Can Falcons keep up the good momentum? | IEM Melbourne 2025 Quarter-Finals Preview

There’s nothing quite like the atmosphere of competitive Counter-Strike in an arena, and with an Australian crowd that always brings the heat in Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena, the IEM Melbourne 2025 Quarter-Finals are set to be a pair of absolute banger matches.

Tomorrow, two matches kick off as four teams look to secure their spots in the final four: GamerLegion vs. Falcons and The MongolZ vs. Team Liquid. All of these teams have their own narratives and have had their fair share of struggles throughout 2025. IEM Melbourne 2025‘s Quarter-Finals are a chance for redemption for these teams, but for two, they will also be the source of more regret. It’s time to take a look at these teams and make some predictions about who’s going to make it through to the Semi-Finals down under.

Can GamerLegion halt Falcons momentum?

Falcons have been on an absolute heater of late. Prior to losing to a dominant Vitality side yesterday, they were on an eight-series win streak, in the middle of which the team experienced both a trophy lift at PGL Bucharest 2025 and a roster move with -degster and +m0NESY. Mixed emotions, I’m sure. There was obviously no shame in losing to this Vitality squad, and I’ve no doubt it won’t impact their momentum as they continue to find themselves in a very good moment, especially with m0NESY’s arrival leveling up the roster.

Still, they come up against LAN merchants GamerLegion in this IEM Melbourne 2025 Quarter-Final clash. They can’t win online best-of-ones against Fnatic and Nemiga (!) to make the BLAST.tv Austin Major, but they can look comfortable against the likes of 3DMAX, Complexity, and FaZe Clan on LAN. Counter-Strike is very weird. GamerLegion are obviously a very strong squad, and their Major disappearance will leave them desperate to make the most of the events they do have for the rest of the season. A wounded lion is a dangerous one, and all that.

For GamerLegion to have a real chance, they need a big showing from PR. The 17-year-old rifler has been on a heater during this event, putting up a 1.16 rating so far. He’s continuing to show why he was another hot prospect out of MOUZ NXT, but he’ll be required to come up massive for GamerLegion to reach the IEM Melbourne 2025 Semi-Finals. For me, there’s just too much quality on Falcons ready to deliver here and now – it’s just slightly too early for GamerLegion.

My prediction: GamerLegion 1:2 Falcons

Will Team Liquid continue their rise under siuhy against The MongolZ?

By rapidly improving Team Liquid at IEM Melbourne 2025 and securing the team’s first arena appearance of the year, this event has been an opportunity for new IGL siuhy to showcase his value. Just two weeks into his stint with the team, and the Quarter-Finals await, having just dumped MIBR and NAVI out of the event. It has been an impressive showing individually for Team Liquid, with players like NertZ, ultimate, and Twistzz having one of their strongest events of the year. Their terrible PGL Bucharest showing is already behind them, and to me, Liquid look like a team ready to make a deep run.

This match will mean a lot to The MongolZ. The narrative of this team coming into IEM Melbourne 2025 is that after showing much promise kicking off the year, they’ve sort of fallen off a little. It’s tough to disagree with that assessment, having a few rough events under their belt of late, with the likes of PGL Cluj-Napoca, BLAST Open Spring, and PGL Bucharest. It doesn’t have to define them, though, and an IEM Melbourne Playoffs run is officially on the cards. This was a team we were talking about as potential winners of tournaments like this at the start of the year, and I’d like to see them showcase why this is the case beyond the Quarter-Finals.

I reckon that 910 could be the deciding factor in this series. The MongolZ’s AWPer has only managed to put up a 1.02 rating so far at IEM Melbourne 2025, which is just not the numbers you need from your star player. Instead, they’ve been helped by the great form of mzinho, but the game changes once you make it deep into events like this. 910 really needs to step up his game, or Team Liquid are going to make short work of this series. It’d be nice to see The MongolZ make a game of this, but I’m expecting Team Liquid to continue to rally and gather momentum for a Semi-Finals run.

My prediction: The MongolZ 1:2 Team Liquid