The competition in Germany marked the beginning of the second part of the season, following a month-long break, and fully lived up to CS2 fans’ expectations: IEM Cologne 2025 had everything, from spectacular debuts to exciting clashes and real surprises.
The tournament, held from July 23 to August 4, featured a $1,250,000 prize pool. IEM Cologne 2025 was supported by international brands such as Intel, 1xBet, and DHL. After the Play-In, where eight teams were eliminated, the group stage began, marking the entry of the main favorites.
Group stage
Group A was immediately dubbed the “group of death”: it included the Major finalists – Vitality and The MongolZ, as well as the strong Falcons and FURIA. The first two squads comfortably secured playoff spots through the upper bracket, while the Brazilians from FURIA battled their way through the lower bracket. Meanwhile, the favorites, Falcons, failed to advance in the tournament again.
During the off-season, the world’s wealthiest team acquired 17-year-old rifler Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin. The young talent fit in well with the squad and achieved a rating of 1.39. Impressive for a newcomer. However, his experienced teammates couldn’t match his energy – only sniper m0NESY managed a solid 1.10, while the rest, including star player NiKo, dropped below one. The Falcons beat only GamerLegion (2-0) and then lost to The MongolZ (0-2) and FURIA (1-2), ending their IEM Cologne 2025 run in disappointment.
Group B was a no-brainer, with Spirit, MOUZ, and NAVI all deservedly making it to the playoffs. If there had been another slot up for grabs at this stage, FaZe Clan would have likely taken it, but they lost 0-2 to NAVI in the lower bracket final and went home.
Playoffs and Grand Final
In the first quarterfinal, MOUZ defeated FURIA in a tough fight with a score of 2-1. In the second game, all bookmakers, including 1xBet Philippines legit, expected The MongolZ to win. The Mongolian squad concluded the first part of the season on a high note, qualifying for the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 final. Meanwhile, NAVI’s top player, jL, went inactive and was replaced by newcomer makazze from the team’s academy. Everything indicated that The MongolZ would win, but after a close Inferno map (22:18), they faltered on Ancient, allowing NAVI to dominate the first half with a crushing score of 1:11, and were eventually eliminated from the tournament.
However, the main sensation occurred in the Vitality v MOUZ semifinal, where the latter confidently beat the Major winners with a score of 2-0, interrupting their 37-match win streak. It happened even though Vitality triumphed in the last eight head-to-head clashes! In the Spirit v NAVI semifinal, the Ukrainian team was successful only on Nuke (13:9), losing on Mirage (11:13) and Ancient (6:13).
Team Spirit’s qualification for the final was expected, but MOUZ surprised analysts, who had expected to see Vitality, The MongolZ, or Falcons in the decisive clash. However, the grand final itself proved quite predictable and concluded with a victory for Spirit — only Vitality can currently beat them. MOUZ also exhausted their energy during the match against the French, and the Bo5 series ended quite quickly with a score of 3-0: 13:7 on Mirage, 13:11 on Ancient, and 13:6 on Nuke.
Team Spirit won their third tournament this year after triumphing at BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 and PGL Astana 2025. The team’s main star, Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, with a total rating of 1.50, received his ninth career HLTV x 1xBet Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Still, most importantly, everyone saw that Vitality can and should be beaten. It means that all CS2 fans can look forward to an exciting rest of the season!
