Team Vitality is the benchmark of the CS2 era. The French organization has won three Majors, two of them back to back in 2025, and it built that run around the most consistent superstar the game has produced: Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. In 2026 Vitality opened the year with five titles by early May, and they arrive at the PGL Major Singapore chasing a fourth Major trophy.
This profile covers who is on the team, how they play, what they have won and what to watch for in the last weeks of the season.
Vitality at a glance
| Organization | Team Vitality (France) |
| Founded | 2013, Counter-Strike team since 2018 |
| Majors won | 3 (Paris 2023, Austin 2025, Budapest 2025) |
| In-game leader | apEX |
| Star player | ZywOo |
Current roster
| Player | Role | What he brings |
|---|---|---|
| ZywOo | AWPer | The team’s highest-impact player and MVP of both 2025 Majors |
| ropz | Rifler | Calm, high-percentage rifler who joined from FaZe Clan in January 2025 |
| flameZ | Rifler | Aggressive entry player who creates space for the team |
| mezii | Rifler | Support and utility player, the glue in many executes |
| apEX | In-game leader | Veteran captain and the voice of the team |
How Vitality got here
Vitality entered Counter-Strike in 2018 with an all-French roster, and the signing of a teenage ZywOo changed the project almost immediately. He was rated the best player in the world by HLTV in 2019 and 2020, but the team kept falling short in the biggest tournaments.
The breakthrough came after Vitality moved to an international lineup with English as its main language in 2022. In May 2023 they won the BLAST.tv Paris Major in front of a home crowd, the organization’s first Major title. Two years later the arrival of ropz completed the roster that would dominate 2025: IEM Katowice in February, the BLAST.tv Austin Major in June with a 2-1 final over The MongolZ, and the StarLadder Budapest Major in December with a 3-1 final over FaZe Clan.
For apEX the run also has a personal side. He had already won two Majors with French teams in the CS:GO era, DreamHack Winter 2014 and DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015, and the three titles with Vitality make him one of the most decorated captains in the game’s history.
How they play
Vitality are built on structure rather than chaos. apEX calls a disciplined, utility-heavy game, and the team trusts its system to create the right duels for ZywOo and ropz. On T side, flameZ and mezii are often the ones taking the first contact or throwing the utility that opens a bombsite, so the stars can arrive second and trade.
Their biggest strength is closing rounds. With two elite players capable of winning 1v2 and 1v3 situations, Vitality convert advantages very efficiently and rarely throw rounds they should win. The weakness that opponents try to exploit is the early round: when teams take away ZywOo’s first AWP pick and force Vitality to play from behind, the system has to work much harder.
2026 so far
- A blazing start: five titles by early May, including IEM Rio and BLAST Rivals Spring, where they beat Natus Vincere 3-0 in the Grand Final.
- The Cologne Major (June): the bid for a third straight Major ended before the final, which Falcons won against FURIA.
- BLAST Rivals Hong Kong (November): a 2-0 win over Falcons, then a 2-1 loss to FURIA that ended with a 13-0 defeat on Mirage, the first 13-0 map loss in the team’s history. They reached the quarter-finals against MOUZ.
What to watch at the Major
Vitality start the PGL Major Singapore in Stage 3, the last Swiss stage, on December 2. The main question is whether the team can recover the level of early 2026 after a second half of the year in which Falcons, Spirit and FURIA all closed the gap. A fourth Major would put ZywOo, ropz and apEX in very rare company. Read our Major hub for the full schedule as the event gets closer.
FAQ
How many Majors have Team Vitality won?
Three: the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023, the BLAST.tv Austin Major in 2025 and the StarLadder Budapest Major in 2025.
Who is Team Vitality’s best player?
ZywOo, the team’s AWPer. He was the MVP of both 2025 Majors and was rated the best player in the world by HLTV in 2019 and 2020.
Who is Vitality’s captain?
apEX, the French veteran who has captained the team for most of its history and has won five Majors in his career.
More team profiles
See how Vitality compare with the rest of the elite in The Tier S CS2 Teams of 2026, or read the profiles of their biggest rivals: Team Spirit, Team Falcons and FURIA. For the November event, follow BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2026.