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Today is a big day for fans of professional Counter-Strike 2 in Katowice, Poland. Today, the IEM Katowice 2025 Grand Final will take place on the 9th of February.
In the decisive match of one of the most prestigious tournaments on the competitive stage will meet Spirit and Vitality. The format of the match is bo5.
We will try to find out who of the pair Vitality - Spirit will be stronger and at the end of the match will lift the championship trophy over their heads, and at the same time will get the main prize money of 460,000 dollars.
Let's go.
Spirit's form
We open our analysis of the IEM Katowice 2025 Grand Final between Spirit and Vitality with an analysis of Spirit's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.5.
The 2023 season has been a very busy one for Spirit. The Serbian club has played wherever they can, but they have not managed to get any significant results.
They started the previous season with an appearance at IEM Master Katowice 2023, where they finished in the top 12. Then there was the local CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 2023, where they finished in the top 6.
One of the biggest tournaments of the 2023 season for Spirit was ESL Pro League Season 17, where the Dragons finished in TOP-28. They tried to make it to the Major in Paris, but again all in vain.
From the middle and up to the end of the year Spirit played at local events of small calibre. And they were quite successful, it is worth mentioning: TOP-1 at CCT North Europe Series #6, TOP-2 at CCT Online Finals #2, victory at Dunav Party LAN and Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2.
- Team Spirit roster: chopper, zont1x, sh1ro, donk, magixx
At the end of the year they won the BB Dacha. In 2024, BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 was the first major event for the Dragons. Spirit played frankly poorly there: they finished in the top 16 at their debut BLAST Championship, advancing to the Spring Showdown.
At IEM Katowice 2024 Spirit started their performance at the Play-In stage. There they beat Apeks 13-0 without a chance, and then confidently (except for 2 maps) beat MongolZ 2-0, thus qualifying for the group stage. The group stage was not a problem for Spirit either: after giving up only 1 map to NaVi, they easily made it to the play-offs by beating CoL and FaZe Clan 2-0. The IEM Katowice 2024 play-offs confirmed Spirit's dominance, as they easily shut down Falcons (2-0) and it was even easier against FaZe in the grand finals (3-0).
After the triumph at Katowice 2024, Spirit went to PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, where they managed to reach the play-offs, but Ledge and FaZe Clan in the first round of the main stage. Spirit took the top 8.
Spirit had a kind of successful performance at BB Dacha, but a 0-3 loss to MOUZ in the grand finals spoilt the feeling a bit.
At IEM Dallas 2024 Team Spirit had a very easy time in the group stage, not giving up a single map in the B basket. However, they didn't manage to beat everyone in the play-offs: Vitality intervened at the TOP-4 stage and knocked Spirit out of the tournament.
Later Spirit won the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024. And then came a string of poor performances, including Top 8 and Top 16 at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024.
ESL Pro League Season 20 Team Spirit started with Group B, where they defeated Ledge and MIBR in the second round of the upper grid and after dropping below, they had no trouble beating The MongolZ and 3DMAX, which allowed them to advance to the play-offs, where they beat FURIA 2-0 in their first match. Later they ran into NaVi, after their defeat they finished the pro league.
Spirit played at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, where they did not find success either. They only finished in the top 6.
At BLAST Premier: World Final 2024 Spirit started their journey from Group B, where they fought against G2 Esports, Team Spirit, Vitality and Liquid. They went 1-1, beating Vitality but losing to G2 in the playoffs seeding match. In the play-offs itself, Spirit made it directly to the grand finals, but there they were defeated 0-3 by Ledge and G2 Esports.
Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B Long They started with a win over B8. Then they lost to Passion UA, beat Aurora, lost to G2, but in the last match they beat Sashi Esports. At the Elimination Stage Spirit Long Sogpegos started with a loss to FURIA, but then defeated Wildcard and NaVi. Then in a match to advance to the full bo3, they handled Heroic. Spirit opened the play-offs of PW Shanghai Major 2024 with a win over Liquid. In the semi-finals of Shanghai Major 2024 they defeated MOUZ. In the grand finals they defeated FaZe, thus becoming world champions for the first time in the club's history.
BLAST Bounty Season 1 Long They started the qualifying round with two confident victories against Fnatic and FlyQuest. In the play-offs they also beat Heroic without any problems. Next - the expected victory against NaVi and triumph in the grand finals against Eternal Fire.
IEM Katowice 2025 Spirit started with the first round of Group B. There they demolished Astralis without much trouble, giving up a total of 9 rounds. In the match for the play-offs they played against NaVi, where they lost 1-2 in a protracted Bo3 with extra rounds on the third map Nuke. Having got to the bottom net they beat Liquid and GamerLegion, which allowed them to enter the play-offs. The main stage of IEM Katowice 2025 started with a match against compatriots from Vp. In the match to advance to the grand finals, Spirit met NaVi and took their revenge, defeating the "born to win" 2-0.
