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We're continuing to follow the action at IEM Melbourne 2025. The Australian tournament features a play-offs stage where 6 teams are battling it out for the $125,000 grand prize. In addition, IEM Melbourne is part of the Intel Grand Slam and therefore carries extra weight.
In the second quarter-final of IEM Melbourne 2025 we will see a match between MongolZ and Liquid. The format of the meeting is bo3. The winner goes to Vitality.
We are trying to figure out who of the pair MongolZ - Liquid will be stronger, how the match will end and which of the teams will qualify for the next stage of play-offs.
Let's go.
MongolZ Form
Let's open the MongolZ vs Team Liquid match with an analysis of MongolZ's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win around 1.6.
Previously, the team played mostly in TIR-2 tournaments, where they were not always successful. Among the landmarks, they won the XSE Pro League: Online Stage and ESN National Champioship 2023.
However, the Mongolians have also made their mark on the international scene. They played at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, where they finished in the top 20-22.
- The MongolZ roster: bLitz, Techno4K, 910, mzinho, Senzu.
The conditional roster newcomers are mzihno and 910. Both players joined the team a month ago, and before that they played for local teams like Clutch and The Shine.
In the first match at IEM Cologne 2023 The MongolZ will face MOUZ, who have already reached the group stage of the tournament. As you have already realised, The MongolZ lost their match, but lost on the dopes, Ledgeiv Nuke with a score of 17-19.
Then MongolZ ran over Into The Breach with the score 2-0, and then closed FURIA with a similar score. Thus advanced to the group stage.
In the first match of the group stage of IEM Cologne 2023 The MongolZ faced Heroic. Despite the huge difference in the level of play, The MongolZ managed to take the first map and almost slammed Heroic on their own peak, Overpass, but they didn't finish and eventually lost with the score 1-2. However, it didn't go any further and the result was a top-16 finish.
After playing in the big tournament, TheMongolZ played a lot of smaller events. These included the MESA Pro Series: Fall 2023, with a top-1 finish, a win at ESL Challenger League Season 46: Asia-Pacific, and a top-4 finish at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2023.
In the 2024 season, before playing directly at the PGL CS 2 Copenhagen Major Championship 2024, MongolZ won the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: East Asia Qualifier, which guaranteed passage to the Asia-Pacific RMR. There was a Top 1 at eXTREMESLAND 2023 and a Top 20 at IEM Katowice 2024 during the break, but after a win at PGL Copenhagen 2024: Asia-Pacific RMR, where MongolZ celebrated the victory.
At PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024 The Mongolz did not achieve much success, although they managed to reach the top 16.
In the group stage of ESL Pro League Season 19 The MongolZ performed very well. They defeated Falcons and G2 Esports 2-0 to advance to the play-offs. However, the first round of the play-offs ended with The MongolZ losing to Vp with a score of 1-2, eventually finishing in the top 12.
The MongolZ went on to take the top-1 spots at MESA Nomadic Masters Spring 2024 and YaLLa Compass 2024. There were more Top-9s at Esports World Cup 2024 and a second place finish at Skyesports Championship 2024.
One of the central tournaments of the season for MongolZ was the IEM Cologne 2024 Championship, where the club managed to reach the top-12. A similar result was also at the ESL Pro League Season 20. In addition, the Mongolian club visited the IEM Rio 2024, where they got to the TOP-8.
They also played at Thunderpick World Championship 2024, where they placed TOP-1, which was a great Long Sogpeg before the Asian RMR. At the home RMR, The MongolZ came out on top by taking two matches out of two.
The main tournament of the 2024 season was PW Shanghai Major 2024. The MongolZ demolished the Opening Stage with a 3-0 win, and then secured the result at the Elimination Stage with another 3-0 win over G2, MOUZ and Heroic. The MongolZ lost in the first round of play-offs to MOUZ, who were outplayed in Bo1. Thus, The MongolZ finished in the top 8 at PW Shanghai Major 2024.
The MongolZ started the 2025 season with an appearance in the group stage of IEM Katowice 2025. There the team beat Liquid and GamerLegion, earning a slot in the first round of play-offs. The team failed to advance directly to the semi-finals: NaVi were much stronger (2-0) in the Group B final. In the play-offs of IEM Katowice 2025 MongolZ Long teamed up against Eternal Fire and although the match ended 2-0 in favour of MongolZ, it was not easy for them. However, they failed to pass Vitality and at the end of IEM Katowice 2025 The MongolZ took the top 4.
At PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 Long Sogpeg started with a match against Complexity, where they won 2-0. Next came a 2-0 win over Wildcard and a 2-1 win over paiN. However, Long Corner's confidence did not pay off in the play-offs: MongolZ Ledge and Astralis were defeated in the first round of the main stage and left the tournament in the top 8.
