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With the IEM Katowice 2025 play-ins concluded, the Counter-Strike world now looks forward to the main event. Esports News UK’s Counter-Strike writer, Darragh Harbinson, takes you through five storylines to look out for as the IEM Katowice 2025 group stage begins on Saturday February 1st.
Can GamerLegion and UK coach ash go even further in Katowice?
GamerLegion advanced to the main event of IEM Katowice in style, dismantling Pain Gaming in a match that avenged their Blast Bounty defeat. The 13-3, 13-5 victory came after a tighter contest against Saw in which NiP veteran, Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner produced a clinic in inferno apartments to deny Saw a single T-round in GamerLegion’s comeback victory.
GamerLegion’s qualification match against Pain saw Oldřich ‘PR’ Novýwith his first true standout performance at tier one, garnering praise from British coach Ash ‘ash’ Battye in the post-match interview.
The British coach praised the 17 year-old’s lurking instincts after a 1.24 HLTV rated performance.
With the invite date to Blast Open Lisbon looming, a strong performance in the group stages might guarantee GamerLegion their spot at yet another tier one event, bolstering their hopes to appear at their fifth consecutive major in Austin.
Mouz begin life after siuhy
Mouz will start their Katowice journey both deprived of their removed leader, and of his replacement Lotan ‘Spinx’ Giladi. They will be playing with academy rifler Adrian ‘xelex’ Vincze as Spinx could not be registered for the event in time.
From an outside perspective, Mouz’s timing is perplexing considering Katowice is one of Counter-Strike’s landmark events. By benching Kamil ‘siuhy’ Szkaradek, they have surrendered the concept of being competitive at the event, but their matches in Katowice will still be fascinating from a viewer’s perspective.
Katowice will be Ludwig ‘Brollan’ Brolin’s first event as IGL. Considering siuhy was removed because of “different visions” for the game, all eyes will be on exactly how Mouz looks different. Ádám ‘torzsi’ Torzsás especially will be an interesting case-study.
The Hungarian AWPer notably flourished under siuhy both at Mouz NXT then in the main roster. torzsi stated that he preferred the micromanagement style of siuhy as opposed to Christopher ‘dexter’ Nong’s less dictatorial form of calling.
With Brollan taking on the IGLing role for the first time, he may not have the mental space to call for his AWPer. If Mouz’s new ‘vision’ is looser, torzsi will have to step up to be an independent star in the roster. The good news for Brollan’s boys is that they will play their first event in a while with no pressure.
Will Group A be the group of family reunions?
With G2, Falcons, Vitality, and Faze all situated in Group A, the group has the potential to reunite several players with their old teammates and orgs.
Following G2’s playoff exit in Shanghai, Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovačleft the org to join Falcons. The move separated him from his cousin, Nemanja ‘huNter-‘ Kovač -, and his young protégé, Ilya ‘m0nesy’Osipov. The parting produced emotional scenes as they went their separate ways.
NiKo shared on social media that he had traveled with his old comrades to Katowice, and if G2 and Falcons win their opening matches, they will be reunited in the server once again.
Likewise, if Faze and Vitality win their openers Faze will find themselves reunited with Robin ‘ropz’ Kool. Despite years of success together the Estonian lurker decided to take up a new challenge playing alongside Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut in Vitality.
With Faze integrating Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski, both teams are still embedding their recently acquired stars but the match still represents a mouthwatering prospect for the group stage.
Spirit and Navi are on a collision course yet again
IEM Katowice 2024 will forever be remembered as the arrival of Danil ‘donk’ Kryshkovets. The rifling sensation produced a record-breaking show of force as Spirit triumphed in the Spodek arena. The teenager could not be stopped by even Valve themselves, as a mid-event patch nerfed peeker’s advantage.
A year on, the Russian rifler seems somehow to be getting even better. In leading Spirit to the Blast Bounty trophy, his MVP performance typified the difficulty teams face in containing donk on the server.
Aleksi ‘aleksib’ Virolainen and Andrey ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy were exalted as Navi’s ‘brain trust’ last year, as they won four tier-one trophies in 2024 including the Copenhagen Major. Still, the pair struggled to find solutions as donk ran over Navi in Spirit’s 2-0 victory over Navi at Blast.
If Navi wants to replicate the success they had in 2024, they will have to find a way to slow the Russian prodigy down sooner rather than later. Sooner may be the operative word as Spirit and Navi sit in the same half of their group bracket.
Navi struggled to put Spirit away even during their historic year, winning just one of the five encounters. If they want to avoid slipping to the lower bracket, they will have to find a way to quiet the untameable donk.
Will the new patch have an effect?
Prior to the start of the play-in stage, ESL announced that Katowice’s group stage would be played on Counter-Strike’s latest patch.
The new patch brings with it some significant changes to CT weaponry, notably buffing the much-maligned FAMAS and nerfing the MP9.
The FAMAS’ price was reduced by $100, dropping to $1,950. It also received significant accuracy buffs both while standing and crouching. The M4A4 has also been discounted by $100, making it the same price as the M4A1-s. Will we see more players switching to the 30-bullet M4A4?
Meanwhile, the MP9, as well as the MP5 and MP7, received a nerf to its crouching accuracy – reducing the gun’s ability to take long-range duels. However, the CS community has been largely sceptical about the effectiveness of nerfing the crouching accuracy of a weapon known for its run-and-gun capabilities.
The AUG and Krieg also benefited from small buffs to their scopes, increasing the zoom and reducing glare on their scopes’ glass.
Related article: 9 UK-based talents share their IEM Katowice 2025 predictions
Darragh Harbinson is a freelance writer specialising in Counter-Strike. He has written for Esports News UK as well as the likes of UKCSGO, Dexerto and Rush B Media.
