IEM Katowice 2025 teams, format, schedule, prizes, talent, fantasy

27-1-2025 12:15

The first arena tournament of the year is upon as Spodek will soon open its doors to the best teams in the world.

IEM Katowice 2025 starts on January 29

Teams and format

IEM Katowice will feature 24 teams, all determined by the Valve Regional Standings. The eight highest-ranked sides will skip the first stage and enter the tournament directly in the group stage.

Stage 1 will be a three-day double-elimination bracket featuring 16 teams, who will vie for eight stops in Stage 2.

Spirit are the reigning Katowice champions

The top 16 teams will then be split into two double-elimination groups, which will determine the six teams qualifying for the single-elimination playoffs.

All matches will be played in a best-of-three format except the grand final, which will be a best-of-five affair.

Stage 1 Teams

Stage 2 Teams

Schedule and venues

Both Stage 1 and the group stage will be played behind closed doors before the Spodek Arena opens its doors to the public for the playoffs during the final three days of the event.

You can find the schedule for the first round of stage 1 below:

Date	Matches
IEM Katowice 2025 Play-in
29/01/2025	3DMAX 10:30 FlyQuest	Match
29/01/2025	paiN 10:30 Virtus.pro	Match
29/01/2025	Astralis 13:00 MIBR	Match
29/01/2025	SAW 13:00 GamerLegion	Match
29/01/2025	Wildcard 15:35 BIG	Match
29/01/2025	Imperial Valkyries 16:15 FURIA	Match
29/01/2025	Complexity 18:00 Eternal Fire	Match
29/01/2025	Liquid 18:55 HEROIC	Match

For the full Stage 1 schedule beyond the opening round, click here.

Prizes

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

In addition to the $1 million prize pool, there will be $250,000 on the line in the form of club rewards.

Club financial incentives introduced as ESL reveals more EPT details

Broadcast talent

Stage hosts

Oliver "⁠OJ Borg⁠" D'Anastasi
Iain Chambers

Desk hosts

Tres "⁠stunna⁠" Saranthus
Freya "⁠Freya⁠" Spiers
Eefje "⁠sjokz⁠" Depoortere
James "⁠BanKs⁠" Banks

Analysts

Janko "⁠YNk⁠" Paunović
Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche
Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan
Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović

Commentators

Alex "⁠Machine⁠" Richardson
Chad "⁠SPUNJ⁠" Burchill
Harry "⁠JustHarry⁠" Russell
Hugo "⁠Hugo⁠" Byron
Adam "⁠Dinko⁠" Hawthorne
Jason "⁠moses⁠" O'Toole
Conner "⁠Scrawny⁠" Girvan
Mohan "⁠launders⁠" Govindasamy

Fantasy

The fantasy game for Stage 1 of IEM Katowice is now live, and you can make your team here. The game will have season points and the following prizes by Chicken.GG:

1. Hydra Gloves | Emerald (Field-Tested)
2. AK-47 | Asiimov (Field-Tested)
3. M4A1-S | Hyper Beast (Field-Tested)

New fantasy season starts with $10,000 in prizes

Did anders retire?

2025-01-27 12:17

5 replies

Still friends, not retired!

2025-01-27 12:25

189

3 replies

GOAT!

2025-01-27 12:30

Missing that subtle humor We need 'Return of the King'

2025-01-27 15:41

Need you and HenryG casting, miss you guys.

2025-01-27 16:13

cct

2025-01-27 12:29

Spirit won IEM Katowice 2025.

2025-01-27 12:18

2 replies

Yeah too bad it was yet another boring one-sided final just like in Blast.

2025-01-27 12:28

1 reply

Spirit's one-sided victory.

2025-01-27 13:19

kassad there? we will not be watching

2025-01-27 12:20

who’s WE??

2025-01-27 13:43

No Anders "I've never seen anything like this" Blume :'(

you've got to be kidding me! again! and again and again!

2025-01-27 19:03

EZ4 Imperial !!

2025-01-27 12:22

I really start to miss anders

waiting for mongolz :3

2025-01-27 12:26

No BiBiBoombI4, it's sad.

Yes he and his teams always fun to watch, win or lose We won't see him but there will be GL, SAW, Imperial fe and 3DMAX :(

2025-01-27 16:11

Imperial fe is nice to see, blyat. They are playing very well and good looking. Need more invite for them on tier 1 tournaments.

2025-01-27 16:44

Yes they are playing well but still tier3 and their games are closer to showmatches than they are to tier 1/1.5 CS like you'd expect a Kato game to be. While you're right that they are good looking, it's not the point of their presence and there's a good chance these player themselves would find it degrading for you to suggest it is. Not an imperial fe hater btw and I'm content with their presence. All I was saying ks BetBoom and Boombl4 would likely deliver a better CS game than Imperial fe, without singling them out either as I listed other teams.

2025-01-27 17:10

imagine they had maui instead of steel. worst analysts line-up OAT

2025-01-27 12:31

*best

2025-01-27 12:46

Falcons Stage 2 ahahah

2025-01-27 12:32

Smartest Finn to surface the planet earth.

2025-01-27 13:44

Lets go

Oj Borg finally

2025-01-27 12:40

who is that I don't know him xD

2025-01-27 13:41

OJ "hype 'em up" Borg. He does nothing but present the teams and hype the crowd. That kind of sounds like negative feedback from me, but I think he is trying too hard when the crowd is not "there". Same thing could have been executed by BanKs, so in the end its a waste of money.

2025-01-27 15:53

ah i can't wait, Katowice is always so fun

2025-01-27 12:48

Why Falcons Stage 2? Did they win anything?

2025-01-27 13:09

they got ex-heroic core and their vrs points

2025-01-27 13:24

Where is HenryG and Anders?

2025-01-27 13:16

hosnestly, kassad? I would rather see thorin than him here. kassad only yaps whitout any data behind it. (pure hater)

2025-01-27 13:29

To be fair, so does thorin. I would rather have dupreeh again, and more consistently too.

2025-01-27 15:42

If we're to have a somewhat-hater, I'd rather have Maui than either of these two. And I'm not a Maui fan and I find his valley girl accent tiring. But STILL doesn't grate your ears as much as the other two boomer clowns as he can at least laugh and smile a bit and makes valid points on a regular basis even if sometimes randomly hates or tries too hard to have a hot take