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From NAVI and Team Spirit to G2 and FaZe Clan, it’s a who’s-who of CS esports excellence – and we’ve got everything that you need to know about the event laid down here for you below.
Come one, come all, because once again, it’s that time of the year when IEM Katowice well and truly rings in the new Counter-Strike year of competitive play, with all the top teams in the world vying to return to the Spodek to win their share of the million-dollar prize pool and to make progress in the Intel Grand Slam.
IEM Katowice is the longest-running arena esports tournament in the world, with its first edition going back all the way to 2013. ESL’s signature competition has always featured many gaming disciplines from titles as distinct as League of Legends and Hearthstone, with its Counter-Strike and StarCraft offerings being arguably the most prestigious of them all. CS first graced the Spodek in 2014, with the second-ever CS:GO Major taking place under its arches, and it has become one of the most important competitions in CS esports history.
This year, while the tournament does feature its usual sixteen-team play-in and two-pronged group stage format, Valve’s changes to the Counter-Strike tournament circuit for 2025 means that invitations had to be doled out on merit, relying on the official Valve Global Standings to determine which teams can play at the prestigious event, and which 8 of the 24 qualify directly to the Group Stage.
The eight highest-ranked teams on the January 6 Valve ranking list were given a direct invitation to the Group Stage, while the next sixteen in the global rankings were granted a spot in the Play-Ins. However, with FURIA’s male and female teams both earning a spot, and an organization only being able to field one squad at an event, the #24 spot went to Sangal, instead, whose core was acquired by HEROIC. (More on that later.)
As for the format of the event itself, it’s the same ESL structure you are likely already familiar with. Here is a quick refresher, courtesy of Liquipedia:
Play-in (January 29-31):
Group stage (February 1-4):
Playoffs (February 7-9):
With all that covered, here’s how the teams and players are going to get started on their journey to the Spodek and the Hall of Heroes:
IEM Katowice kicks off on January 29 with the opening rounds of the qualification portion of the event. The Play-In Stage will open with the following matchups between the sixteen teams vying to join the top eight in the main event’s Group Stage, with two wins required across the double-elimination bracket to punch their ticket:
16 teams, 8 spots in Stage 2
— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) January 17, 2025
The #IEM Katowice 2025 Stage 1 bracket is HERE
The ascent begins. pic.twitter.com/B6phSjtcCT
With all the roster changes heading into the new year, this is the first real test of these teams and players when it comes to S-Tier CS2 esports in 2025. You can read more about the specific teams and our predictions later in the piece. But first, let’s discuss where you can follow the action!
As always, you can follow the IEM Katowice action on many different platforms in a wide range of different forms. The main broadcast can be found on the official ESL YouTube and Twitch channels, with the secondary channels put into action for the early stages of the event with simultaneous games. There are also official and community co-streams available, either in different languages, or just for a different vibe, featuring some of your favorite Counter-Strike players and content creators.
Here are all the teams and players participating in IEM Katowice this year, what you can expect from them, and what prospects they have heading into the competition. First, we will discuss the squads that have to battle it through the Play-In Stage, and then we will look at those more fortunate – meaning the highest seeds in the world – who will only have to get started in the group stage.
Oh, and if you may be wondering why some of these rosters differ from the ones found in the January 6 Valve rankings that formed the basis of these invitations, the answer is simple – multiple roster moves have been made since. As per established protocol in Counter-Strike esports, the “core” – the majority of any 5-player squad – inherits ranking places and invitations, as you will see in the cases of Team Falcons and HEROIC.
Here is the play-in stage upper bracket with the starting matchups:
(jks, NAF, NertZ, Twistzz, ultimate)
#9 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
Team Liquid’s seen many failed experiments since their unexpected decision to change to a partially European lineup in 2022, but sticking it out with YEKINDAR might have been the worst of them all. With the underperforming Latvian now out of the picture and NertZ brought in as his replacement, there’s a decent-looking squad brewing here – but it is also quite clear that Twistzz is yet another of those star players who is actively wasting his potential to roleplay as a mediocre in-game leader, and this fact could keep the squad from a deep run in Katowice, #9 rank notwithstanding.
(FalleN, chelo, yuurih, KSCERATO, skullz)
#10 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
FURIA opted to stick rather than twist heading into 2025, an odd decision considering their lack of strong showings last year. Father Time continues to catch up to FalleN, and unless KSCERATO can find his old form that made him one of the most devastating riflers in the global scene, there is little reason t expect this group of Brazilians to make a deep run at Katowice, but with the first series against Imperial Female looking like a layup, they don’t need much more to make it to the main event.
