IEM Katowice 2025 invites announced

9-1-2025 15:35

Sixteen teams have been put into the first stage and eight are straight through to the second stage.

Spirit will start their IEM Katowice title defense in Stage 2

ESL has announced the 24 teams invited to IEM Katowice, which will take place on January 29-February 9, with 16 going to Stage 1 (what used to be the Play-in), and 8 to Stage 2 (what used to be the group stage).

Among the eight teams invited straight to Stage 2 are the title defenders, Spirit, who won their first Big Event in Katowice in 2024 and saw the birth of a new superstar in Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets.

G2 will also be there, without longtime star rifler Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, who will instead be playing for Falcons. The rest of 2024's big six, Vitality, MOUZ, Natus Vincere, and a FaZe without Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool, will also be there, as well as another breakout team of the year: The MongolZ.

Stage 1, which used to be called the play-in, will have a heavy American presence with Liquid, MIBR, paiN, Complexity, and Wildcard in attendance.

Oceania will be represented by FlyQuest, while European teams Astralis, Eternal Fire, GamerLegion, SAW, BIG, 3DMAX, Virtus.pro, Imperial Valkyries, who dominated the women's scene in 2024 earning enough money to be 23rd in Valve's ranking, and HEROIC round out the list.

HEROIC's berth all but confirms the rumors of the former Sangal trio joining the red and white, as they are in 25th place in Valve's ranking.

Sources: HEROIC close in on Sangal trio

Stage 2

Stage 1

expected as always

2025-01-09 15:37

1 reply

I feel bad for the shitstorm thats gonna hit the Imperial FE players when they lose but its also gonna be really funny when they get shit on because of all the people on twitter hyping them up on twitter saying they can be a top team or they deserve this chance (they got all their points from a closed circuit :DD) Just look at the replies under ESLs tweet, unreal

2025-01-09 16:34

Let's go Imperial FE

188

22 replies

Won't be so enthusiastic after blast bounty, wasted spot thanks to valve's broken ranking system

2025-01-09 15:38

18 replies

Its ok, they will play 1-2-3 max t1 events and they will be out

2025-01-09 15:40

16 replies

the reason why everyone is complaining is because of valve's ranking system, teams like imperial fe should simply not even be invited or ranked higher than top 100, when they aren't even competing with any male esports team

2025-01-09 15:42

5 replies

I know man but theres nothing we can do, atleast we didnt get both them and furia FE, it was gona be cinema then

2025-01-09 15:44

3 replies

yeah but then there is still a chance we get female teams in the next events, this ranking system is a joke

2025-01-09 15:45

2 replies

I hope they fix this problem with getting points from only fe tourneys, thats the only flaw rn, rest is ok i guess

2025-01-09 15:46

From what I understand they already fixed it, I dont think they get no points though but I think price money wont be as much, so I doubt this will be a problem for the next season, only the very start of this one

2025-01-09 16:35

take it as adjustment time, the VRS has only started in 6 month you will only see teams that earned in on way or another.

2025-01-09 18:21

Still, Katowice are iconic place for CS, it's not place for tier5000 teams to get demolished

2025-01-09 15:47

7 replies

I know man im as mad as anyone else here but sadly we cant do shit, maybe of the pros make a thing about it is different

2025-01-09 15:48

Final: Spirit 3 Faze 0 (13-9; 13-10; 13-3). Good thing mens are so competitive all the time (that was the final, by the way). And Mouz battering ENCE (13-5; 13-3) in the group stage. "Iconic".

2025-01-09 16:45

4 replies

hltv.org/matches/2369534/sprout-vs-nigma.. Wow! So brave! team that got destroyed by tier5 roster is going to play at one of the biggest stages in the world! amazing!

2025-01-09 16:49

Delusional fan indeed. That proves anything. mens tier1 if FULL OF BATTERINGS. In finals. In semi-finals. Every single tournament there is at least a team that is destroyed. Like Na'Vi 13-1 Faze in a MAJOR FINAL. You proved shit. Your argument is shit.

2025-01-09 16:57

By your own logic the scores also proves nothing XDDD In every tournament there are at least few close matches, what are you trying to show? That CS tournaments are played or what?

