The Grand Final of the Intel Extreme Masters Kraków 2026 brings us a face-off between the top two ranked teams in the world: Team Vitality vs FURIA. While the names and rankings suggest heavyweight clash, the way these two teams arrive here is a whole different story.

If you’re still unsure how this grand final might play out, we’re here to dissect it for you and highlight the real edges.

How they got here

Vitality literally bulldozed their way to the grand final. They swept BC.Game Esports, 3DMAX, and Aurora Gaming in Group B, then carried that same level into the playoffs semifinal, where they 2-0’d MOUZ too, making it look like it’s not even a semifinal at a Tier-1 tournament. They look like they’re out for blood after that fumble against limping Falcons at the BLAST Bounty Winter couple weeks ago. More often than not, ZywOo was the standout player for Vitality.

FURIA’s path to the grand final is the exact opposite. After a loss to FUT Esports in their opening game, everything came down to survival down at the lower-brackets. They won against MongolZ, NAVI, and Astralis in the lower-bracket – all 2-1, none comfortable. Mostly YEKINDAR and KSCERATO were the standout players in this phase, keeping FURIA afloat every time things went sideways. Their first game in the playoffs was the first time they looked clean – they swept Aurora 2-0 without any struggle. The semifinal against Team Spirit was a bit closer than that, but they never really looked like they struggle, even if Spirit won a map.

Head-to-head & vetoes

Vitality and FURIA have faced eachother three times in recent past, and the head-to-head actually slightly favors FURIA. Vitality won 2-1 at the ESL Pro League Season 22’s playoff quarterfinals back in October, but FURIA chained two consecutive wins after, with one being a clean sweep (3-0) at IEM Chengdu 2025’s grand final.

The veto shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Since it’s a BO5, there’s not much room for outplays, since both team can ban 1 map only.

• Both teams’ most banned map is Ancient (this will probably not be the case in this matchup, since it’s kind of an “unexplored territory”, and there are many other priority bans where the opponent has high win percentages);
• Vitality will most likely ban Nuke, since that’s one of FURIA’s strongest maps (besides Inferno), and FURIA have much higher win percentage than Vitality (89% vs 44%).
• FURIA will most likely ban Dust2 or Overpass, since Vitality are on a 8 and 7 map winning streak, respectively.
• The map pick order will play an important role in the series’ outcome (I don’t think it will go to a decider).

Recent performance

Vitality’s biggest advantage is not firepower – it’s how rarely they put themselves in a bad spot. They rarely overextend, tilt, or chase rounds that they shouldn’t. Vitality’s yet to lose a map in this event, and given their form at this event, it might not even happen.

FURIA also win games, but in a more chaotic way. They’ve proven time and time again that they claw their way back when behind, but against Vitality, those comebacks are harder to find. My real hope for FURIA to even have a chance against Vitality at this point, was seeing molodoy activate the ROTY mode in the semifinal against Team Spirit, where he put up 1.36 rating (65 frags, along with 89.1 ADR). If the same version shows up tomorrow (considering the rest of squad chips in), Vitality might have their hands full.

Prediction

FURIA have earned their place in the final, and they’re dangerous enough to take maps – especially if their individuals keep putting up pressure. But seeing at how well Vitality looked across the whole event (fewer mistakes, clean series, less reliance on clutch plays), FURIA probably won’t even get a chance for a recovery if they start even a bit slow.

Prediction: Team Vitality takes the trophy, 3-1.