Image: ESL
Eight teams survived the 16-team Play-In stage at IEM Katowice 2025.
The Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) 2025 season is kicking off this month with IEM Katowice 2025. The tournament concluded its Play-In Stage on Saturday (February 1), with eight teams surviving a 16-team double-elimination bracket to advance to the Group Stage.
Eternal Fire, 
3DMAX, 
GamerLegion, 
FURIA Esports, 
Team Liquid, 
Astralis, 
Virtus.pro (VP), and 
BIG make up the list of teams that qualified for the IEM Katowice Group Stage. There, they will face off against the likes of 
Team Spirit, 
Natus Vincere, 
G2 Esports, 
Team Vitality, 
FaZe Clan,
The MongolZ, 
MOUZ, and 
Team Falcons to determine the six teams will advance to the Playoffs.
Here's how the eight qualified teams survived the IEM Katowice Play-Ins to make it to the Group Stage:
IEM Katowice Play-Ins results
The IEM Katowice Play-Ins featured a 16-team double-elimination bracket with best-of-three matches, and seeding based on the Valve Regional Standings (VRS) as of January 13. Eight teams qualified to the Group Stage from the Play-Ins, with four coming from the upper bracket and four from the lower bracket.
Eternal Fire, 3DMAX, and GamerLegion cruised to the Group Stage with perfect runs in the Play-Ins after sweeping two matches each. Eternal Fire swept 
CompLexity Gaming (13-6 in Anubis, 19-15 in Train) and 
HEROIC (13-11 in Nuke, 16-14 in Anubis), 3DMAX routed 
FlyQuest (13-5 in Train, 13-7 in Inferno) and 
MIBR (19-16 in Inferno, 13-5 in Nuke), while GamerLegion tore through 
SAW (13-11 in Nuke, 13-9 in Inferno) and 
paiN Gaming (13-3 in Inferno, 13-5 in Mirage).
FURIA rounded out the four teams to advance through the upper bracket. First, it swept 
Imperial Female (16-13 in Mirage, 13-1 in Dust2) before taking down 
Wildcard Gaming in three maps (4-13 in Inferno, 13-5 in Dust2, 16-13 in Nuke).
Liquid, VP, and BIG all bounced back from their upper bracket losses with clean runs through the lower bracket to make it to the Group Stage. Liquid swept Complexity (13-8 in Inferno, 13-11 in Ancient) and Wildcard (16-12 in Inferno, 13-0 in Anubis), VP routed SAW (13-4 in Dust2, 13-3 in Inferno) and MIBR (13-4 in Anubis, 13-10 in Ancient), while BIG ran through Imperial Female (13-4 in Inferno, 13-5 in Ancient) and HEROIC (13-2 in Nuke, 13-4 in Ancient).
Astralis dropped one map en route to the Group Stage, defeating FlyQuest in three maps (5-13 in Train, 13-7 in Ancient, 13-11 in Inferno) before sweeping aside paiN (13-7 in Inferno, 13-9 in Dust2).
The IEM Katowice Group Stage will take place from February 1 to 5, and will follow a GSL double-elimination format that splits the 16 teams into two groups of eight teams each. All matches in this stage will be a best-of-three with seedings based on the VRS standings as of January 13, and results from the Play-Ins.
The Top 3 teams from each group will advance to the Playoffs. The winner of each group will receive a direct berth to the semifinals, the second-placed teams of each group will advance to the quarterfinals as a high seed, while the third-placed teams will be the low seeds of the quarterfinals.
Finally, the Playoffs will be a single-elimination bracket with all matches being a best-of-three except for the grand finals, which will be a full best-of-five series.
A prize pool of $1 million will be up for grabs in IEM Katowice 2025. Its champions will go home with the grand prize of $400,000, while all teams that qualified to the Group Stage are guaranteed $10,000 in winnings.
