CS2 IEM Melbourne 2025: All teams, schedule, where to watch, and more

The CS2 IEM Melbourne 2025 is about to commence at the Rod Laver Arena, where 16 teams from different regions will fight for the Intel Extreme Masters Trophy. While Team Vitality will enter this tournament as defending champions, other top-tier teams will try to dethrone them with their new strategies. The event has a prize pool of $300,000 and is scheduled to start on April 21, 2025.

Read on for all the essential details of IEM Melbourne 2025, including its schedule, prize pool distribution, and participating teams.

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CS2 teams participating in IEM Melbourne 2025

Here's a list of all the CS2 teams participating in the tournament based on their Valve Regional Standings (VRS):

VRS Europe

• Team Spirit (chopper, magixx, zont1x, donk, sh1ro)
• Team Vitality (apEX, ZywOo, flameZ, mezii, ropz)

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VRS Americas

• Team Liquid (NAF, Twistzz, ultimate, NertZ. siuhy)
• paiN Gaming (biguzera, nqz, snow, dav1deus, TBD)

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VRS Asia

• The MongolZ (bLitz, Techno4K, 910, mzinho, Senzu)
• FlyQuest (INS, Liazz, Vexite, regali, nettik)

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VRS Global

• FaZe Clan (rain, broky, karrigan, frozen, EliGE)
• Natus Vincere (b1t, Aleksib, jL, iM, w0nderful)
• MOUZ (torzsi, xertioN, Jimpphat, Brollam, Spinx)
• Team Falcons (Magisk, NiKo, TeSeS, kyxsan, degster)
• Virtus.pro (FL1T, fame, electroNic, FL4MUS, ICY)
• GamerLegion (sl3nd, ztr, Tauson, PR, REZ)
• 3DMAX (Lucky, Ex3rcice, Maka, Graviti, boddy)
• MIBR (exit, brnz4n, insani, saffee, Lucaozy)
• BIG (tabseN, Krimbo, JDC, kyuubii, hyped)
• SAW (MUTiRiS, story, Ag1l, AZUWU, cej0t)

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IEM Melbourne 2025: Schedule, format, and prize pool

Teams participating in the Melbourne 2025 tourney (Image via ESL)

Here's the full schedule of IEM Melbourne 2025:

Group Stage (April 21 to 24, 2025)

Group A

Upper Bracket Quarterfinals

• TBD vs TBD*

Lower Bracket Quarterfinals

• TBD vs TBD*

Upper Bracket Semifinals

• TBD vs TBD*

Lower Bracket Semifinals

• TBD vs TBD*

Upper Bracket Final

• TBD vs TBD*

Lower Bracket Final

• TBD vs TBD*

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Group B

Upper Bracket Quarterfinals

• TBD vs TBD*

Lower Bracket Quarterfinals

• TBD vs TBD*

Upper Bracket Semifinals

• TBD vs TBD*

Lower Bracket Semifinals

• TBD vs TBD*

Upper Bracket Final

• TBD vs TBD*

Lower Bracket Final

• TBD vs TBD*

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Playoffs (April 25 to 27, 2025)

Quarterfinals

• Group B 2nd Place vs Group A 3rd Place*:
• Group A 2nd Place vs Group B 3rd Place*:

Semfinals

• Group A 1st Place vs TBD*:
• Group B 1st Place vs TBD*:

Grand Final

• TBD vs TBD*

Note: We'll update the (*) part once the organizers reveal the official schedule.

Like most Intel Extreme Masters tournaments, Melbourne 2025 will follow the standard Two-doulbe-elimination (GSL) format where 16 teams will be divided into two groups of eight. Each match will follow the Bo3 (best-of-three) format.

Talking about the qualification criteria, both teams holding top positions from the two groups will directly advance to the Semifinals stage. Meanwhile, the runners-up from each group will secure their ticket to the Quarterfinals with high seeds, and the third-place holders will qualify for the same with low seeds.

Coming to the Playoffs stage, the tournament will follow the standard single-elimination bracket, where all the matches except the Grand Final will follow a best-of-three (BO3) format, and the concluding match will be of best-of-five (BO5) to decide the winner.

IEM Melbourne 2025 features a $300,000 prize pool. It'll be distributed among all the 16 participating teams. Here's a detailed breakdown of the reward:

Place	$USD	Participant
1st	$125,000	TBD
2nd	$50,000	TBD
3rd-4th	$25,000	TBD, TBD
5th-6th	$12,500	TBD, TBD
7th-8th	$7,000	TBD, TBD
9th-12th	$5,000	TBD, TBD, TBD
13th-16th	$4,000	TBD, TBD, TBD

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IEM Melbourne 2025 live stream: Where to watch

Navigate to ESL Counter Strike's official YouTube and Twitch channels to enjoy the English stream of the Melbourne 2025 tournament.

• To watch the IEM Melbourne 2025 stream on YouTube: Click here
• To watch the IEM Melbourne 2025 stream on Twitch: Click here

That's everything we now so far on the upcoming Intel Extreme Masters tournament after IEM Katowice 2025.

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