Vitality have returned to championship form as they dominated FURIA to lift the IEM Krakow 2026 trophy in four map. The undisputed team of the year for 2025, once again started the year treating BLAST Bounty as a bootcamp, before turning up the heat for the year’s first prestige event. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut in particular looked to be in stellar form, as he put up a massive 1.66 rating to shut down any chance of a FURIA win.
Team Rosters – Vitality vs. FURIA – IEM Krakow
| Vitality | FURIA |
|---|---|
| Dan “apEX” Madesclaire | Yuri “yuurih” Boian |
| Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut | Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato |
| Shahar “flameZ” Shushan | Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo |
| William “mezii” Merriman | Danil “molodoy” Golubenko |
| Robin “ropz” Kool | Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis |
| Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (C) | Sidnei “sidde” Macedo (C) |
Match Recap – Vitality vs. FURIA – IEM Krakow 2026 Grand Finals
- FURIA removed Dust2
- Vitality removed Ancient
- FURIA picked Mirage
- Vitality picked Inferno
- FURIA picked Nuke
- Vitality picked Overpass
- Anubis was left over
Mirage – FURIA make the comeback stick – 11-13
2025’s Rookie of the Year, molodoy, started things off with a couple of nicely placed headshots to earn FURIA the opening pistol. The reigning champs, however, instantly replied as ZywOo brought out the scout to clean up in connector for two round wins. Round five gave FURIA the full suite of rifles, but apEX was instantly on the flank to lock out the attack from B. With Vitality looking lethal, FURIA’s T-side was falling flat until molodoy’s AWP finally found a crack.
ZywOo answered back with a big green of his own, and that was enough to instantly put the momentum back on Vitality’s side. The CT defence was unstoppable, and the half closed out with a massive 10-2 scoreline. Had Vitality put a pistol round on top, the rest of Mirage would have been a mere formality.
Luckily for FURIA fans, the Brazilian side picked up that all-important pistol round and roared back into action on their own CT side. Unlike Vitality, though, FURIA’s wins were scrappy, each round seeing just a couple of CTs surviving, leaving the economy teetering in the balance. The closest Vitality came to win a round was apEX’s 1v2 attempt on B, but the defence played it to perfection, not giving apEX any chance to create 1v1 duels.
Finally in round 17, Vitality’s A take hit the mark, but FURIA looked set to answer back quickly, with 4v2 advantage locked-in by the B-defence. Unfortunately, ZywOo and flameZ were sharp on their AKs, and hit blinders onto the CTs to clutch it out. That win riled up the crowd, but seemingly over-energized the Vitality side as well, ropz walked into A without any support, and the team handed over round 19 to Deagles. That round laid out the red carpet, allowing FURIA to march to a 13-11 win as X-factor yuurih topped the charts.
Inferno – Vitality tie up the series – 13-8
After the lack of pistol wins on Mirage, Vitality bucked the trend starting things off with ZywOo’s headshots. A quick burst onto B followed, and Vitality were set up with an early 4-0 lead. FURIA’s buy in round five could have easily been broken, but the Ts picked the wrong site to attack, running headfirst into molodoy’s AWP.
Much like Mirage though, ZywOo was instantly ready to shut the Kazakh youngster down, bringing out his sniper in the next round and instantly picking off his rival. With YEKINDAR claiming “I know exactly how they play,” things were heating up quickly on Inferno, though knowing, didn’t equal winning. flameZ continued his roll from map 1, picking up a much-needed clutch on B. The rounds swung back and forth between the two squads, and the half closed out with FURIA breathing down Vitality’s necks 5-7.
Missed shots from ropz could have spelled another lost pistol, but ZywOo was there to bail the squad out, picking up his 18th kill in round 14. While FURIA was finding successful entries, it was Vitality who came out on top time and time again. The Fallen-led side found just one more round, before Vitality locked in map-point. And Inferno closed out soon after 13-8.
Nuke – mezii masterclass blows FURIA out of the water – 13-2
With Vitality fully warmed up, Nuke showed exactly what made this roster so dominant. The defence played fluidly across the map, covering every facet of the map against FURIA’s T-side. Five quick rounds in a row gave Vitality a massive advantage early in the half, forcing FURIA’s coach sidde to call a timeout. Even when the CTs were caught out, they took atleast one down with them, establishing their firepower superiority.
Near the end of the half, FURIA finally won a round, as Vitality handed over an essentially open site on A. In the end though, that only amounted to a measly two rounds for the attack in the half. Switching to their T-side, mezii found back-to-back multi-kill rounds, closing the map out with ease 13-2.
Overpass – ZywOo closes the map with 25 – 13-10
It looked like a blessing from the RNG gods had been bestowed upon KSCERATO, who hit a jumping USP-S headshot from behind the B-wall, taking down ropz. While the Estonian smirked at his own demise, his team sought revenge in the form of a ZywOo 4k. Two more rounds followed for Vitality’s T-side, until an aggressive on A-long gave FURIA a 5v2 advantage. apEX, however, didn’t call the round over just yet, running down the B-defence to continue the win-streak.
Finally, FURIA broke through in round five, with KSCERATO delivering a key-clutch. That, combined with molodoy powering up, allowed the CTs to pick up five in a row, cutting down Vitality’s advantage to naught. That forced apEX to call a pace-change, as the squad ran a quick-burst to mow down the B-defence, and the half closed out at an even 6-6.
KSCERATO was once again the hero for FURIA, as he cracked down on B to win the pistol round. That allowed FURIA to lead early in the second half. Round 18 would decide if that lead would stand, and flameZ denied FURIA’s A-attempt with a flank up connector taking four Ts down. That powered Vitality back up, and brought the map back to level pegging at 10-a-piece. That was when ZywOo’s squad put in a final burst of energy, with the French phenom himself picking up a series of brilliant rounds, including two quad-kills, to close the map out, locking in the championship.
Series Statistics – Vitality vs. FURIA – IEM Krakow 2026 Grand Finals
| Player | Kills | Assists | Deaths | ADR |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIT ZywOo | 90 | 17 | 41 | 101.0 |
| VIT flameZ | 68 | 24 | 56 | 82.6 |
| FUR YEKINDAR | 58 | 18 | 62 | 70.2 |
| VIT apEX | 53 | 36 | 57 | 81.3 |
| VIT mezii | 49 | 20 | 48 | 71.0 |
| FUR yuurih | 49 | 26 | 64 | 61.7 |
| VIT ropz | 46 | 11 | 43 | 58.7 |
| FUR FalleN | 46 | 17 | 62 | 61.7 |
| FUR KSCERATO | 45 | 27 | 56 | 68.7 |
| FUR molodoy | 44 | 9 | 64 | 55.3 |
