ESL officially confirmed: IEM Cologne 2025 will be held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany from July 23 to August 3. This top event, known as the “sister version of CS2 Katowice”, will welcome 24 world-class teams to compete for a prize pool of 1,250,000 US dollars and legendary status.
This event not only continues the S-tier standard, but also upgrades the competition system allocation and participation mechanism, highlighting ESL and Valve’s dual pursuit of fairness and competitive status.
Qualification is based on Valve rankings
ESL confirmed: This tournament will no longer have traditional regional qualifiers. All invitation qualifications are based on the Valve Regional Rankings (VRS) updated in June 2025, covering the five major regions of Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania.
This ranking system is promoted by Valve, taking into account factors such as recent tournament results, opponent strength, and game frequency, which can better reflect the team’s true competitive status.
According to official information, the top 24 teams have all accepted invitations to participate. This means that whether it is an old giant such as NAVI, FaZe, or a regional dark horse such as The MongolZ, as long as they are in good shape and meet the points requirements, they can enter the global stage. 24 teams’ competition system distribution at a glance
IEM Cologne 2025 adopts a three-stage competition system:
1. Play-In
Time: July 23-July 25
Teams: 16 (16th in VRS ranking)
System: Double elimination, BO3, top 8 advance to group stage
2. Group Stage
Time: July 26-July 30
Teams: 8 directly invited + 8 advanced from Play-In
Grouping: Two groups of double elimination, first round BO1, the rest BO3
Qualifying: Top 3 in each group advance to the knockout stage, first place directly enters the semi-finals
3. Knockout (Playoffs)
Time: August 1-August 3
System: Single elimination, BO3 semi-finals + BO5 Finals
Location: Lanxess Arena, offline audiences return to the scene
Prize and ESL points incentives
Total prize money: $1,250,000 USD
Champion reward: $400,000 + IEM Cologne championship trophy
Other rewards: high ESL Pro Tour ranking points (affecting the qualification for EPL and IEM Winter)
This event structure not only improves the competitive gold content, but also lays a strategic foundation for the team’s subsequent journey in the season.
New regional forces are worth paying attention to
One of the biggest highlights of this event is that the application of the VRS system has brought more “new blood”. For example:
The MongolZ (Mongolia): continuously dominated the Asian events, and entered the IEM Cologne main event for the first time after a significant increase in ranking;
FlyQuest (North America): With a wave of consecutive wins in the spring event, it advanced into the top 24 in the world and successfully grabbed a seat;
9z (South America): showed a more stable state than before, and its ranking rose after defeating old rivals such as MIBR and Imperial.
The participation of these teams not only breaks the monopoly of Europe and the United States, but also improves the diversity and viewing of the competition.
IEM Cologne 2025 is full of highlights, and the war is about to ignite
IEM Cologne 2025 will undoubtedly be one of the most watched events in the second half of CS2. From the ranking logic of the qualification to the detailed division of the schedule, to the leap of regional upstarts, all this indicates that this will not be a game won by fame, but a head-to-head competition between the best teams.
As July approaches, the team’s preparations have been fully launched. Who will take over the throne of past champions such as ENCE, G2, and FaZe? Who will become the biggest dark horse of this event? All the answers will be revealed in the gunfire of Cologne.
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