IEM Cologne 2025 viewer's guide

Prestigious LAN tournament IEM Cologne 2025 with a prize pool of one million US dollars will be held in Cologne, Germany from July 23 to August 3. The final stage of the event will played out at the LANXESS arena.

IEM Cologne 2025 will kick off with the Play-In stage, in which 16 teams will participate. They will fight for eight tickets to the group stage of the competition in a Double Elimination bracket format.

The group stage of the competition will take place from July 26 to 29 in a Double Elimination format. Three strongest squads from each group will advance to the playoffs, the winners will go straight to the semi-finals, while the teams that secure 2nd and 3rd places will go to the quarter-finals.

The IEM Cologne 2025 playoffs will be held from August 1 to 3 in a Single Elimination format. All matches of the tournament, except the final, will be BO3, the final – BO5.

The Play-In stage participants are:

 FaZe (karrigan, skullz, EliGE, frozen, broky)
 BIG (tabseN, JDC, Krimbo, kyuubii, hyped)
 Liquid (siuhy, NAF, NertZ, Twistzz, ultimate)
 paiN (dav1deuS, nqz, snow, dgt, biguzera)
 3DMAX (Maka, Lucky, bodyy, Ex3rcice, Graviti)
 MIBR (exit, nicks, saffee, brnz4n, insani)
 NIP (Snappi, sjuush, r1nkle, ewjerkz, xKacpersky)
 HEROIC (gr1ks, nilo, LNZ, tN1R, yxngstxr)
 GamerLegion (REZ, ztr, Tauson, Kursy, PR)
 Complexity (JT, hallzerk, Grim, cxzi, nicx)
 TYLOO (Attacker, JamYoung, Jee, Mercury, Moseyuh)
 Virtus.pro (electroNic, FL1T, fame, Perfecto, ICY)
 Astralis (device, HooXi, stavn, jabbi, Staehr)
 B8 (headtr1ck, alex666, npl, kensizor, esenthial)
 FlyQuest (jks, INS, Vexite, nettik, regali)
 FURIA (FalleN, YEKINDAR, yuurih, KSCERATO, molodoy)

Play-In seeding looks as follows:

The direct invitees to the group stage are:

Group A

 Vitality (apEX, ropz, ZywOo, flameZ, mezii)
 G2 (SunPayus, huNter-, malbsMd, MATYS, HeavyGod)
 Falcons (NiKo, kyousuke, TeSeS, m0NESY, kyxsan)
 The MongolZ (bLitz, Techno, Senzu, mzinho, 910)

Group B

 MOUZ (Brollan, Spinx, torzsi, Jimpphat, xertioN)
 NAVI (Aleksib, iM, b1t, makazze, w0nderful)
 Aurora (MAJ3R, XANTARES, woxic, Wicadia, jottAAA)
 Team Spirit (chopper, sh1ro, zweih, zont1x, donk)

The prize money distribution:

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 broadcasts of IEM Cologne 2025 matches are available on the tournament's page via this link.