2025-01-09 17:36

At least they are sexy

2025-01-09 18:10

ESL is smart - they know this ranking is shit, but it will inflate their viewership on that event due to all controversy.

2025-01-09 22:32

So they will farm points on female events and get invited again

2025-01-09 17:15

someone said its fixed up in post, hope it is

2025-01-09 17:30

I don't think they replaced anyone important

youtube.com/watch?v=juXIdzXZjSM

2025-01-09 15:41

faceit.com/en/cs2/room/1-c9185d7e-dc80-4.. 0-26 every game let's go

2025-01-09 17:37

will root for them

Heroic with no standing linup and yet get's an invite?

ESL might know more than we do.

2025-01-09 22:36

this valve ranking is a joke

19 replies

yeah why is Astralis here

They have to be here to Start the new Astralis Era :D #ToTheStars!

6 replies

#ToTheDoctor!

2025-01-09 15:43

lmao

Was there earlier. Good times :D can recormend! #ToTheStars!

Having a hard time trusting your ‘recormendations’... but those good times sound convincing. :D

2025-01-09 16:12

Have you eaten all the candies from the small box the doctor gave you though?

2025-01-09 16:19

#tothediddy

2025-01-09 19:45

yeah why is mouz there

2025-01-09 15:39

flag + flair, sad no sweedish teams exist?

2 of the teams have 2 swedish players and there is a swedish team heroic, they will have the swedish flag next to them and where are your slovakian teams?

sorry, relevant swedish teams? if you havent noticed, we suck (some exception here or there)

2025-01-09 15:49

What's wrong? Other than Imperial Fe

exactly that, also i wander what happens to teams with no teams at the moment (heroic, failclowns)

They're invited according to core players, Falclowns is in stage 2 thanks to heroic ranking, and Heroic in stage 1 thanks to sangal ranking

is falcons and heroic even official already?

has to be since heroic is at sangals spot

Falcons is. Heroic isn't. Heroic is just empty right now as sjuush left

For the public - no. For TOs - they already probably have all the info from orgs themselves.

2025-01-09 16:03

imperial fe can beat astralis, easily

8 replies

shit is gonna be Vaevictis vs Vega Squadron of CS, come back here in 3 weeks

2025-01-09 16:11

XDDDDDDD

2025-01-09 17:40

you know its true

2025-01-09 17:45

faceit.com/en/cs2/room/1-c9185d7e-dc80-4.. LOL

2025-01-09 17:47

you're the one who can't take a joke and astralis is the team that shouldn't be in the top 30 (not a joke)

cope, what has draken been up to ever since he got kicked from nip?

2025-01-09 17:48

went to like 10 different teams, went to valorant for a year and i know you don't want an actual answer, but he had a really good 2024 i predict he'll be picked up by some tier 3 team within a month or 2

2025-01-09 17:56

My guy is changing is flair and flag more often than I fart

2025-01-09 19:46

Falcons lmao

im surprised too WTF

2025-01-09 16:15

Formerly Heroic

2025-01-09 18:18

not the first time they buy players from high ranked teams, get the invites and then prove it to everyone that they were wasted by doing shit on the tournaments.

2025-01-10 02:23

Astra lul

Let's see how Imperial will perform.

"HEROIC have acquired majority roster of Sangal Esports (VRS Rank 25), and are the next eligible VRS team to replace FURIA FE." lmao the IEM blogpost confirmed the leaks xd

They needed to inform the officials to get the invite anyways

IMPERIAL FE LETS GO, SLAY QUEENS!!

They will bomb out crash and burn and you will be sent to tier 5000000000000000 million pisslow with the rest of them

i dont care lmao, it will be fun to watch even if they get stomped 13-0 in every game.

imperial fe here. I used to pray for times like this.

HEROIC 🗿

where is kyousuke

Imperial FE wasting 1 spot for 1 of the 4 biggest tournaments of the year is inexcusable. I'm ok with them testing themselves in Blast Bounty. But Katowice is different. Season needs to start to fix this joke of a ranking. At least in that regard.

12 replies

flair checks out

I know it's a joke, but it has nothing to do with my flair. I was well aware Fnatic wouldn't be playing these tournaments at the start of the season. At Katowice, I want to see the 24 best possible teams according to their performance. Imperial FE is not 1 of them. They're benefiting from the system's flaws and that hinders the tournament. The positive side is that in Fantasy I know I'm picking at least 1 player from the team that faces Imperial FE.

