At the start of the Esports World Cup 2025, fans will immediately witness a thrilling showdown — Vitality versus Liquid. The French squad enters the tournament in excellent form with a streak of confident wins over the Americans, while Liquid are in crisis and searching for stability. Will the North American team manage to surprise the favorite, or will Vitality continue their dominance in this matchup?
Current Form of the Teams
Vitality
The French organization heads into the Esports World Cup 2025 in excellent shape. Over the last three months, Vitality have played 42 maps and won 33 of them, showcasing impressive consistency. In the past month, they competed at IEM Cologne 2025 and BLAST Bounty Season 2, finishing 3-4th at both events. Both campaigns ended with playoff losses, notably to The MongolZ. However, in their last five matches, Vitality secured three victories — against Liquid, Legacy, and NRG — while only losing to MOUZ and The MongolZ.
Liquid
Liquid, on the other hand, are going through a crisis. Over the past three months, they’ve played 36 maps and won only 14, underlining their struggles. Their latest results paint a similar picture: 13-16th place at IEM Cologne 2025, 5-8th at RES Showdown 2: BLAST Premier Rising, and another 5-8th at BLAST Bounty Season 2. In their last five matches, Liquid managed wins against FURIA and ESTATIC but fell to Vitality, VP.Prodigy, and FaZe. This highlights a lack of stability and problems against top-tier opponents.
Map Pool
In a bo3 format, each team bans one map, then picks one, followed by another round of bans, with the remaining map becoming the decider.
- Vitality: Their first ban will most likely be Ancient, as it’s their weakest map. For their pick, they can confidently choose Dust2 (8 games, 100% win rate, 8-win streak) or Nuke (83% win rate, 4-win streak). Inferno is also an option but with slightly lower success.
- Liquid: They will almost certainly ban Train, which they consistently avoid. Their likely pick is Mirage (7 plays but just a 43% win rate) or Ancient (60% win rate), depending on Vitality’s weaknesses. Inferno is possible, though their 33% win rate makes it risky.
- Vitality’s second ban could target Mirage to limit Liquid’s options, while Liquid are likely to remove Overpass, where Vitality have a perfect 100% win rate. That would leave Inferno as the probable decider — a map where both teams are comfortable enough to fight.
Head-to-Head Record
In the past six months, Vitality and Liquid have faced each other three times — and Vitality have won all three series. At ESL Pro League Season 21, the French side swept 2-0, repeated the scoreline at IEM Melbourne 2025, and most recently defeated Liquid 2-0 at BLAST Bounty Season 2. These results underline Vitality’s clear advantage in head-to-head encounters.
Match Prediction
Considering current form, map pool tendencies, and recent head-to-head results, Vitality are clear favorites. They display consistency at top events, have strong map choices, and hold a psychological edge over Liquid thanks to repeated dominant victories. Liquid, meanwhile, are in poor shape, and even their stronger maps look fragile against Vitality’s discipline.
The most likely outcome is a 2-0 victory for Vitality, though Liquid might put up a fight on Inferno — but the chances of turning the series around are slim.