(biguzera, dav1deuS, nqz, kauez, snow)
#11 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
Despite the head-to-head loss to FURIA in Shanghai that consigned them to elimination, paiN displayed significantly greater heights in 2024 than their furious counterpart. An impressive win over FaZe Clan at the BLAST Bounty qualifiers bodes well heading into this larger challenge, and this team can definitely cause pain (pun absolutely intended) to anyone on the servers.
(exit, Lucaozy, saffee, drop, insani)
#12 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
MIBR has quietly become one of the strongest squads in South America, topping the RMRs and taking a significant scalp in the form of NAVI at the Shanghai Major, going 2-3 from 2-0, FlyQuest-style, in the Elimination Stage, with defeats to Vitality, Liquid, and MOUZ showing that the elite level is still a bridge too far. Nevertheless, the IEM Katowice play-ins should be navigable for this explosive squad.
(Djoko, Maka, Lucky, Ex3rcice, Graviti)
#13 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
3DMAX’s 3-0 run at the Shanghai Major RMRs was one of the biggest shocks of the tournament, but they did make that happen straight off the back of a third-place finish at the lesser-watched Thunderpick World Championship earlier in November. However, they failed to make a mark at the Elimination Stage of the Major and immediately lost to the new hodgepodge HEROIC squad at the BLAST Bounty qualifiers. With a set of strong performances behind your back, antistratting becomes a much bigger problem – and there are real questions as to whether this 3DMAX squad has the depth required to keep going strong in 2025.
(Calyx, MAJ3R, Wicadia, woxic, XANTARES)
#14 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
This exciting all-Turkish squad of explosive firepower and even more explosive tilt potential has just gone a smidge better heading into 2025, having moved on from the underperforming Calyx and bringing in academy player jottA instead. Eternal Fire have been a perennial dark horse throughout 2024, capable of deep runs as evidenced at ESL Pro League Season 20, and while it would be a risky proposition to predict what level they will display at Katowice, we definitely know that they have the capability to make a deep run – something that not all of their competitors can say for themselves.
(sl3nd, REZ, ztr, Tauson, PR)
#15 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
Truly, it’s not the roster, but the coach, ashhh, who deserves so much of the plaudits when it comes to GamerLegion, having steered the org through a succession of rosters after repeated poachings. But arguably, his attempt to bring REZ back from the NiP-shaped wilderness is the biggest gamble of them all to date – and don’t be surprised if they fall short at this first hurdle before all the protocols can be bedded in.
(JT, hallzerk, Grim, cxzi, nicx)
#16 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
No ELiGe, no party, that is for sure – and this temporary-looking roster will not leave a mark at Katowice. With upgrades needed in the rifling, in-game leading, and AWPing departments alike, you could make a strong argument that Complexity is the weakest team firepower-wise heading into this event.
(MUTiRiS, roman, story, Ag1l, Shr)
#17 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
SAW owe their rankings spot to diligently grinding online events throughout 2024, but it’s an indictment of their ceiling that they failed to qualify for the Shanghai Major. But even if you give more credence to their showings than you should, consider the fact that ewjerkz has been poached by NiP, with little-known 23-year-old shr coming in as his replacement last December.
(tabseN, JDC, Krimbo, kyuubi, hyped)
#18 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
There was an opportunity for BIG to finally live up to their name – Berlin International Gaming – and pick up a multinational roster, but they stubbornly kept with their all-German approach after the long-overdue benchings of syrsoN and rigoN, and bringing back hyped just isn’t it if you’re looking for a strong AWP. Might as well rebrand to MID at this point.
(dexter, Liazz, INS, Vexite, regali)
#19 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
For a very long time, any Aussie team not named Renegades (or 100Thieves) was a guarantee for a whimper rather than a bang in an international setting, but FlyQuest made many fans and broke many hearts in Shanghai with an explosive 2-0 start in the first Swiss stage that ultimately led to a 2-3 elimination.
Removing aliStair was a good move, no matter the impressive Major run, and at least we now know that this team is capable of redlining in a way that makes them a threat to anyone in this field. It would still be the exception rather than the rule, mind you.
