After winning the ESL Pro League, Vitality enters the IEM Rio with the best chance at a Major since they started playing CS:GO in the latter part of 2018.

Only Mathieu #ZywOo and Dan #apEX Madesclaire are the players from the original roster,  with the former becoming as the team's captain and in-game leader and the latter turning as Oleksandr #s1mple Kostyliev's lone rival.

Trying to make France proud

Despite becoming a global brand, Vitality continues to be connected to French Counter-Strike. The ‘Golden Hornets,' the team's ardent supporters, showed up in large numbers despite their group stage exit in Antwerp.

They achieved the same feat in IEM Cologne, where their arena corner was as loud as any other. Although there may not be as many people wearing yellow and black in Brazil, it will be difficult for Vitality's supporters and players to ignore the next Major on French soil in Paris.

His rival and one of the game's most visibly enthusiastic players, apEX, has been his partner since 2018. He lacks the ability to maintain a poker face. He enjoys playing the bad guy, most notably in 2021 at BLAST Copenhagen when Vitality defeated the hometown favorites Astralis, cupping his ear and dancing in front of the shocked spectators.

For more than ten years, their teammate Dupreeh has been at the top of the competition. Ninjas in Pyjamas was still in charge when Dupreeh first appeared on the HLTV top twenty list in 2013 at position 18. He has appeared in leading roles during the reigns of Christopher “GeT RiGhT” Alesund, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, Marcelo “coldzera,” and s1mple. It has longevity unlike any other, therefore even a little drop in fragging productivity shouldn't be taken away from that.

IEM Rio Major Goals

Along with FaZe and Natus Vincere, Vitality is one of the favorites entering the IEM Rio Major. After the first two juggernauts of 2022, they come in third on our writers' power rankings. Rio offers #Dupreeh and #zonic the chance to win five Majors, one more than their former teammates #Xyp9x, #gla1ve, and #dev1ce, and cement their status as the most illustrious player and coach in history.

Since #apEX and #Envy won the Major in 2015, no French player has seen such success. And #ZywOo will be the one who must bear the burden of the entire region. Despite all the acclaim and individual honors, one could argue that #ZywOo hasn't yet reached his full potential. He will always be compared to s1mple, the other extraterrestrial in the game, and with Natus Vincere's surge of trophies at the tail end of 2021, #ZywOo falls short in this regard.