Team Spirit's Mapple
The best map of Team Spirit remains Dust, Spirit played there 5 times and won in 3 maps. Next is Mirage, with 7 games and 4-3 stats.
Neutral choices for Team Spirit are Nuke and Ancient. There they have 6 maps and the score is 3-3 on each.
Worst goes to Overpass (2-3) and Inferno (1-2).
Form Vitality
We continue our analysis of the IEM Katowice 2025 Grand Final between Vitality and Spirit with an analysis of Vitality's form. In this match, the French are playing as the number two with odds to win at around 2.
After the triumphant Paris Major a Vitality said goodbye to Dupreeh, and flameZ took his place. The "newcomer" Vitality has already had time to adapt and looks good: the young Israeli has KDA 1.09 and this is the third result of the team. He, by the way, started his ascent on the big stage with OG.
- Vitality roster: apEX, ZywOo, mezii, ropz, flameZ.
In their debut match at IEM Cologne 2023 Vitality only confirmed their status as one of the main favourites of Group B. OG tried, but were defeated 16-6 by Mirage and 16-13 by Anubis.
After defeating OG, Vitality took on MOUZ, who were dealt an even bigger blow by the Bees, 16-4 and 16-5.
In the match for seeding in the play-offs Vitality met another top club - G2 Esports. A nerve-wracking game where Vitality pulled out a 19-17 win on Inferno in the extra time, but then lost 10-16 to Vertigo and 8-16 to Mirage.
Starting the play-offs from the first round stumbled Cloud9. "Cloud9 tried to fight back and almost succeeded on the second map, but ZywOo and company were undeterred: 16-11 Mirage and 19-17 Inferno. However, this was the end of Vitality's stay at the tournament: they met ENCE in the semi-finals and lost with 1-2 score and dropped out of the championship.
The top 4 at IEM Cologne did not embarrass Vitality at all, on the contrary - it fuelled them. Before the end of the year they pocketed 3 more wins at title tournaments: they took revenge on ENCE in the Gamers8 Grand Final and beat FaZe twice at BLAST tournaments (Fall Final 2023 and World Final 2023).
Before playing at PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024: European RMR B played BLAST Premier: Spring Groups, where they passed the group stage without any problems and at IEM Katowice 2024, where they failed very unexpectedly, finishing top-12.
At the PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024: European RMR B Vitality stomped GamerLegion and Heroic without any problems, giving up a total of 5 rounds in two maps. And then it was worse - a loss by C9, but a win over ENCE allowed Vitality to reach the Major.
Vitality attended the first Major tournament of the season - PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, where they managed to reach the top 4, but Ledge and FaZe Clan. Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they again started very cheerfully and easily made it to the grand finals, but there they were swept by MOUZ.
At the IEM Dallas 2024 Long Season, they started with a very difficult win over Monte, and then closed G2 Esports dry. But in the match for seeding in the play-offs quite unexpectedly Ledge and 9z Team with a score 0-2. The play-offs IEM Dallas 2024 started much more confidently, closing Heroic with 2-0. Then a confident win over Spirit, but a loss to G2 Esports in the grand finals.
Before appearing at Esports World Cup 2024, Vitality attended Blast Premier: Spring Final, where they reached the Top 4. At EWC 2024, Vitaltiy Long Sogpeg started off with a solid win over M80, which allowed them to go straight into the play-offs.
At the "Major in Riyadh" Vitality finished in the top 8, which is hardly a good result. They were quickly rehabilitated by winning the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024. At the end of the season they visited PW Shanghai Major 2024, where they reached the main stage, but failed against FaZe in the first round.
Long Cologne 2025 season started with an appearance at BLAST Bounty Season 1, where they managed to reach the final stage, but not beyond the first round: defeat by Eternal Fire and final top 8.
At IEM Katowice 2025 Vitality started their performance right from the group stage. They defeated 3DMax and FaZe in turn, which gave them passage to the final of Group A and a slot in the play-offs. Then they defeated Vp with the score 2-0, thanks to which they got straight to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals they handled a pretty chippy MongolZ.
Vitality mappool
The best Vitality map is Nuke. There are 4 matches and 4 wins.
Anubis (7 matches, 85% wins), Mirage (4 matches, 75% wins) are very good. In general, Vitality doesn't have any bad cards that they play. Vertigo - 71% wins in 7 matches, Inferno and Overpass - 3 wins in 5 matches.
Ancient is not played.
History of head-to-head meetings Spirit - Vitality
Previously the teams have played each other three times since 2024. Spirit won twice.
Predicted result of Vitality - Spirit at IEM Katowice 2025
From such an event as the Grand Final of IEM Katowice 2025, you expect only good CS. On the winner, I think it's Spirit, because they have enough experience of winning in finals and in Bo5 finals, by the way. So they should win.
Bottom line: Spirit wins.