(device, cadiaN, stavn, jabbi, Staehr)
#20 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
It is simply incredible how deep in the wilderness Astralis have gone, and if not for their many, many, many failures since their era-defining squad’s star fell in 2020, you would consider this to be a strong roster for the 2025 CS season. You’ve got an elite AWPer in device, a tenured IGL in cadiaN, with stavn and jabbi as strong riflers and Staehr as an acceptable fifth.
But in the background, you’ve got all the toxic mess brewing, with the org’s long-problematic behavior with signings and roster management, device’s health issues, and the way stavn and jabbi backstabbed cadiaN back when they were on HEROIC – and lest we forget the IGL’s ultra-poor stint on Team Liquid, that also left a black mark. If this team clicks, it could go a long way – it’s just that there are so, so many reasons to expect it not to do so.
(Stanislaw, Sonic, phzy, susp, JBa)
#21 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
A decent showing at the Shanghai Major augurs a good season for the US-EU mix, with a win at the B-Tier Frost and Fire Europe event serving as their warmup for Katowice. It’s impressive to see Stanislaw back in meaningful competitions again, and with so many of the rosters around them in flux, they could perhaps squeak through the play-in stage.
(electroNic, FL1T, fame, FL4MUS, ICY)
#22 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
The Jame captaincy has run its course, but there has never really been an indication that electroNic is cut out to be an in-game leader himself. While we likely won’t be bored to tears the same way we were by the past iteration of VP, the team showed nothing at the BLAST Bounty qualifiers to suggest a deep run at Katowice.
(zAAz, ANa, tory, twenty3, Kat)
#23 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
While it is only a quirk of the ranking system that saw Imperial’s female roster snag an invite to 2025’s early top-tier Counter-Strike events, they gave a great account of themselves against NAVI, getting more rounds against Aleksib and co. than the org’s male team managed last year. Still, it was a free hit, the first game of the season, and they will no doubt be treated as a much more serious proposition at an event with greater stakes on the line. A set of impressive defeats is the most likely outcome.
(SunPayus, xfl0ud, LNZ, tN1R, yxngstxr)
#25 in the January 6 Valve global rankings* (as Sangal)
HEROIC had to scramble for a roster replacement as Team Falcons bought out their core, scrambling for a roster replacement of their own. That’s how the dominoes fall sometimes. Having picked up LNZ, yxngstxr, and xfl0ud, they became eligible for this invitation, but their seeding seems appropriate, no matter the topsy-turvy road that got them here. No NertZ or sjuush, either: they are off to Liquid and NiP, respectively. This is a completely new (and not particularly prestigious) squad, with little in the way of expectations.
These are the strongest squads in the world, at least according to Valve, and have earned themselves a bye to progress past the IEM Katowice play-in stage as a result. Here is what the group stage brackets look like:
(huNter-, NiKo, m0NESY, malbsMd, Snax)
#1 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
Make no mistake: this ranking could hardly be less relevant: all of G2’s applicable results were achieved with NiKo still on the squad, and after the departure of a player of his caliber, any roster change will inevitably count as a significant downgrade. With question marks over Snax’s IGL capabilities (and especially TaZ’s coaching chops), G2’s consistently inconsistent tendencies will likely be further amplified heading into the 2025 season.
If they play the way they played against B8 at BLAST Bounty qualifiers, they will not make the playoffs. If the G2 that played against BIG showed up, that still wouldn’t be enough for a title tilt against the expected quality of opposition.
(chopper, sh1ro, magixx, zont1x, donk)
#2 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
No matter what the Valve ratings say, it’s difficult to look past Team Spirit as the real number-one team on form as of right now. Major winners, with young superstar donk firing on all cylinders and eating lesser teams for breakfast all on his own, they are definitely a team to watch. If you were really digging hard for a caveat, you could say that their wins at the recent BLAST Bounty qualifiers event were so straightforward and so quick – 2-0 wins over FlyQuest and Fnatic – that it’s almost impossible to draw any conclusions about their form in the new season. But that is really just clutching at straws, isn’t it?
(bLitz, Techno, Senzu, mzinho, 910)
#3 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
Led by a bona fide chess master in the form of bLitz, The MongolZ have been the standout squad of the Asia-Pacific for quite some time now, but they really made a breakthrough in 2024 with a playoffs run at the Shanghai Major and an outright win at the Thunderpick World Championship. While their #3 designation feels more like a quirk of the Valve rankings than anything else (HLTV has them at a much more reasonable #7), there is no reason why this cerebral yet explosive squad couldn’t make the playoffs at Katowice.
