Team Vitality are the champions of ESL Pro League Season 16!

So another major CS:GO championship has come to its logical conclusion. ESL Pro League Season 16 has become interesting and in some way not the most predictable. The grand final turned out to be very intriguing and eventful, and the participants of the meeting did not let their fans breathe until the very end. Bo5 turned out to be full-fledged and passed on all five maps.

The first place where the teams fought each other was the Inferno map. Team Liquid quickly took the initiative into their own hands and already after the first half it became clear that they chose Inferno for a reason. After switching to the defense side, the roster lost only 2 rounds to their opponents and ended the meeting with a score of 16-7.

After such an unsuccessful start, Team Vitality did not remain in debt and almost the same scenario took Dust 2 from nitr0 and the company. They started on the attack and took 9 rounds there, and after the transition they symbolically put an end to the second map with a score of 16-7.

Mirage became, if not the most intense, then one of the two hardest maps for both participants of the meeting. There, Team Vitality quickly took the initiative and defeated their opponents 11 times on the defensive side. After the switchover, Liquid showed that they were also good on defense and took the game to overtime. The first series of additional rounds was not enough for the players in the same way as the second. The whole action ended only in the third overtime, and Liquid still managed to tip the scales this time in their favor and already started leading with a score of 2-1, being one step away from winning ESL Pro League Season 16.

But that's what the final of the tournament with a prize pool of $835,000 is for, that it cannot be very boring, and therefore an interesting denouement awaited us after that.

Overpass became perhaps the most intense and important map in this series, as Liquid was pressured by the fact that they were about to reach their goal and could not reach the fifth map, as they were inferior to their opponents on Vertigo. Vitality, in turn, understood that they needed to take 2 more cards to achieve the desired result.

Just like in the case with Mirage, the teams were unable to determine the winner in the given framework of standard meetings, designed for 30 rounds, and went to determine the winner in overtime. This time, they managed to keep within one series of additional rounds and, as a result, Overpass ended with a score of 19-17 in favor of Vitality.

On Vertigo, Vitality played out more quickly to impose the game they wanted on their opponents, and this allowed ZyWoo and his teammates to give a vigorous start and take 10 rounds for the defense side in the first half. After the transition, Liquid tried to show their repulse skills, but they managed to do it only 6 times. Ultimately, Team Vitality put an end to this confrontation and won the grand final with a score of 3-2.

At the same time, Vitality became the champions of ESL Pro League Season 16 and took the main prize — $200,000 and invitations to BLAST Premier World Final 2022 and IEM Katowice 2023. Team Liquid, who took 2nd place, in turn, became the owner of a consolation prize of $85,000.

ZyWoo also earned the MVP title of the tournament. No wonder everyone paid attention to how an esportsman makes an impact on the victory of his team. The player finished the tournament with a rating of 1.42. This year, this title was his debut. Mathieu Herbault showed his best performance in the group stage match against Team Spirit, where he finished the meeting with a rating of 2.3.

ESL Pro League Season 16 was held from August 31 to October 2 on the island of Malta. The venue for the tournament was the Salini Resort. 24 teams from Europe, the CIS, North America and South America shared a total prize pool of $835,000 among each other.