What notable team deserves to be their over them? NIP doesn't deserve a spot after last year..

9 replies

I'm not playing this game. They didn't compete on the same field as the other 23 teams. They're only in because valve ranking it's a joke and doesn't care about that fact. I wouldn't have any issues if they did and proved to be better than "Nip" or any other team left out that actually had to battle against the other 23 teams to ear their points.

2025-01-09 15:52

They might as well get a shot while the season is fresh. If they don't stay competitive they'll be filtered out come summer. It's fine.

The shot is called Blast Bounty. Not Katowice.

2025-01-09 15:58

every team in ESEA advanced and 90% of ESEA Main teams

2025-01-09 15:54

imperial main squad for example

2025-01-09 16:08

Literally every team from top 80 deserve it more than this

2025-01-09 16:41

Mate are you fr? I'm all for female counter-strike, I'm pretty sad impact leagues are dying but be serious, imperial fe didn't face a single top-20 team ever since valve released their ranking, yet they somehow are ranked 23 in the world and get invites over other teams. Yes those are tier-3 teams like nemiga who would've gotten the last slot if not for the girlies, but this is a team that made the rmr, played on multiple international LANs facing top-5 teams even. Imperial fe earned their points in a closed circuit among the teams that never even managed to get through open qualifiers. Nip are garbage, however they at least faced top-tier opponents, won against plenty of top-20 teams and that alone makes them more eligible for the invite. It's unacceptable when you use this broken system to decide invites for one of the most prestigious events in cs history. Developing female counter-strike is important, however hurting the lower tier teams who will already be having a hard time with the new invite system by doing this is straight up stupid. The orgs and TOs aren't willing to develop female cs, since it's unprofitable, so why the hell should tier-3 developing teams be taking an L and losing out on oh so important LAN experience for this development? Misogyny and insane toxicity towards women makes going pro for them insanely hard, that much is obvious, but should random developing teams really be paying reparations by losing out on the slots they obviously deserve more just by looking at the strength of the teams they've faced? Let me make an example, since Nemiga are the one who lost out on the slot let's imagine it happened last year and their Chengdu slot was taken the same way. Fl4mus wouldn't have caught the attention of ash, he'd never get poached to GL, wouldn't have a great major run that'd secure him a spot at VP. Yeah, maybe it doesn't seem meaningful, maybe he'd eventually find a place on a solid team but every time a slot is wasted like that it could rob us of a potential tier-1 player. I understand your desire to support female cs, but thinking the integrity of competition should be above everything.

2025-01-09 17:01

Just curious... how did you feel about Drillas in Asia RMR?

2025-01-09 18:48

Even nip gona destroy imperial fe

2025-01-10 01:52

3DMAX letsgoooo

i won't even say that it's a joke

lets go cant wait to see womens getting stomped 13-0 by anyone

How many teams will imp fe take down? Over/Under 2? I think they have a chance against a couple of them in the stage.

Dont think so, itll be great if they win a map over 2 matches

You think they will win a map?

2025-01-09 16:33

They wont even win a round

2025-01-10 01:26

Last 2 times they played someone outside their space it ended up like this. So, who is worse here than this version of Sprout, Sampi or 500? hltv.org/matches/2369534/sprout-vs-nigma.. hltv.org/matches/2369631/sampi-vs-nigma-.. hltv.org/matches/2369664/500-vs-pigeons-..

2025-01-09 16:09

2025-01-09 16:13

i will put my car, apt, life savings, max my cards and go all in on unders.

2025-01-09 23:21

rEZ will turn his 2000B.C Oakland form into Katowice 2025 form, mark my words

I actually could lile imperial fe to actually make a decent run but seems too hard Gl zaaz

I will be there

@LucasAM you got stage 1 and stage 2 mixed up in the post

imperial fe strikes again holy based

Wow heroic getting invited without a roster, thats amazing!

Its sangals invite, it just means heroic have indeed signed that core.

