After three thrilling maps of play, Vitality have swept PARIVISION to claim the PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 title. The win, on Dan “apEX” Madesclaire’s birthday, came off the back of a chart-topping Shahar “flameZ” Shushan performance, alongside the usual stars of Vitality. The Cluj trophy is the second of the year, and the eleventh overall, for the world number one roster.
Team Rosters – Vitality vs. PARIVISION – PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026 Finals
| Vitality | PARIVISION |
|---|---|
| Dan “apEX” Madesclaire | Andrey “BELCHONOKK” Yasinskiy |
| Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut | Dzhami “Jame” Ali |
| Shahar “flameZ” Shushan | Emil “nota” Moskvitin |
| William “mezii” Merriman | Vladislav “xiELO” Lysov |
| Robin “ropz” Kool | Ivan “zweih” Gogin |
| Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (C) | Dastan “dastan” Aqbaev (C) |
Grand Finals Recap – Vitality vs. PARIVISION – PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026
- Vitality removed Ancient
- PARIVISION removed Nuke
- Vitality picked Overpass
- PARIVISION picked Dust2
- Vitality picked Inferno
- PARIVISION picked Mirage
- Anubis was left over
Overpass – Vitality deny the comeback – 13-10
Jame’s pistol-round quad-kill led PARIVISION to an early lead with four rounds on the trot. Once guns came out, Vitality captain, apEX, took matters into his own hands, finding an opener through the smoke to set up a man advantage. flameZ extended that advantage, and Vitality took their first round on A. That put PARIVISION’s economy on notice, and Vitality made full use of the opportunity, picking up a streak of seven in a row. Jame and co. stole back one final round, to close the half 5-7.
Coming back from the break, Vitality’s A hold timed the attack out, forcing xiELO to save his kevlar. But PARIVISION were quick to respond, using nota’s brilliant aim to snatch away the first rifle round. ropz got singed by the edge of a molotov in round fifteen, allowing his opponent to take him down for a round. But in the very next, the Estonian corrected his mistake, hitting two absolute blinders with his Desert Eagle to keep Vitality afloat.
Matchpoint was quickly locked in for Vitality, but in a 2v5, PARIVISION proved deadly. xiELO and nota found all five frags between the two of them, delaying the match win further in a rare man-advantage loss for Vitality. That brought confidence back to the PARIVISION side, and the team whittled the gap down to just two. With overtime looming on the horizon, Vitality reinforced their defences and finally shut down an attack on A to close the map out.
Dust2 – PARIVISION find no quarter – 13-4
A classic hallmark of any great team, despite the shaky end to Overpass Vitality reset well between maps to return to ominous form when Dust2 kicked off. A quick volley of pistol frags in round one was followed by a series of solid B defences holding PARIVISION off for five rounds in a row. It took a moment of perfect timing from Jame to slide into A long unspotted, winning their first round.
PARIVISION, though, chose to go B again in the next one, finding an impenetrable wall put up by mezii and ropz once more. With every shot landing, Vitality quickly closed the half out 9-3. While Vitality managed to slip into a free B-site for a bomb-plant, zweih held the defuse to win a much-needed pistol round.
Unfortunately, that was when flameZ decided to fire up, and cracked through the A-site to secure matchpoint. With Zweih perishing to ZywOo’s molotov, the map closed out with a dominant 13-4 scorleine.
Inferno – Overtime affair to close out the series – 16-13
With two map wins in the bag, Vitality just needed to close Inferno out to lift the trophy. But PARIVISION weren’t keen to make it easy for the international side, keeping them on their toes with their aim. The catalyst ended up being a Vitality decision to vacate the A site with the bomb still ticking, and Jame standing just around the corner.
That fired up the likes of BELCHONOKK and zweih, allowing PARIVISION to tie up the score early. Even when Vitality won rounds, PARIVISION were snatching away their rifles to deny them the economic advantage. That allowed zweih’s 1v2 clutch on B to break Vitality’s bank, with PARIVISION taking the lead in the half 7-5.
BELCHONOKK was once again the star of the show, as the youngster’s Glock quad-kill riled the fans up, and kept Vitality behind. Then he followed it up with two crucial frags on the B-retake, denying the defuse. And finally he broke Vitality’s money once more, with a brilliant ace.
That set the team up with a massive 11-6 lead, with Mirage looking set to play out. Unfortunately, ZywOo chose that moment to stun PARIVISION with a sublime AK-47 spray transfer, winning an impossible round on B. That put Vitality in control of the match, as the players found clutch after clutch to snatch away the lead and lock in matchpoint.
Everything came down to xiELO in round 24, but the young rifler did not crumble. Up against flameZ and ZywOo, he hit the necessary shots with his Galil to deny the defuse and pushed the game to overtime. OT, though, showed Vitality at their best. With the economy settled, the stars hit all the headshots, and closed the match out 16-13.
Editor’s Note: Vitality have secured another title as they continue their unstoppable march through the Counter-Strike circuit. Not since Astralis’ 2019, have we seen a team even attempt a successful second year of dominance, but Vitality are looking comfortably the best of the bunch at the moment. Can they be stopped? Eventually, yes. But as it stands today, they will win the Grand Slam at the next available opportunity, and it would take a miracle for anyone to stop them at the Cologne Major too.
