Team Vitality's 3-0 sweep of NAVI at BLAST Rivals Fort Worth on May 3 did more than deliver a fifth consecutive trophy of 2026. It also officially completed the French squad's second consecutive ESL Grand Slam — a feat only a handful of teams have accomplished in Counter-Strike history.
What is the ESL Grand Slam
The ESL Grand Slam requires a team to win four ESL Pro Tour Masters events within a 10-tournament window. Since its introduction, only a handful of dynasties have completed the achievement even once. Winning back-to-back Grand Slams places Vitality in genuinely rarefied company.
Vitality's four qualifying trophies
- IEM Katowice 2026
- IEM Kraków 2026
- IEM Rio 2026
- BLAST Rivals Fort Worth 2026
The historical significance
The first team to complete an ESL Grand Slam was Astralis in 2018-19. Since then, only a handful of dynasties have matched the achievement. Vitality's back-to-back completion arguably represents the most compressed dominant run in ESL Pro Tour history.
Cash reward
The ESL Grand Slam trophy comes with a substantial cash prize on top of individual tournament winnings. Combined with Vitality's five 2026 tournament victories, the roster has become the highest-earning CS2 team of the calendar year.
The players who did it
The core lineup: Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, Robin "ropz" Kool, Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, Shahar "flameZ" Shushan, William "mezii" Merriman, coached by Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam. The lineup has remained largely stable through the two-year Grand Slam window.
What it means for the GOAT debate
The second consecutive Grand Slam adds concrete weight to apEX's post-BLAST Rivals GOAT claim. Individual event wins are one thing; sustained ESL Pro Tour dominance is another. Vitality now has both.
The Cologne caveat
The one gap in Vitality's resume: a Counter-Strike 2 Major title. IEM Cologne 2026 would offer the chance to complete the collection. Whether they seized it — and whether apEX's GOAT claim held up — remained the story of the following month.
