Skip to content
CS2
August 3, 2025 | Alexander Saraff

Team Spirit wins IEM Cologne 2025

Spirit beat MOUZ 3-0 in a grand final to kick off the CS2 season.

Spirit beat MOUZ 3-0 in a grand final to kick off the CS2 season.

Team Spirit has defeated MOUZ in the grand final of IEM Cologne 2025. MOUZ came into the final by defeating the #1 team in the world in the semi-final, Team Vitality, but fell ultimately to the #2 team, Spirit, without winning a map.

This is the first top-tier tournament, with Vitality in attendance, to be won by a team other than Vitality since February 2025.

Mirage

The best-of-five series kicked off on MOUZ’s first pick of Mirage, which backfired for them, as Spirit got up to a 10-2 lead in the first half. The Russian sniper, sh1ro, had a 12-2 K/D as Spirit took a huge lead over MOUZ.

Spirit were able to close out the map in the second half, despite giving up a few rounds, thanks in large part to a donk 4k with 4 headshots in Round 16 to give them their first offensive round.

Ancient

Spirit’s map pick looked like it might be a smooth affair for them, as they got up 4-0 after taking the pistol. MOUZ followed this up with an 11-1 run of their own, taking an 11-5 lead, powered by the captain Brollan, logging a 1.74-rated defensive side.

The tides turned for MOUZ though as Spirit won 8 rounds in a row to seal the map. On map point, donk held A-site with a 3k to hamper MOUZ’s chances at overtime, sending the series to the third map with a 2-0 lead for Spirit.

Nuke

Donk and Spirit continued their winning form, taking an 8-4 lead on their defensive side of Nuke, despite losing the pistol round.

MOUZ looked poised to have a stronger opening half, but a crucial 2v4 win from sh1ro and zont1x kept Spirit with a 3-round lead.

Spirit’s captain, chopper, dealt a final blow to MOUZ to get map point, winning a 1v1 clutch against Jimpphat.

Spirit defeated MOUZ flawlessly in the grand final, after already defeating them 2-1 in the group stage. They claim their third title of the year, the first with their newly added player, zweih, to kick off the Counter-Strike 2 season.

Team Spirit vs MOUZ – | IEM Cologne 2025 Grand Final

13-7 (Mirage) – donk | 1.47 rating

13-11 (Ancient) – donk | 1.50 rating

13-6 (Nuke) – donk | 1.64 rating

Author

Alexander Saraff

Read more about me

I'm an aspiring journalist in the world of esports. I first got into MOBAs watching SMITE in 2015, and got hooked on CS from the MLG Columbus Major.

My goal as a journalist in this space is to tell the esports stories that will live on in history, and give insight into the stories behind the scenes when they're relevant.

Besides that, I have a bachelor's in philosophy and have an interest in German thinkers from the 18th-19th century.

Read more about me