IEM Melbourne 2025 Power Rankings – Eyes on Aussie Gold

IEM Melbourne 2025 has a banger lineup of teams looking to finally hit gold. Nothing stays sacred for long in the shifting sands of modern Counter-Strike. We have come a long way from donk’s supremacy days. Now, we have a superteam that is out for blood, a squad that proves one plus one equals eleven, a team that can change the script at any point of time. Let’s dig right into the Power Rankings and key narratives.

IEM Melbourne 2025 Power Rankings

But more than that, most poignantly, an old friendship that will reunite again at the stage of IEM Melbourne 2025. And it is not for the not for nostalgia, but for legacy. It’s going to happen boys. Strap up because m0NESY is going to be donning the Falcons season dominating jersey for the first time and is totally going to shake up the power rankings for the tournament.

Let us take a look at my rankings and dwell a bit on the key narratives going into the event:

1. Vitality
2. Falcons
3.  The MongolZ
4. MOUZ
5. NAVI
6. FaZe
7. Virtus.Pro
8. Liquid
9. 3DMAX
10. paiN
11. GamerLegion
12.  Complexity
13. MIBR
14. FlyQuest
15. BIG
16. SAW

Top Contenders at IEM Melbourne 2025

Well, there’s a new cool boy in town, and everybody is going to be talking about him; including me. I’m sorry, but I’m cashing in all my chips on Falcons and their honeymoon phase. A reinvigorated NiKo and m0NESY under a proper IGL (sorry snax fans), with a formidable opener and an albeit rusty, but a legendary anchor. Oh, what I wouldn’t give for all the role players to start smashing all at once.

Even for just one series.

Am I being ridiculous for thinking a roster is going to click right from the get go? Maybe, but the tyranny of predictability is far worse. Watching Vitality reign unchallenged, with only Spirit having a say in the matter, saps the fun from the games. At the year’s dawn, Spirit looked unassailable, then Vitality took over the throne. Now, I want it to be Falcons’ turn to rattle the hierarchy. Because this is the part of Counter-Strike we live for right? No matter how untouchable you feel, there’s always a moment when the rug gets yanked from under you. And I hope that’s exactly what happens here.

Team Liquid are the Dark Horses

Going into the tournament, if I have to anoint a dark horse, it has to be Team Liquid and siuhy. I’ve already erased the memory of siuhy’s ill-fated debut at PGL Bucharest 2025 , where they went 0-3. Oh boy. Yes, they lost to Legacy, then to Virtus.Pro, and finally to The MongolZ.

But I refuse to believe that’s Liquid’s true level at the moment. Was it a siuhy masterclass to buy more prep time for IEM Melbourne? It wasn’t! But they’re going to unveil what they’ve been concocting behind closed doors, regardless.

I believe they’ll turn heads at IEM Melbourne, and I don’t just mean an odd upset, I’m anticipating a resilient deep run. Since they’re not playing PGL Astana 2025, this event becomes their penultimate test drive before the Major rolls around. Remember who won the last Major held in NA? You can call it borderline delusion to be this optimistic, but this could very well be the beginning of their second coming. Behold, the NA saga starts again.

FaZe and NAVI lead the desperate lot

Not too long ago, two teams consistently entered events as title contenders. But now they have fallen off their perch, and their grandeur is getting tarnished by time and inconsistency.
FaZe Clan and their shifting strategies, have not rewarded them with a win since IEM Chengdu 2024. A year-long drought despite making the finals of both Majors. That has been quite the dry spell for one of the most decorated orgs. Yes, they well and truly screwed the pooch at both PGL Bucharest 2025 and PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, and I think they will have to make up for it in a stacked tournament now, because frankly, the clock is ticking.

As for NAVI, it’s been over six months since their IEM Rio 2024 triumph. Since then, they’ve slowly drifted toward mediocrity. Yes, they had a decent showing at IEM Katowice 2025, but since then they have hardly celebrated any success. The winds of change are approaching and they bring with them the risk of being swept out to sea if they don’t perform now.

MOUZ have the most consistent ensemble

This revitalized MOUZ lineup has been operating on a different frequency ever since Brollan took charge. In three events played ignoring IEM Katowice 2025, they’ve reached the finals every time, even clinching the title at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025.

The heavy lifting has come from their formidable trio : torzsi with a 1.11 rating, xertioN at 1.09, and Spinx in at 1.07. But I think another reason for their success can be attributed to their floor now being as low as other teams’. jimpphat holds a steady 1.03, and even Brollan the IGL, has been delivering with a respectable 0.94. They will once again march into another gauntlet of heavyweights, and honestly I am going to stop being a MOUZ skeptic if they once again reach the top 4.