From May 19th to 25th, IEM Dallas 2025 for CS2 will take place on LAN in Texas, featuring a $1 million prize pool. This event has garnered massive community interest, primarily because it marks s1mple`s highly anticipated debut with FaZe Clan. Unlike recent tournaments, IEM Dallas will be attended by most of the top-tier teams.
Serving as a final tune-up event before the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, teams have one last significant opportunity to challenge Team Vitality`s formidable win streak before they potentially carry it into the Major. This preview explores the favorites and assesses their current form ahead of the tournament.
s1mple`s debut as FaZe`s AWPer is a headline event. The news of Kostylev`s return undoubtedly excited the entire community, though for many, the transfer was a significant surprise, especially given his previous brief return with Falcons. Expecting immediate success and a trophy is likely unrealistic, particularly considering their challenging group featuring Falcons, MOUZ, and Aurora. These teams are capable of creating significant problems even for the scene`s current leader, Vitality, let alone a FaZe squad that has been facing challenges.
Nevertheless, there`s widespread belief that a repeat of the Falcons situation is unlikely, as s1mple will be playing in his preferred and familiar role. For him, this could be a crucial opportunity to re-establish himself at the highest tier of professional play. However, was the AWPer position the sole issue for FaZe? Following ropz`s departure and their second-place finish at the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, karrigan`s team noticeably lost competitiveness. It`s possible Andersen has reached the limits of what he could achieve with this iteration, suggesting that perhaps only a complete roster overhaul can help the team moving forward.
Team Vitality continues to be an unstoppable force, currently unmatched by any other team. ZywOo and his teammates have secured first place in their last five tournaments, showcasing complete dominance in the tier-1 scene. Their win streak has grown consistently, surpassing most historical records. After clinching the ESL Grand Slam, there`s little doubt that this period belongs to the Vitality era.
However, it`s important to recognize that the longer Vitality`s win streak extends, the greater the pressure on the team becomes. This pressure could potentially work against them, especially given that both Falcons and MOUZ have come very close to ending their winning run on two occasions. apEX`s roster has clearly motivated and intensified their opponents. Despite this, Team Vitality remains the strong favorite for the championship.
IEM Dallas will be Falcons` third tournament featuring m0NESY. In their previous two outings, the team demonstrated considerable potential but also revealed existing issues. It`s possible that the recent short break allowed the players to refine their strategies and improve both their macro and micro gameplay. Falcons have a high probability of reaching the playoffs, although they face stiff competition in Group A, including the dominant Vitality.
Beyond Vitality, a significant challenge for Falcons might stem from rumors surrounding a potential signing, which could unsettled some players, particularly Magisk. Even if Reif manages not to dwell on the speculation, it`s likely to be a background factor that could influence his performance. For Falcons to win IEM Dallas, it will likely require every player to deliver their absolute peak aim and performance.
Rounding out the trio of top contenders for the trophy is MOUZ. They are also seen as potential champions, though their only significant win in 2025 was PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025, where the competition wasn`t exceptionally strong. Like many other teams, their primary hurdle has been Team Vitality, who prevented Brollan`s roster from winning both ESL Pro League Season 21 and BLAST Open Lisbon 2025.
Adding another layer of difficulty, after m0NESY joined Falcons, MOUZ has faced a new problem against that specific team; in their last two encounters, Brollan`s roster failed to secure even a single map. In contrast, they generally perform well against other teams at this level. MOUZ is widely considered the third strongest team competing for the championship.
IEM Dallas 2025 is scheduled to take place from May 19th to 25th in the USA. Sixteen teams will compete for a prize pool of one million dollars, with half of the total being distributed directly to the participating clubs.
Finley Holt