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Team Vitality has done something that seemed impossible just a few years ago: made the Astralis dynasty look beatable on paper. After eliminating Astralis 2-0 at the IEM Cologne 2025 group stage and stacking up 20 big-event titles to Astralis’s 19, the French organization has officially overtaken the Danish legends in the one metric that matters most in esports, winning.
The conversation has shifted from “can anyone catch Astralis” to “has Vitality already passed them.” And the answer depends entirely on how you weight history versus momentum.
The case for Vitality
Astralis holds four Major titles and remains the only organization to win three consecutive Majors, a streak from 2018 to 2019 that still stands as the most dominant run in Counter-Strike history. Vitality has three Majors: BLAST.tv Paris 2023, Austin 2025, and StarLadder Budapest 2025.
But raw Major count doesn’t tell the full story. Vitality now holds 20 big-event titles compared to Astralis’s 19, a milestone crossed after the IEM Krakow 2026 event. Vitality also holds a clear head-to-head advantage over Astralis across multiple matchups in the 2024-2025 period. The Cologne elimination was just the most visible example of a pattern that’s been building for over a year.
The Astralis standard remains the benchmark
Three consecutive Majors is a feat so absurd that it might never be replicated. Vitality had their shot at matching the four-Major record at the IEM Cologne Major 2026. They entered the tournament as one of the favorites, riding momentum from Budapest and a dominant 2025 campaign. Then Team Falcons happened. On June 19, 2026, Falcons knocked Vitality out in the quarterfinals with a 2-1 victory, sending the French roster home with a 5th-8th place finish.
What this rivalry means for the CS2 ecosystem
CS2’s transition from CS:GO created a natural reset point for the competitive scene. Organizations that thrived in the old game had to prove they could adapt. Astralis, while still competitive, hasn’t recaptured their 2018-2019 form. Vitality, on the other hand, has emerged as the defining team of the CS2 era, winning consistently across different tournament formats and opponent pools.
Vitality hasn’t matched Astralis’s four Majors yet. But with 20 big-event titles, a dominant head-to-head record, and years of competitive runway ahead of them, the question isn’t really whether they can catch the Danes. It’s whether the next generation of challengers can catch Vitality before they make the debate irrelevant.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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