Falcons and MOUZ are going to the Semi-Finals, while FURIA, Astralis, Vitality, and MongolZ will have to make their way through the quarter-finals. Mostly predictable with subtle surprises here, and concluded an exciting final day of the group stage in IEM Chengdu 2025.
Match 1: G2 defeats Virtus.pro
With huNter starting the match in poor health, G2 managed to push VP to overtime, leading before narrowly edging out a win. A match that should have made VP more confident became their last win in the event, as total domination in the following maps from G2, winning Inferno and Dust 2 with 13-9 and 13-1, respectively, made sure G2 survived in Chengdu for the next round.
Match 2: Vitality bullies Lynn Vision
It was a 12-0 start to open up the series, Vitality having slipped against MOUZ earlier in the event. The first map went as expected, with Lynn Vision managing no more than two rounds and letting Vitality close the game with a 13-2 scoreline. Winning Dust 2 effortlessly, Vitality started Nuke in an equally dominant fashion and let no more than 2 rounds go the way of Lynn Vision. The Chinese side did get a 3-0 start in the second half, but that was all they managed before Vitality closed out the game. Quick 2-0 from Vitality knocked out Lynn Vision and secured their playoff qualification match against G2.
Match 3: Spirit outlasts Heroic
A closely tied match in the first half saw Spirit edge out a narrow lead in their defense on Overpass. The second half saw Heroic take back control, and while Spirit remained competitive, Heroic barely pushed the game over the line with a 13-11 scoreline. The second map, Dust 2, began on a similar note, but the regulation failed to separate both teams before the first overtime saw Spirit pull ahead and level the series. The final map, Ancient, began with Spirit speedrunning through the Heroic defense and garnering a massive lead on their T side, and without letting Heroic make a comeback, they closed out the game and secured their spot in the next round of play, eliminating Heroic.
Match 4: MongolZ edged past paiN
paiN started with a convincing offense over MongolZ on their pick of Nuke and built on it to take an early lead in the series. MongolZ hit back with a stride in the following map, Ancient began with the Asian team winning 9 rounds on their defense, which they followed up with 4 in the next half to level the scoreline. paiN hit back in the 3rd map, winning 8 rounds in the defense on Inferno, which MongolZ replicated in the next half to take the game to OT. Winning 4 rounds in OT, MongolZ secured an impressive victory to advance to the next stage.
Match 5: Vitality eliminates a huNter-less G2
The illness from the first game caught up to huNter, leading G2 to play with their coach. With slim chances against the likes of Vitality, huNter’s absence totally broke the momentum of their game. G2’s pick of Train did not yield anything convincing as Vitality ran over them with a 13-6 scoreline. G2 did unexpectedly well in the second game, closing the first half with a levelled scoreline, but failed to close the game as Vitality narrowly secured a 2-0 win to book their spot in the quarter-finals of the game.
Match 6: MOUZ takes down Furia
MOUZ started on a high note, with Furia failing to stop Furia at any point in the game. Winning 10 rounds in the first half, Furia were allowed no more than 3 rounds in the map as MOUZ took an early lead in the series. Furia made a close comeback by the skin of their teeth in the next map to take us to Train. 3rd map saw both teams trading rounds after rounds till the first overtime when MOUZ did not let Furia pull off any surprises to book their spot in the quarter-finals of IEM Chengdu.
Match 7: Falcons outclass Astralis
Starting on Astralis’ pick of Nuke, their offense managed to best Falcons for 6 rounds before closing the half with a levelled scoreline. Falcons brought their A game in their offense with a streak of 7 rounds, and saw them dominate the Astralis defense with a 13-6 win. Mirage started with Falcons winning 8 rounds on their offense, which set the tone of Mirage, and a close match defense made them struggle, but they eventually pulled ahead to secure a semi-finals spot as Astralis head to the quarter-finals.
Match 8: MongolZ shocks Spirit
Starting their own map pick with 4 rounds, Spirit threw some confidence the way of MongolZ to start the series. The lead was capitalised by MongolZ, who did not waste any time in taking away Dust2 from Spirit and going 1-0 up in the series. Spirit levelled the scoreline in the following map in a closely tied affair, where two OTs saw the series go to a 3rd and final map of the day. MongolZ got back to winning ways in Mirage, winning 8 rounds in the offense. They left little room for Spirit to secure a quarter-finals spot, and winning 5 rounds in the second half, they eliminated Donk and his team from Chengdu and booked their spot in the quarter-finals.
G2’s loss can be against the best team in the world, that too with their star IGL out of the roster, which makes this loss unfortunate but justified; however, Spirit’s loss at the hands of MongolZ was anything but acceptable. With or without these top sides, every team in the playoffs deserves to be there, and lucky for us, we get to see some spicy match-ups in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of IEM Chengdu 2025.