IEM Dallas 2025 Viewer Guide

The Pro Counter-Strike continues: Intel Master Extremes kicks off this May. The battlefield will be North America. A new race for gold bars begins here. Sixteen top teams will compete for the championship title and one of the biggest prizes in CS2 tournaments. Our IEM Dallas Viewer Guide includes the match schedule, analysis, and all the details.

IEM Dallas 2025 – Format and Prize Pool

IEM Dallas 2025 will take place from May 19th to May 25th in Dallas, Texas, featuring 16 teams from around the world. The event offers a $1,000,000 USD prize pool and serves as the first stop of ESL Pro Tour’s Grand Slam Season 6. The format includes a double-elimination Group Stage with two groups of eight teams, followed by a single-elimination Playoff bracket. All matches are played in Best-of-3, except for the Grand Final, which will be a Best-of-5 series.

IEM Dallas 2025: Schedule

Group A opens the fight on Monday night with four matches across three continents. Group B joins the action at the exact same time, packed with firepower from both sides of the Atlantic. Eight matches, one night, and the start of a new chapter in CS2 history.

Why is this a new chapter? Because of the Grand Slam 2025 new race!

ESL Grand Slam New Season Event

What is ESL Grand Slam?

In CS2, there’s a popular term known as a “team era” — a period when a team dominates the competition, wins trophies, builds a massive fanbase, and etches its name into history. That’s exactly why ESL is now running the sixth season of its champion’s race. The ESL Grand Slam is a chain of four major tournaments to highlight these eras with rich bounties. If a team wins all of them, it earns what’s called a “meta victory” — a bonus prize of one million dollars, handed out in the form of gold bars.

This so-called bounty is awarded on stage, alongside the trophy of the fourth and final tournament. The most recent moment like this happened at IEM Melbourne 2025, where Vitality pulled off an insane comeback on the fifth map against Falcons to claim the win.

The Grand Slam events of Season 6 include the following tournaments:

• IEM Dallas 2025
• IEM Cologne 2025
• ESL Pro League Season 22
• IEM Chengdu 2025

So, IEM Dallas 2025 is the opening event of the new, sixth Grand Slam season. Vitality are competing again — they’re in excellent shape — and their main rival at the moment, Falcons, are one of the top contenders to take the Grand Slam crown this season.

IEM Dallas Teams Participants and Contenders for the Win

Closed qualifiers were held in four regions ahead of the event. Europe received five slots, while the remaining three regions were each given just one. The top-ranked teams in the Valve standings were directly invited to the tournament.

Vitality and FaZe Clan enter the event as strong favourites, both with deep experience and recent titles. MOUZ and G2 also look sharp going into Dallas, while FURIA and Team Liquid aim to defend home turf with solid lineups. Keep an eye on Falcons, who came painfully close at IEM Melbourne and now have a real shot at kicking off Grand Slam Season 6 with a bang.

IEM Dallas 2025 Prediction

This is shaping up to be the most exciting tournament of the year — and that’s not just hype. There are more key storylines at play here than in any previous 2025 event.

It marks the beginning of a brand-new gold rush in the sixth season of the ESL Grand Slam, which means every top team has even more motivation to win. Falcons, hungry for revenge after two Grand Final losses to Vitality, are more dangerous than ever. With NiKo and m0NESY leading the charge, they’re legitimate contenders for the gold bars and have both the firepower and the right to claim them. Vitality, still in their prime, are the reigning champs and show no signs of slowing down. With the deadly ZyWoO-ropz duo and apEX’s veteran leadership, they have everything needed to dominate a second season in a row.

Then there’s FaZe Clan — the hottest topic of the event. s1mple has returned to CS2 after his first career break and joined their roster, and while no one really knows what to expect, one thing’s for sure: it’s going to be epic.

The MongolZ and MOUZ also pose serious threats. The MongolZ are a well-drilled unit, while MOUZ play with discipline and resolve. They might not be favourites to win the trophy, but don’t be surprised if they sneak their way into the Grand Final.

Aurora is a strong squad, but they’re not in a championship phase yet. Expect them to fight hard and possibly steal a few maps, but they’re unlikely to make a deep run at IEM Dallas 2025.

So once again, the spotlight falls on Falcons and Vitality. The only question: will FaZe join them at the top?

IEM Dallas 2025 Betting

As we can see, Europe loves Counter-Strike. And in North America, we’ll mostly be seeing European teams. Historically, professional CS has been concentrated in Central to Eastern Europe, stretching through the Nordic regions. Cold-blooded guys flying into hot Texas — sorry for the cringe.

Generous prizes, high pressure, and star-studded ambitions — the classic formula of a big tournament. You can bet on IEM Dallas, just like on any major competition. It’s not mandatory, but that adrenaline addiction is hard to ignore — so either keep yourself in check or give in to the game. Either way, I guarantee it’ll be exciting to watch and cheer for some beautiful Counter-Strike. I really want to see the Falcons again — and of course, the return of the GOAT sniper elite of CS2, O. Kostylev aka s1mple. Good luck, have fun!