighted the importance of maintaining focus through the long schedule rather than treating the FURIA victory as the main objective.

The team still had a best-of-five waiting immediately afterward.

That workload made the Grand Final performance particularly impressive, as Vitality looked sharper rather than more fatigued as the series progressed.

Singapore Major becomes the next major objective

Despite the title, ZywOo was cautious about presenting StarSeries as proof that all of Vitality’s recent problems have disappeared.

He stressed that the team still needs to review its mistakes and continue improving.

The larger target is the PGL Major Singapore.

That event will carry far more weight than StarSeries Fall and will test whether Vitality can translate their Barcelona recovery into another deep Major campaign.

The timing makes the victory especially useful.

A trophy before the final stretch of Major preparation gives Vitality renewed confidence without removing the need to identify weaknesses.

Vitality’s expectations remain unusually high

The reaction to the trophy also highlights how dramatically expectations around Vitality have changed.

For most teams, going several months without winning a major international event would not necessarily indicate a crisis.

For Vitality, it became a major discussion point.

Their earlier dominance created a standard where semifinals and finals can feel disappointing if they do not end with a trophy.

ZywOo appeared aware of that contrast when discussing how strange it felt to describe the period since May as a long drought.

Assessment

Vitality’s StarSeries Fall title matters because it interrupts a downward trend before the most important part of the season.

The roster was not flawless in Barcelona. Aurora beat them once, and their offensive issues were obvious in the upper final.

The response was what mattered.

Vitality beat FURIA decisively, then returned against Aurora and won three of four maps in the Grand Final. ZywOo simultaneously produced one of his strongest individual tournaments of the year.

The result does not guarantee another dominant run, and Vitality themselves are not treating it that way.

Instead, Barcelona provides a strong foundation heading toward the Singapore Major. After several months without a trophy, Vitality are winning again — and ZywOo believes there is still room to get better.