2025-01-09 16:06

The Stage 1 and 2 are backwards in the team list bottom of the article

2025-01-09 15:50

it is farce that private leagues (all-women tournaments) can award vrs

@LucasAM Just a note, on the team list the Stage 1 teams are actually Stage 2 teams and the Stage 2 teams are Stage 1 teams. (Please delete this comment after correction ;-) )

2025-01-09 15:51

Fixed, cheers.

2025-01-09 16:04

ez for goat donk and spirit

2025-01-09 15:56

Excited to see how Imperial fe will do on LAN against male teams, I wish them only good luck.

2025-01-09 15:57

Women roster? Falcons in stage 2 instead of Liquid? What are you smoking?

Heroic core in stage 2 instead of liquid*

2025-01-09 16:00

falcons bought heroic vrs, and heroic were above liquid

2025-01-09 16:02

Idk i still think it’s incorrect to put teams in stages like that, we don’t know how new Falcons lineup gonna perform, I think direct invites had been more correct

2025-01-09 16:30

not sure what you mean with direct invites here. if you mean like having a big group stage for 32 players, like big mcmahon/swiss to seed the play-offs, then i agree.

2025-01-09 16:32

Imperial FE Pog

ANa: stats vs top 50 opponents - (0 maps) tory: stats vs top 50 opponents - (0 maps) twenty3: stats vs top 50 opponents - (0 maps) Kat: stats vs top 50 opponents - (0 maps) zAAz: stats vs top 50 opponents - 0.74 (22maps) stats vs top 30 opponents - 0.78 (14maps) stats vs top 20 opponents - 0.75 (3maps) stats vs top 10 opponents - 0.61 (1map)

2025-01-09 16:01

youtu.be/z0NttbSWnr8 lost to a guy with 1.5 arm

2025-01-11 03:19

Heroic have Sangals invite, this means Heroic has indeed signed the sangal core. Wonder why its taking so long to announce it though.

2025-01-09 16:05

Still deciding om fifth i guess

imperial fe.. this gonna be interesting

2025-01-09 16:28

Lol just invite them to the Major as well should just give the whole game to them

2025-01-09 16:31

Queens!

2025-01-09 16:37

Heroic? Do they even have the players?

2025-01-09 16:36

If they didn't announce it to the public it doesn't mean they did not submit this info to TOs

Soooo many teams without 5 players (or even players at all) atm :D

2025-01-09 16:43

Why is imperial fe on this???

they fought hard enough to be considered high enough to be there, in valve's eyes, so wrong question. the right one is: how are falcons in stage 2?

2025-01-09 17:27

because of Niko, Kyxsan, Degster, and Teses being in the playoffs in the major. And there's better T2 teams than imperial fe, if you going to add a female team to this, they gonna get swept. At least put the former Navi Javelins team in here

2025-01-09 17:31

Lol volvo and their broken ranking

2025-01-09 16:53

Nice. Donk can 1vs5 imperial fe.

2025-01-09 17:09

We remove partnered teams and falcons still use their money to buy themselves an invite with spending so much money acquiring a top8 team that very few other orgs could even do.

2025-01-09 17:13

someone explain to me, how are falcons in st2?

2025-01-09 17:25

they bought an already existing core so got points that way

2025-01-09 19:30

Imperial fe should give the spot to 9z, so i can see EL TORO NADOTTI, dominates the cs2 scene.

true

2025-01-09 18:00

faceit.com/en/cs2/room/1-c9185d7e-dc80-4..

imperial losing a scrim to a tier 5000 team XDDD they even had bubble playing there mf coach and he 2nd top fragged

2025-01-10 04:30

falcons in top :xD

2025-01-09 17:41

I hope the “fe” team makes it legitimately competitive without the dudes playing down… Not trying to start an argument or debate. Legitimately hope they make it competitive so that some of this silly talk stops. (Btw I don’t think they will so…) Just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

2025-01-09 17:51

Shame couldn't get Falcons vs imperial fe matchup

Any gender restricted tournament should have never been part of the VRS, Valve can seriously fuck off with that. Wasn't the whole point of the VRS and Valve barging in with the subtlety of a sledgehammer wielding drunk to dismantle closed circuits? Yet the female restricted events are somehow still fine, even though the only thing they achieved is freezing the FE scene at the level of mid-tier Faceit match...

2025-01-09 17:52