Vitality Sweeps Spirit in IEM Katowice 2025 Grand Finale

For Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) esports fans, the weekend of February 7 to 9 was filled with action thanks to the IEM Katowice 2025 playoffs at the iconic Spodek Arena in Poland. After a wonky group stage, Team Spirit (currently considered the best squad in the world) got off to a solid start, making quick work of Virtus.pro with a clean 2-0 in the Quarterfinals.

The defending champions, Team Spirit, then went on to beat and eliminate NAVI with a 2-0, where the second map required overtime, to earn a spot in the Grand Final of IEM Katowice 2025.

Team Vitality topped their group and, therefore, started the Playoffs in the Semifinals. They beat The MongolZ with a solid 2-0 victory to earn a spot in the Grand Final.

In front of a live crowd at IEM Katowice 2025, Team Spirit played Team Vitality in a best-of-five match. Team Vitality got off to a strong start on Dust2 (Spirit's pick) for a first-half 7-5 lead and then shocked Spirit with a near-perfect T-side (6-1) to claim the first map with a score of 13-6.

On Vitality's map pick of Nuke, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire men didn't slow down at all. While Nuke is considered CT-sided at the highest levels of competition, that didn't stop Vitality from earning an 8-4 lead in the first half, which they extended swiftly in the second half to win the map 13-5, putting themselves on series and tournament point.

On the third map, Mirage, Team Vitality again took an early and commanding lead (8-4) on the CT side. Despite Team Spirit fighting back with vigor in the second half, Team Vitality managed to avoid overtime and secure a 13-11 win and a 3-0 clean sweep at the IEM Katowice 2025 grand finale!

Congratulations to Team Vitality for winning IEM Katowice 2025, claiming the coveted trophy, and the first-place prize of $400,000. For their efforts as defending champions and a second-place finish, Team Spirit limps away with $180,000 in prize money.

It's Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool's first trophy with Team Vitality after joining from FaZe Clan at the start of the season, and it definitely won't be his last. The Chosen One, aka Team Vitality's AWPer Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, picked up the MVP award, putting himself in a tied position (21) with Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev for most MVP awards.

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