This win nicely shakes up the elite tier of CS2 esports. FURIA continue their great competitive period and earn a valuable emotional boost ahead of the Budapest Major.
To lift the IEM Chengdu 2025 trophy, FURIA had to recover from a loss to MOUZ and take down some of the strongest teams in Counter-Strike 2.
We knew FURIA players were on the rise: after their great performance at EPL Season 22. Also, FURIA won two somewhat smaller tournaments recently: FISSURE Playground #2 and Thunderpick World Championship 2025. Still, the team did much better at Intel Extreme Masters Chengdu 2025 than expected.
Facing the Vitality demons
The first half of 2025 made a great impact on how we see Team Vitality on the CS2 esports scene. This roster won all the events they participated in. Even after losing this streak, Vitality terrify opponents with their power.
For FURIA, Team Vitality are personal demons. In the quarterfinal of the ESL Pro League Season 22, Vitality stopped a great run of FURIA. Facing these guys in the grand final of IEM Chengdu 2025 was quite a challenge.
In reality, FURIA players were fully prepared for this matchup! That wasn’t easy, sure, as three maps finished with a 13:10 and two 13:11s. But Vitality could not secure even one map in a best-of-five final, which is something quite extraordinary.
Losing to MOUZ, defeating The MongolZ and Falcons
In the Group Stage of IEM Chengdu 2025, FURIA defeated one of the underdogs, Lynn Vision Gaming, and one of the potentially strong teams, G2 Esports.
MOUZ turned out to be too strong opponents, as they defeated FURIA with a 2:1.
The MongolZ were the quarterfinal opponents of FURIA. This team is in turmoil right now. Losing Azbayar "Senzu" Munkhbold doesn’t help them restore good placements. FURIA won that match with a 2:0.
Team Falcons proved their strength at CS2 Esports World Cup 2025 and EPL S22. The coach, Danny “zonic” Sørensen, created a nice synergy within the bunch of star players and one rising star of the competitive scene. Still, Falcons lost to FURIA with a 2:0, including a 5:13 on Inferno.
In the match for third place, Falcons still defeated MOUZ. Perhaps, the semifinal result speaks more about FURIA’s power than about Falcons’ inconsistency.
molodoy and YEKINDAR to make the difference
The results of FURIA in the second half of 2025 are quite impressive. The team won two CS2 esports events right before IEM Chengdu.
It’s quite interesting to note that two new players joined this organization in April 2025: Danil “molodoy” Golubenko and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis.
molodoy earned the MVP title in Chengdu.
FURIA join the ESL Grand Slam VI run
With this win, FURIA join two other teams with victories at the ESL Grand Slam VI tournaments. Here are the stats after Intel Extreme Masters Chengdu 2025.
Astralis in the top 6 and other surprises
NAVI and Team Spirit could not advance to the Playoffs at IEM Chengdu 2025. Their performance has been really shaky, and still, this result is pretty disappointing for the fans.
On the other hand, Astralis looked really well at this tournament. The team reached the final brackets and even defeated NAVI and The MongolZ in the process. Astralis lost to Team Falcons in the groups and got eliminated by Vitality in the quarterfinal.
FURIA, Vitality, Falcons, and some other big teams are among the participants of BLAST Rivals Fall 2025. This CS2 esports tournament happens from Nov. 12 to Nov. 16.
Later this month, we can dive into the biggest Counter-Strike 2 event of the season: StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, from Nov. 24 to Dec. 14.