(apEX, ropz, ZyOo, flameZ, mezii)
#4 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
Vitality got an upgrade heading into 2025 in more ways than one: ropz’s superstar qualities mean that he is inevitably an improvement over almost any player, as is the case with Spinx, but it’s been recently revealed that the young Israeli has been causing quite a lot of friction in the squad, repeatedly clashing with apEX, and therefore both the firepower and the team chemistry is expected to improve with this new lineup – a great sign for a team that has already been a perennial title contender in the previous season.
(karrigan, rain, broky, frozen, EliGE)
#5 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
While losing ropz definitely feels like a fumble, all credit to FaZe for very quickly sorting out a capable replacement in the form of EliGE. It’s not worth putting too much weight on their surprise loss to paiN at the online BLAST Bounty qualifiers event – instead, it’s the historical context that is more worth looking at, namely karrigan’s incredible ability to quickly integrate new, even temporary players, and the “honeymoon period” that always has his teams and lineups greatly overperform early on in their lifespan.
While the clock is ticking on his career alongside rain’s, a semifinals run or a grand final appearance is not at all out of the cards, even if their Shanghai Major playoff heroics were greatly predicated on ropz going nuclear, who they can no longer rely on.
(Brollan, siuhy, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN)
#6 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
Arguably the biggest roster move of this offseason was the one that did not happen – Jimpphat did not end up going to Falcons, making MOUZ one of the only elite teams to have kept their existing lineup heading into 2025. A strong and cohesive young team with a ceiling that is slightly below that of the absolute top CS squads, the upheaval in the scene gives them a great competitive advantage for the early portion of 2025, and this makes Katowice perhaps their best chance to lift an S-Tier trophy this year.
(Aleksib, iM, b1t, jl, w0nderful)
#7 in the January 6 Valve global rankings
NAVI’s journey over the course of 2024 was nothing short of incredible, having gone from surprise Major winners in Copenhagen to the inarguable strongest squad by the end of the year, even if exhaustion clearly got the better of them by the time the Shanghai Major rolled around.
Nevertheless, it is clear that no one has cracked the code yet, and the combination of Aleksib in the IGL role and B1ad3 in the coaching department is rapidly approaching gla1ve-zonic levels of excellence. They will no doubt remain favorites of any tournament they enter for the foreseeable future.
(NiKo, Magisk, TeSeS, degster, kyxsan)
#8 in the January 6 Valve global rankings* (as HEROIC)
You might be asking yourself: why are Falcons here when they haven’t won anything at all and just changed up their team? Well, having bought out HEROIC’s core (TeSes, degster, and kyxsan), Falcons have also inherited their position in the global rankings, a similar stunt to what they have pulled last year with ENCE’s trio to secure invitations to the Counter-Strike scene’s most prestigious events. Once again, their rumored superteam didn’t come to pass, as NiKo’s signature wasn’t followed by m0NESY’s and Jimmphat’s.
With a significant downgrade in expected player quality and growing questions over coach zonic’s adaptability to CS2, it’s clear that this particular top eight designation is unwarranted, especially with an unproven in-game leader like kyxsan. Time and training may make this a strong team, and NiKo always has it in him to just carry a team straight to the finals on his own, but Falcons is nailed-on for a group stage elimination at Katowice.
Taking place between January 29 and February 9, IEM Katowice remains one of the strongest pillars of the Counter-Strike esports tournament calendar. No one is going to save strats here as they try to get into the Spodek – and the event offers us the first real glimpse into the emerging competitive landscape of 2025.
Valve’s forced changes to the invitation system led to some interesting quirks when it comes to the teams in the play-in stage, and we also have a hunch that some of the teams that got a direct spot in the group stage will likely falter by the time the big games roll around.
We are quite bullish on Team Spirit, Team Vitality, and MOUZ – and as for the teams that have to start their journey in the play-in stage, our pick of the litter is Eternal Fire, Team Liquid, GamerLegion, and paiN Gaming.
But we also believe that skepticism is warranted about Team Falcons and G2 among the higher seeds, and the same goes for VP, 3DMAX, Complexity, and SAW among the lower ones.
That should have you covered just about all the storylines and predictions you need to savor IEM Katowice 2025 like a true esports connoisseur. Enjoy the action with us here at Bitsler!
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