s1mple goes for $200k and new booster set to debut in IEM Dallas groups fantasy

19-5-2025 10:41

A new booster is being introduced with IEM Dallas 2025 fantasy.

s1mple makes his debut with FaZe at IEM Dallas

New booster: Skin in the game

With the help of our partner Skin.Club, we’re introducing a new booster to fantasy: Skin in the game. The booster allows you to get even further invested in match outcomes by doubling the team points a player receives based on the outcome of a game: +6 points in case of a win, and -3 points in case of a loss.

This booster is set to affect the booster strategies for players of favorite teams, leaving more boosters to be used on other players. By being straightforward in its application, the booster’s purpose is get fantasy players to reflect on a team’s prospects and account for that when assembling their teams.

IEM Dallas 2025 - Group Stage

Format

You can create your teams on the Fantasy page here.
This game only includes the group stage. The game for playoffs will go live when the group stage concludes.
Two eight-team double-elimination groups.
All matches are BO3.

Teams

Things to note 

Teams reaching the upper final get one round of padding.
Aleksandar "⁠CacaNito⁠" Kjulukoski replaced Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy on BC.Game and inherited his price.
Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros will be standing in for Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard for an unknown number of games at this event. rain remains available to be picked as is as he might join the team for the majority of the group stage.

Player prices & pick stats

Due to Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev being a largely unknown quantity due to his prolonged absence and FaZe’s shakiness, we decided to put a rather affordable price tag of $200k on him despite him being a renowned star player. What wasn’t considered at the time, but will definitely affect the Ukrainian’s prospects, is rain being replaced by skullz for at least part of the tournament.
Vitality’s pricing reflects their clear-cut status of front-runner for the event. At $250k, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut goes for as much as Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets went for at PGL Astana, where he was a part of the winning team despite the hefty price tag.
A notable budget pick is Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek who goes for a mere $172k while his team is among the eight highest-ranked teams in attendance, putting them among the playoff conversation, at least on paper.

Prizes 

Users can count on both season points and skin prizes, sponsored by Skin.Club, as follows.

Hydra Gloves | Rattler (Field-Tested)

AWP | Hyper Beast (Field-Tested)

M4A1-S | Hyper Beast (Field-Tested)

why not 50k

2025-05-19 10:41

skin in the game not based on the price of players skins?

5 replies

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/engl..

2025-05-19 10:45

3 replies

do not cite the dictionary to me witch, i was there when it was written also it would be a better pun

2025-05-19 10:46

2 replies

While the pun would be cool, giving more power to skincells is not better.

2025-05-19 10:58

1 reply

it sucks to be poor

2025-05-19 14:12

Elige would give no points for the booster

Boring AF booster. How was nobody able to come up with something more interesting lol

2025-05-19 10:44

the classic critisize but not offering an alternative comment

2025-05-19 13:50

Yes, because I work at HLTV and my job is to come up with booster ideas for gambling sponsors? But anyone can come up with something more interesting than that, like big boosters for aces, one deags, ninja defuses etc, or points for missplays or chokes etc. The chicken out booster was a lot better and offered more tactics for fantasy, so maybe something with that, like a booster that halves all of the points for the rest of game for player etc. I expect payment by the end of the month.

2025-05-19 15:26

More tactics aka pick 170k bronze to afford 240k donk

2025-05-19 15:56

Double?

I still dont get it

TL:DR Without Booster: +6 Team Points for Win, -3 Team Points for Loss With Booster: +12 Team Points for Win, -6 Team Points for Loss So if you feel confident the team your player is in will win, slap that booster on for x2 points

2025-05-19 10:56

4 replies

Fuck, chicken out was better

2025-05-19 11:19

nah now u need to be more careful picking players instead of just taking the cheapest one for 160k and using chicken booster

2025-05-19 11:43

It was not only to mitigate low picks, you could also use them to avoid loss when two teams you picked encounter

2025-05-19 12:04

Thank you so much brotharihno

200k is generous

2025-05-19 10:49

If S1mple could perform decently at dysfunctional Falcons, i'm sure he can provide better Broky numbers at Faze, so 200k seems like a good price

2025-05-19 12:26

steal

2025-05-19 10:53

I'll miss chicken out. Most IGLs become useless once again for fantasy. And it helped playing more teams from the middle pack. I get Vitality's group is easier on paper, but Zywoo being the same price as Donk at Astana is crazy. I was OK with Donk's price, but Zywoo is not making Donk ratings on the regular (because Ropz, Flamez, and even Mezzi can pop up). Lastly, the IGL role should be integrated into the team's points. What I mean is that winning 2-0 or losing 1-2 should affect the team's points. That way, the new booster has higher stakes.

