Unstoppable Vitality show resilience to pick up BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 1 title
Vitality's inevitability was on display once again as apEX's boys turned around a slow start against Natus Vincere (NAVI) to win the BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 1 going 3-0 in the final of the $1,000,000 tournament held in Fort Worth, Texas, United States of America. Despite starting with a 0-11 score line on their own pick of Nuke, Vitality fought back, dug deep and turned things around in style to pick up their fifth title of the year.
The final kicked off in an incredible manner as iM's clutches in impact saw Vitality go missing for the entirety of the opening half on their own pick of Nuke. After an 11-0 start, the world's best showed by they are one of the all-time great Counter-Strike teams, pushing Nuke to overtime where a clean sweep saw them fight back from being 0-11 down to steal a 16-12 win.
Source: BLAST
A quick A hit kicked off NAVI's pick of Anubis with Vitality T side starting 4-0 before Aleksib's MP9 handed NAVI their first CT rounds. A couple of clean CT rounds saw NAVI fight back and end up evening out the score in the first half with Vitality finding a late round. makazze kicked off NAVI's T side with a 1v2 but ropz's 1v1 against w0nderful saw Vitality answer back with the force. A back and forth half saw NAVI find late momentum before impact from ropz on the A site saw ropz hand Vitality a 13-11 win as the Estonian denied makazze and ace in the final round of regulation to see Vitality go 2-0 up in the BO5 final and sit one map away from another trophy.
Source: BLAST
NAVI picked up yet another pistol, to start Dust2, but flameZ's triple with the Galil saw Vitality turn around a 3v5 to answer back with the force and finally Vitality found early momentum and rhythm in the series that saw them go 10-1 up before a triple from w0nderful in the final round of the half helped NAVI find their second round, after the opening pistol. ropz kicked off Vitality's CT side with a 1v2 in the pistol and that was all Vitality needed to storm to a 13-3 win and wrap up the final in a 3-0 manner.
Source: BLAST
Natus VincereVitality| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
53 - 42 | +11 | 77.2 | 70.6% | 1.07 |
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
45 - 54 | -9 | 78.4 | 70.6% | 1.00 |
 Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri |
44 - 56 | -12 | 72.2 | 66.2% | 0.98 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
46 - 60 | -14 | 72.7 | 60.3% | 0.91 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
32 - 52 | -20 | 53.9 | 60.3% | 0.66 |
| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
60 - 38 | +22 | 81.6 | 80.9% | 1.55 |
 Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
54 - 45 | +9 | 87.3 | 83.8% | 1.29 |
 Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
54 - 45 | +9 | 84.7 | 70.6% | 1.28 |
 William 'mezii' Merriman |
55 - 41 | +14 | 75.0 | 79.4% | 1.24 |
| Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
39 - 51 | -12 | 68.7 | 72.1% | 0.81 |
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