The battle for prestigious spots at IEM Katowice 2025 is heating up as the Play-in stage has wrapped up its opening day.
Three top teams – Liquid, Astralis, and Virtus.pro – find themselves on the brink of elimination after suffering opening-round defeats. Now just one loss away from missing the prestigious $1 million main event, these teams must rally in the elimination bracket to keep their tournament dreams alive.
Virtus.pro stumbled in a disappointing 2-0 loss to paiN, followed by Astralis’ surprising defeat at the hands of MIBR. Meanwhile, Liquid fought hard but ultimately fell 2-1 to HEROIC in an intense late matchup.
Opening-round results
- Heroic vs Liquid 2-1
- Eternal Fire vs Complexity 2-0
- FURIA vs Imperial fe 2-0
- Wildcard vs BIG 2-0
- MIBR vs Astralis 2-0
- GamerLegion vs SAW 2-0
- 3DMAX vs FlyQuest 2-0
- paiN vs Virtus.pro 2-0
Who will bump out first?
The result from yesterday has revealed a thrilling schedule for the next two days, presenting several exciting matches.
For some teams, elimination is on the line, while yesterday’s victors are set to fight for an early qualification for IEM Katowice. There are two second-round series that will be played tomorrow.
You can find the schedule for the coming days below.
Upper bracket
Thursday, 30th January
13:30 – paiN vs GamerLegion
16:00 – 3DMAX vs MIBR
18:30 – HEROIC vs Eternal Fire
Friday, 31th January
13:30 – Wildcard vs FURIA
Lower bracket
Thursday, 30th January
13:30 – Virtus.pro vs SAW
16:00 – FlyQuest vs Astralis
18:30 – BIG vs Imperial fe
Friday, 31th January
13:30 – Complexity vs Liquid