They opened ESL Pro League Season 21 with a win over GamerLegion. Next - a win over G2, a loss from Team Spirit and a win over 3DMax in the play-offs. The play-offs started with a win over NaVi, but then Ledge and Vitality were the champions.
BLAST Open Spring 2025 opened with a match against M80, where they defeated M80 (1-2). Then - nervousness in the match against NaVi and heavy defeat (1-2). Then expected victory over Liquid (2-0) already in the lower net. However, they failed to go further: the defeat by G2 put an end to the play-offs prospect.
After the failed BLAST Open Spring 2025 MongolZ visited PGL Bucharest 2025. There the situation was even worse than at the previous tournament: top 11.
At IEM Melbourne 2025 MongolZ finally made it to the play-offs. In Group A they were ranked TOP-2 and made it to the first round of play-offs.
MongolZ Mappool
MongolZ's best map is Mirage. There the Mongolian club has 10 wins and 3 losses. Next is Inferno, with 6 wins and 3 losses. Ancient is also loved, with 9 wins and 6 losses.
MongolZ has minus winrate for the last 3 months on Nuke and Anubis. Both are 3-4.
Liquid's form
We continue the analysis of Liquid vs MongolZ match with the analysis of Liquid's form. In this match Liquid are playing as the number two with odds to win around 2.1.
The American club had a pretty productive 2023 season. Played in a lot of tournaments, but high results were rare.
They started the year with a top-4 finish at IEM Katowice 2023, where they reached the top 4. Next was the equally good BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown with a similar top-4, and then BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: American RMR followed by a top-3 and a trip to the main tournament of the year.
Unfortunately for Liquid, that's where their results ended. At BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, the team made it to the top 8 and that was their biggest achievement of the year.
After making it to the legends stage at the only Major tournament of the season, Liquid played at a lot of big events. These included IEM Dallas 2023 with a top-12 ranking, BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with a top-9 ranking, and IEM Master Cologne with a top-12 ranking.
At the end of the season they played at Gamers8 2023, finishing in the top 16 and ESL Pro League Season 18, finishing in the top 20. Closed the year with a second place finish at BLAST Premier: Fall American Showdown 2023.
- Team Liquid roster: NAF, Twistzz, ultimate, NertzZ, siuhy.
A string of failures at major championships has caused major roster changes. Such that Liquid in 2024 can be called "Dream Team", but the status still has to be earned.
2024 began with qualifiers for the American RMR. They came out, which is not surprising. They also tried to qualify for IEM Chengdu 2024, but were not successful: Ledge and M80 made it to the finals of the qualifiers. However, they got a slot and made it to the top 6 at the tournament. The main performance in the 2024 season was PW Shanghai Major 2024, where Liquid finished in the top 8, which is not bad.
In the 2025 season, Team Liquid Long Competed with a top-16 finish at BLAST Bounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier and a top-12 finish at IEM Katowice 2025.
At ESL Pro League Season 21 Long Co-headlined with a loss to Falcons, but cameback against FURIA and Eternal Fire. Later lost to MOUZ, which brought them to a 2-2 score. In the play-offs match, they defeated 3DMax. In the play-offs itself, they lost to the future champions from Vitality in the first round.
Liquid attended BLAST Lisbon 2025, where they finished in the top 12. At PGL Bucharest 2025 also did not go well: Long Sogpegov started with a loss from Legacy (0-2), and then lost to Vp (0-2). They lost to MongolZ and took a well-deserved top 16 spot.
At IEM Melbourne 2025 Liquid beat Vp, but lost to Vitality, and then defeated MIBR already in the bottom set. There they also outplayed NaVi, advancing to the play-offs.
Team Liquid Mapple
Team Liquid's top 1 map for the last 3 months is Mirage. Liquid has a mind-blowing winrate of 92% with 13 games played.
They also played on Inferno, where they won 5 matches out of 7 games. Nuke is also in plus winrate, where the "ninjas" have 3 wins from 5 matches.
The most not favoured map for Team Liquid will be Vertigo. There they have 6 maps and only 1 win.
History of head-to-head meetings between Liquid and MongolZ
In the season 2025 the teams played each other twice. Both matches were won by MongolZ.
Predicted result of MongolZ vs Liquid at IEM Melbourne 2025
Liquid look very good at this tournament. In turn MongolZ during several events show a very "questionable" Counter-Strike 2. That's why I expect a full-fledged Bo3, but with a bias towards Liquid.
Bottom line: total +2.5.
