Heroic or Vitality: Which team is the best team of 2023?

Heroic’s win at BLAST Premier Spring Final means that they close out the season with their first tournament win of 2023.

The Danish team, who only finished outside of the top four at one event this year, finally managed to claim their tournament gold after two top four placings, and two runners-up finishes.

Despite a small scare in the semi-finals against comparative minnows Imperial, Heroics run in Washington D.C. was largely dominant. Most notable is the comfort they showed in their victories against FaZe and Vitality, and the calmness on display in games against underdogs Complexity and Imperial.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

Given their result in the BLAST.tv Paris Major against GamerLegion, and other results elsewhere at this event, it’s what set them apart from other teams.

Their opponents in the final, Vitality, would’ve been disappointed to have not capped off their season with another tournament win. Having won IEM Rio and the BLAST.tv Paris Major in their previous two tournaments, they came into the Spring Final as the best team in the world.

However, does this win for Heroic mean that they’ve actually had a better season?

The two best teams of 2023

Starting with Heroic, the Danish giants have only failed to make the top four at one event this year, ESL Pro League Season 17. At every other event they’ve attended, they’ve been at least top four and finished runners-up at both IEM Katowice and IEM Rio.

Their players have been performing at their peak levels, with jabbi becoming a superstar as their Lurker, while AWP IGL cadiaN has also consistently upped his individual level to match some of the world’s best AWPers. A feat many experts said would be key in order for Heroic to ever become a true and consistent threat.

So why haven’t Heroic won more events?

Unfortunately, for all their strengths in group stages, they often fall apart on big stages. Even by their own admission, they’ve had to start making jokes about expecting to lose in order to close out victories. This fact had perhaps never been more evident than during their loss to GamerLegion at the Major.

On the other side of the coin, Vitality started 2023 slower than their Danish rivals. Having been inconsistent since the arrival of Spinx, the team spoke a lot of their “six month plan”, with all eyes on the Major, their only focus was peaking in time to win there.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

They achieved a quarter final finish at IEM Katowice, eliminated by Liquid in an embarrassing collapse long before Heroic lost in the final against G2.

Undeterred, they stuck by their plan, and as they took down Heroic in the final of IEM Rio, we finally began to see it come to fruition. With ZywOo playing the best Counter-Strike we’ve ever seen from him, and with Spinx and Magisk also becoming the most consistent version of themselves since they joined the organisation, Vitality had very clearly become the best team in the world.

The best team of 2023

With Heroic only failing to reach the top four of an event once, they’re without a doubt the most consistent team of 2023. It might be due to their communication all being in their native language, or perhaps due to the unique system built by cadiaN, but they have carved out a stability and consistency to their performance that no other team can match.

On the other hand, Vitality do look to be the one team right now capable of challenging that level of consistency. Of course, large parts of this are buoyed by having the current best player in the world, ZywOo, but you also have to give credit to Spinx for his part in recapturing his best form and propelling Vitality to championship form.

Photo: Michal Konkol

One thing Heroic will always have over Vitality in the conversation of consistency is longevity. While Vitality struggled a lot following their transition to an international roster, the only time Heroic have struggled since COVID is the brief period of growing pains they had since bringing in jabbi.

That being said, we aren’t talking about the past three years, we’re talking about this year. In terms of this year alone, it’s very hard to argue that Vitality isn’t the best team of the year. Sure, it took them a few months to get going and win an event, but when they did, they quickly converted that into a second, even more impressive, the second event was the Major.

Okay, they might not have then won the subsequent event, but how often do Major winners win the tournament directly after their Major win? Considering their dismal display in their opening game, reaching the final is a success of its own.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

The fact remains that the Major is the biggest tournament of the year to date, and considering it’s the only Major of the year, it will end up being the biggest tournament of the year altogether.

Vitality’s win at the Major is worth more than any other tournament and is especially impressive considering the level of pressure due to being the only team with French representation.

It goes without saying that Heroic’s consistency in an era of inconsistency is incredible impressive, but until that consistency translates into repeated tournament wins, it’s hard to call them the best team over the course of a season, especially when Vitality just won two of the biggest tournaments of that season.