Aurora came to the StarSeries Fall grand final unbeaten, they beat NAVI, NRG and Vitality. The last of those came in Saturday's upper bracket final, a 2-1 win built on strong CT sides on Nuke and Anubis.
However things flipped on Sunday where Vitality won 3-1. They'd already beaten FURIA 2-0 in the lower bracket final that afternoon, 13-5 on Cache and 13-8 on Anubis.
"After yesterday, we knew what they would do," flameZ told BanKs afterwards.
Map by map
- Anubis, Aurora's pick: 13-4 Vitality
- Inferno, Vitality's pick: 13-11 Aurora
- Mirage, Aurora's pick: 13-4 Vitality
- Cache, decider: 13-7 Vitality
Anubis was the key. Aurora won it 13-7 the night before. In the rematch Team Vitality raced to 9-3, with an eco win in round six turning it, and mezii finished the half on a 2.24 rating. The T side that followed was the reverse of Saturday's 0-8.
Inferno was Aurora's best map and Aurora won it but it was close.
That was as close as Aurora got. ZywOo was practically showed up on Mirage, and a 1v2 plus a three-kill hold out Mid set the pace on Cache.
The numbers
ZywOo finished on a 1.51 rating with 71 kills to 44 deaths and took MVP. It's his fifth HLTV MVP of the year, his 33rd overall and his 26th at a big event, both all-time records. Two more big-event medals would double s1mple's tally.
Ropz went 61 to 43.
Aurora's side, Wicadia finished on 1.15, the only player above par. Jimpphat, who'd entered the final as an MVP candidate and told HLTV about his vast reserves of confidence at his new home, finished on 0.81. XANTARES closed on 0.69.
The drought
Vitality won seven straight trophies across 2025, two Majors, then five more to open 2026 plus an Intel Grand Slam. But they hit a wall.
Manged to reach only Quarter-final exits at IEM Atlanta and the IEM Cologne Major. Out early in BLAST Bounty Malta qualifying. Mezii and APEX both took paternity leave, with jL standing in at Porto.
Barcelona is their sixth title of 2026. They only lost to Aurora the day before the finals.
Prize money: 200,000 dollars to Vitality, 130,000 to Aurora, 70,000 to FURIA.
More:Team Vitality Signs Neia
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