Vitality's Winning Streak Ends with Semifinal Loss to MOUZ at IEM Cologne 2025

Vitality’s legendary winning streak at top-tier tournaments has finally come to an end. The French squad concluded their IEM Cologne 2025 run with a semifinal loss to MOUZ. The match not only marked the end of their streak but also delivered a heavy blow to the team’s ambitions this season.

Vitality had been dominating the 2025 competitive scene: starting with their triumph at IEM Katowice, the team went on to collect an impressive lineup of titles — EPL S21, BLAST Open Spring, IEM Melbourne, BLAST Rivals Spring, IEM Dallas, and the Austin Major. Seven consecutive tournament wins — a result worthy of CS history. In Cologne, Vitality reached the semifinals, but their run stopped there.

This was only the third loss for Vitality all year. Prior to this, they had only been defeated by Eternal Fire at the first BLAST event and dropped a BO1 match to Legacy at the Major. Now, a painful loss to MOUZ joins that short list.

Adding more drama to the story is the fact that Vitality had previously beaten MOUZ eight times in a row, including three grand finals. The French team's social media crew even joked about the stat in advance, posting memes and TikToks. But this time, the "mice" became predators.

Vitality’s star player ZywOo had one of the worst LAN performances of his career. With a 0.63 rating, he placed second-to-last on the team, and his showing on Mirage ranked among his five weakest LAN maps ever. After the match, he admitted: “I don’t know what happened. Almost everything went wrong on my side, so I couldn’t do anything. It was really hard to play.”

FlameZ played even worse: going 1–18 on the second map with a record-low 0.27 rating — his worst in the past five years.

But the issue wasn’t just individual form. Vitality failed clutch rounds, played carelessly, and made critical errors — such as losing 2v5 situations against players with Deagles. No one expected such a collapse from one of the world’s top rosters.

This loss isn’t just painful — it’s strategically devastating. Vitality can no longer complete their Intel Grand Slam Season 2 run in 2025, as they no longer have enough events left to qualify. Additionally, ZywOo lost his chance to become the first player in history to win four MVPs at IEM Cologne.

Historically, even the greatest eras — like NAVI and Astralis — have faced downturns. Perhaps this is one of those moments for Vitality. The team is already looking ahead to the Esports World Cup. “It was a great winning streak, but now we won’t have that extra pressure. So overall, it’s okay,” FlameZ summed up.

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Now, Vitality has time to regroup and refocus — and we have every reason to follow their comeback even more closely.