And so, it all comes down to this. The final game before history is made.

History, of course, has already been written during this Major. The MongolZ are the first Asian team and the youngest team to ever reach a Major final. A feat that is nothing but incredible. Their awakening on stage has been a long time coming, and it could really shake things up, not just in the final, but for the rest of the year, too.

On the other end of the stage, though, is Vitality. The final boss.

A team that came into the Major unbeaten since February, their streak was promptly broken in their opening game by a plucky Legacy team that defied all expectations. But that defeat hasn’t bothered Vitality one bit. In fact, it may have only served to supercharge them.

A dominant force, Vitality have breezed past nearly every opponent they have faced since, with only their surprise map loss to MOUZ on Inferno serving as a blip on an otherwise perfect record since that anomalous loss to Legacy.

With the weight of a win streak no longer bearing down upon their shoulders, Vitality have been able to focus solely on their one goal: The trophy that will cement their run in the last five months as the greatest of all time.

Because, in all honesty, that is what we’re dealing with.

In an era of donk’s brilliance, of Falcons’ money, of a MOUZ team who can take anyone in the world down, Vitality have managed to usher in an era of dominance unseen in Counter-Strike for a number of years now.

There’s no caveat to this run, no post-COVID dead teams, no meta perversion à la Astralis, no closest rival losing their IGL because of whatever-the-f–ck-happened-there, this is just a team that is simply greater than all of their closest competitors.

But none of that will matter unless they win in Austin.

Vitality’s season, for all of the high moments, will all crumble to nothing if they don’t manage to lift that Major trophy. Like Liquid in 2019, their era will forever be denied, because such is the importance of the only tournament that enters your name into Counter-Strike lore for eternity.

With that in mind, we do expect Vitality to do what needs to be done in the final, but that doesn’t mean we’re counting out The MongolZ.

When it clicked for them on stage it was always going to click in a big way, and it’s not like they haven’t pushed Vitality to their absolute limits before. It’s not even like the fifth-highest ranked team hasn’t ever managed to pull off Major magic in America before.

People are already quick to be writing this game off, already pulling the trigger on the “Vitality Mickey Mouse Major” agenda for the second time. But we truly don’t think they could be more wrong.

Both of these teams have given everything they have to get to this spot, neither one of them is going to let that trophy slip away without fighting until the bitter end.

We really think we’re in for a treat, and we can’t f–cking wait for it.