A trap for MOUZ! Vitality dominate the Austin Major

Regardless of the match outcome, we are witnessing the Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports history in the making. Team Vitality is one step away from reaching the final at BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025. Just two wins, and they claim the 6h victory in their mind-blowing tournament streak. They needed to smash MOUZ on this path.

If MOUZ stopped Vitality here, it would also phenomenal!  A small crack in Vitality’s performance revealed itself in Austin, when they lost 3:13 to Legacy. Still, the road to the trophy is pretty much clear for Vitality now.

MOUZ headed to the semifinal against Team Vitality as underdogs, that's for sure. It’s a pretty interesting status, as the opponents may not expect your strikes. MOUZ might be under less pressure, despite the obvious desire to still win this CS2 battle.

At the same time, Vitality is considered the favorites for a good reason. On a big stage, this roster is a pure Counter-Strike might!

These teams open the semifinals day at the CS2 Austin Major. Right after this match, paiN Gaming and MongolZ decide on the second tournament finalist.

All matches in the playoffs of BLAST Austin Major 2025 are under the best-of-three (Bo3) format. Considering the general premise of the semifinal between MOUZ and Vitality, it's awesome to see MOUZ going to game 3.

MOUZ picked Mirage and hoped for a breakthrough, as it’s the only map where they could oppose Vitality this season. 

It did not work out, but MOUZ still weren’t easy victims. They won the Pistols on the T side and delivered some good early rounds. Vitality woke up pretty quickly — especially thanks to the wonderful play by flameZ and the exceptional duo of ZywOo and ropz.

Great defense by flameZ on A is an example of Vitality’s success on Mirage. He destroyed the offensive plans of MOUZ self-handedly. Even beyond that, the first half featured multiple individual kills by Vitality players, like four kills by ropz in round 10 on B.

After switching sides, MOUZ needed some time to get themselves together. They did it when the opponents were close to victory. MOUZ felt better financially, but Vitality needed only two rounds to close this map

In the final round, flameZ delivered a wow moment again — a double kill through the smoke. MOUZ did not recover after that.

Vitality lost one match at the Austin Major, and it was a Bo1 on Inferno. That could give hope to MOUZ — and it worked even better than expected.

MOUZ won the Pistols again. Vitality got themselves the first round on full buy — ZywOo and ropz prevented a retake on A. But in the very next round, Vitality failed their B offense, a lot due to exceptional defense by Brollan with MP9.

Vitality’s economy was broken, and MOUZ did not give them a chance to recover. When Vitality managed to buy something, MOUZ still took those guns away.

Nothing worked for Vitality on the T side, and they went to the break with 11:1 in favor of MOUZ.

Vitality killed all the opponents in the Pistols round, but the bomb was planted, and there was no time to defuse. MOUZ reached the match point.

Thanks to impressive jump kills by apEX on Banana, Vitality won the next round and game themselves some time on Inferno. MOUZ sure won this map eventually, and their dream of the grand final started looking real.

Most people in the community thought this map couldn't happen. Still, MOUZ made it to game 3. They couldn’t do much there, though.

Vitality won the Pistols and established their early advantage. MOUZ won one round, but then the opponents overplayed them in so many situations. ZywOo proved his skills once again, like awesome AWP kills in round 6.

It was the turn of MOUZ to fall into the abyss of a poor economy: they were losing on force buys, and they were losing with proper weapons. Finishing their T side with 2 won rounds felt disastrous.

MOUZ looked much better on the T side. They won some amazing rounds, but the gap was too big. Vitality reached the match point and put the opponents in a force-buy situation. Even if MOUZ delivered an opening kill, the link of ZywOo and ropz on the B side was too hard to handle.

Team Vitality wins this semifinal and advances to the decisive match of CS2 BLAST.tv Austin Major.

If we look at the recent tournaments, Team Vitality has had an absolutely wonderful period. They attend a CS2 esports event, and they win it. That was the case with IEM at Dallas, Melbourne and Katowice, BLAST Rivals Spring, and ESL Pro League Season 21.

Adding a Major win to this streak is a proper gem for Vitality’s crown. However, the tournament in Austin showed that it is possible to defeat this team. Legacy did that in the opening game of Stage 3.

Vitality needed to perform a comeback after that — kind of, as they pretty much dominated all the other matches. In the quarterfinal, Team Vitality left little chance for NAVI to even dream about advancing further.

Comeback for MOUZ has a different meaning. In Stage 3 of this Major, they reached the elimination zone, and only then MOUZ got themselves together and qualified for the playoffs.

In the quarterfinal, MOUZ faced Team Spirit. The Shanghai Major 2024 winners were a step ahead throughout the match, and MOUZ had to recover and clutch. They did it well to eliminate Spirit.

At the previous Counter-Strike 2 tournaments of 2025, MOUZ were in three big finals. Each time, they were stopped by Team Vitality. That happened at Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2025 just around a month ago.

The winner of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 will be determined in the final match on June 22. The next big event is Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2025, from July 23 to Aug. 3.

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