IEM Cologne 2025 Power Rankings: Will Vitality momentum endure the player break?

IEM Cologne 2025 is here for another year of action from Germany’s Cathedral of Counter-Strike. It’s one of the most prestigious CS2 events of the year, one of the big events that every team plans to peak at. If you want to complete Counter-Strike, you have to win IEM Cologne – it’s that simple.

Our IEM Cologne 2025 Power Rankings takes a look at all 24 of the teams flying out to Germany, ranking them all based on how likely they are to emerge victorious in the LANXESS Arena next month.

Vitality: Defending champions of everything

Coming into IEM Cologne 2025, all eyes will naturally be on Vitality. They capped off the greatest season of any Counter-Strike team last month by winning the BLAST Austin Major, and fans want to know if their remarkable form can survive the player break. They are massive favorites here, so anything but a Vitality win but be a massive shock at IEM Cologne.

It’s not just their 2025 form that’s the storyline here, though. Remember, Vitality are the reigning IEM Cologne champions, having won the event as their only trophy in 2024 despite a rough year. That status will put extra weight on Vitality’s shoulders, although pressure has meant nothing to this team throughout this year. Me? I think they retain their title. Until other teams prove otherwise, what reason is there to believe in anyone else?

Debutants at the top out to claim the IEM Cologne crown

Vitality’s status as favorites won’t deter other teams at the top of the food chain from trying to claim the IEM Cologne 2025 crown. Throughout the player break, many of the best CS2 teams have made CS2 roster changes to try to beat Vitality. Falcons have added kyousuke, Spirit are taking a chance on zweih. NAVI have promoted makazze, too. There’s plenty of movement, which is what makes IEM Cologne 2025 such an exciting prospect.

For me, of the new roster changes, Falcons are the team to watch. Despite kyousuke’s lack of experience against the top teams, he’s one of the most exciting talents CS2 has ever seen, and looking at how he performs will be one of the most curious storylines at IEM Cologne 2025.

Potential IEM Cologne 2025 underdogs

We’ve talked about the best teams in attendance at IEM Cologne 2025, so how about some underdogs? I don’t necessarily think these teams can win IEM Cologne, but I could certainly see these rosters make a deep run that gets people talking about their potential futures.

First up is Astralis. Since adding HooXi, their level has taken a noticeable step in the right direction, with a Final at PGL Astana 2025 followed up by a great showing at FISSURE Playground 1. They’re in the Semi-Finals at the time of writing, but they may have been crowned champions by the time you’re reading this. How HooXi’s stratbook holds up against the very best CS2 teams remains to be seen, but Astralis have all the tools in their locker to be a problem at IEM Cologne 2025.

Next, I’ve got to highlight TYLOO. This Chinese team seem to be improving with every event, and they continue to show how Asian Counter-Strike has finally caught up to the meta, and why that’s a problem for everyone else. Their ongoing FISSURE Playground 1 run is further proof of this, and I know that TYLOO can continue to shock the world through to IEM Cologne.