2025-05-19 10:55

Actually decent take on the IGL role. If it increased/decreased the points that we get for that IGL's team winning /losing, which can then be doubled both ways by the booster. This would make taking an IGL you are confident will win worth it because, even if he will lose points in later matches having low ratings (as IGLs normally do) you would have that initial buffer of points you got from his win you predicted,

2025-05-19 12:31

Zywoo is that much coz 5 mvps in a row I imagine. I don’t really play fantasy but I’d guess you get more points for mvp so if he’s gonna get a 6th in a row it’s maybe worth it?

2025-05-19 16:24

The following might sound bad, but it's totally friendly: I would suggest not answering if you don't play fantasy and, therefore, don't understand the complaint about his price. It's not about his achievements.

2025-05-19 16:57

Friendly would be to just ignore or to explain what’s wrong about what I said. What you send is just condescending.

2025-05-19 18:29

It's totally friendly, because despite putting the explanation on my original post, and you stating you don't play fantasy but still made a statement, I tried to make it clear I wasn't trying to be a douch with my words. You could have just been like, "I don't play fantasy, could you explain further why you think Zywoo prize is wrong?" Then my answer would be different. I'll extend my answer. You have 1M to spend on a fantasy to make a team of five players. 250K means you'll have to pick players that will likely perform badly and/or will get eliminated sooner. Donk is ok because he's having performances that equate the ones from 2 good players. hltv.org/fantasy/535/league/191423/team/.. Everybody knows Zywoo is the best player in this tournament, that he's having a great season, and he's playing in a bracket where Vitality shouldn't have many issues winning. But with Zywoo, it's not worth it. Especially in groups (There are fantasies for groups and playoffs). Vitality is playing on a level where he's not always the best player in a fantasy, or he doesn't provide enough points to upset picking 2 other Vitality players and having more money to make a better team overall. gyazo.com/7dd544617b9dcbae055708260f40d8.. It's not the full bo3, but it's to give you an idea. With Donk, it's really rare not to see him as the top-rated with +1.40 That's why I don't think the prizes are adjusted correctly. He isn't the only player overpriced on this fantasy, but they're making him unpickable if you are aiming for high places.

2025-05-19 22:28

S1mple=G.O.A.T.

2025-05-19 11:46

2025-05-19 17:43

How about the other changes as well? Mr. Consistent is harder to hit than quad or knife sometimes, or make it a bit lower idk. Even players like donk with insane kpr don't trigger it

2025-05-19 12:07

It definitely feels like it triggers less than quads. I usually stay away from it until towards the end of the tourneys because even when I put it on my best players against the worst teams it’s like a 20% chance of hitting. Idk wtf they do but the algorithm for how they calculate kast seems scuffed for it

2025-05-19 16:29

Yeah, yesterday on Nuke donk was 27-14 and 82.6% KAST and zont1x 19-15 with 87, that's not only being good, but being lucky af. They should add some bonus rating for multis, entries with no trade etc., or it's just irrelevant

2025-05-19 16:33

Yeah I really like the entries with no trade one that’s a solid idea. Maybe even factor in damage taken/given per round if you wanna get real crazy

2025-05-19 16:39

Guys I haven't played much fantasy so far, what are good strategies?

2025-05-19 12:18

It's going to be EZ 4 S0mple Also, please yes, do more changes, like I don't know, I feel like there are a few that either never happen, or rarely happen, like Rambo.

2025-05-19 12:19

tbh very interesting Fantasy. You can go with NPC team or you can build teams with a multitude of budget options out of which some will definitely perform better than the Kyxan, Brollans etc. Especially in GroupA.

2025-05-19 13:08