BLAST Bounty Fall 2025 Power Rankings: Are Vitality still favorites after IEM Cologne?

BLAST Bounty Fall 2025 is here, taking 32 teams into a brutal single-elimination bracket; to the victor go the spoils. A particularly tough format sets the stage for plenty of potential upsets, making ranking each team at this event a tough task.

I’ve put together some BLAST Bounty Fall 2025 Power Rankings, so you know where teams should be finishing at this event in line with their expectations.

Vitality remain favorites despite IEM Cologne disappointment

Realistically, you have to give a team as dominant as Vitality the benefit of the doubt. They’re still my favorites to win BLAST Bounty Fall 2025, even if they fell well below par against MOUZ at IEM Cologne 2025. It was one of the most shocking results of the year so far, and you have to put it down to one off day for one of the best teams we’ve seen in Counter-Strike.

I’ve got no doubt they’ll be ready to show a better face at the next BLAST Bounty, but there is one thing that has me concerned: the format. BLAST Bounty is single-elimination all the way, meaning there’s no margin for error. All it takes is another ZywOo or flameZ disappearance, and Vitality would go two consecutive events without a trophy, which, admittedly, is a lofty standard to be held up against.

Spirit: a true contender once again?

Following their incredible IEM Cologne 2025 win, Spirit are left with very little time to celebrate as they jump back into the action at BLAST Bounty Fall 2025. If you cast your mind back to the beginning of the year, Spirit actually won BLAST Bounty Spring, so they come into this as defending champions. The question now becomes this: are Spirit true contenders, or was IEM Cologne a fluke?

They certainly rose up my BLAST Bounty Fall 2025 Power Rankings, but there’s no doubt that they must continue to win with zweih in the lineup to keep the momentum flowing. Cologne can’t just be one and done for Spirit, and where better to establish some dominance than in the brutal BLAST Bounty format.

Potential BLAST Bounty Fall 2025 underdogs

We all know the typical CS2 teams that we expect to see lift the trophy when BLAST Bounty Fall 2025 comes to an end. However, what about the underdogs who could be in with an outside shot? I know who I’m taking.

First is FURIA. This international project has surpassed all expectations, and they were very unlucky not to find themselves in the IEM Cologne 2025 Semi-Finals after throwing a lead to MOUZ. Still, that they were even in this conversation at all is a sign of the times; FURIA are back in business. Don’t be surprised to see another great showing out of the team at BLAST Bounty Fall 2025.

I have to go with NAVI here, too. Rookie makazze has had a mixed start to Tier 1, but he showed in Cologne’s LANXESS Arena that he is more than capable of handling tons of pressure when locked in. With an injection of new blood, NAVI look fresh and ready to really compete again. They still come into BLAST Bounty Fall 2025 as an underdog, but this could be their time to start rewriting expectations.