IEM Katowice 2025 viewer's guide

The next prestigious Counter-Strike 2 LAN tournament, IEM Katowice 2025, will take place from January 29 to February 9, with participants competing for one million dollars in prizes. The event will be held in Katowice, Poland, with the matches of the final stage being played out at the Spodek Arena.

The event will kick off with the Play-In stage, in which 16 squads will participate. They will fight for eight tickets to the IEM Katowice 2025 group stage in a Double Elimination format. All matches will be BO3.

The Play-In stage participants are:

 Liquid (jks, NAF, NertZ, Twistzz, ultimate)
 HEROIC (SunPayus, xfl0ud, LNZ, tN1R, yxngstxr)
 Complexity (JT, hallzerk, Grim, cxzi, nicx)
 Eternal Fire (MAJ3R, XANTARES, woxic, Wicadia, jottAAA)
 3DMAX (Maka, Lucky, Djoko, Ex3rcice, Graviti)
 FlyQuest (dexter, Liazz, INS, Vexite, regali)
 Astralis (device, cadiaN, stavn, jabbi, Staehr)
 MIBR (exit, Lucaozy, saffee, drop, insani)
 paiN (biguzera, dav1deuS, nqz, kauez, snow)
 Virtus.pro (electroNic, FL1T, fame, FL4MUS, ICY)
 SAW (MUTiRiS, roman, story, Ag1l, Shr)
 GamerLegion (REZ, ztr, Tauson, sl3nd, PR)
 Wildcard (stanislaw, Sonic, phzy, susp, JBa)
 BIG (tabseN, JDC, Krimbo, kyuubii, hyped)
 Imperial fe (zAAz, ANa, tory, twenty3, Kat)
 FURIA (FalleN, chelo, yuurih, KSCERATO, skullz)

The Play-In stage seeding looks as follows:

The IEM Katowice 2025 group stage will take place in a Double Elimination format (GSL, two groups of eight rosters) with BO3 matches. Three teams from each group will advance to the playoffs: the winners will go straight to the semi-finals, while the teams that secure second and third places will get to the quarter-finals.

The competition playoffs will play out in a Single Elimination format with BO3 matches. The final will be a BO5 series.

Holders of direct invites to the group stage are:

Group A

 G2 (Snax, huNter-, malbsMd, m0NESY, HeavyGod)
 Falcons (NiKo, Magisk, TeSeS, degster, kyxsan)
 Vitality (apEX, ropz, ZywOo, flameZ, mezii)
 FaZe (karrigan, rain, EliGE, frozen, broky)

Group B

 Team Spirit (chopper, sh1ro, magixx, zont1x, donk)
 NAVI (Aleksib, iM, b1t, jL, w0nderful)
 MOUZ (Brollan, siuhy, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN)
 The MongolZ (bLitz, Techno, Senzu, mzinho, 910)

The prize pool distribution is:

1. $400,000
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $24,000
9-12. $16,000
13-16. $10,000
17-20. $4,500
21-24. $2,500

The full schedule and live broadcast of IEM Katowice 2025 can be found on the tournament page via this link.