Vitality triumphs in Poland to win first-ever IEM Katowice title
In the organisation's history, they had never made it outside the final eight but Vitality defied expectations to pick up their first ever IEM Katowice trophy as apEX and co. lifted the IEM Katowice 2025 title, drubbing defending champions Spirit 3-0 in the Grand Final.
ropz got donk through the smoke to kick things off on Dust2, which set the tone for Vitality's CT half that saw them start with a 7-5 lead. Spirit had the chance to close the gap even after losing the second pistol as a zont1x triple on the force buy kept them alive but an apEX P250 triple, on a mixed buy in the following round saw Vitality answer back immediately before ropz shut down any Spirit comeback chances to put Vitality 1-0 up in the Grand Final as they locked in Spirit's pick 13-6.
Vitality's T side led by the ZywOo and ropz duo powered them to an 8-4 half before a near-flawless defensive hold saw them ease to a 13-5 win with ZywOo topping the scoreboard with 26 kills and an ADR of 127. Mirage started where Nuke left off as Vitality's defences shut down Spirit, running away to another four round lead at the break. The pistol win and conversions looked all but certain to put Vitality way to the title but an ace and a crucial 1v1 from magixx delayed the inevitable. Vitality though managed to close things out at 13-11 to close out the Grand Final in a 3-0 manner.
Source: ESL
For apEX, Katowice was the only trophy missing from his illustrious career, which he adds to his trophy cabinet after trying for 11 years while for ropz, its sweet revenge after going down to Spirit last year in the Katowice Grand Final with FaZe. ZywOo, meanwhile, who ended the event with a 1.42 rating and a 1.69 rating in the Grand Final, was named as the MVP of IEM Katowice 2025.
VitalitySpirit| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
67 - 29 | +38 | 103.7 | 85.2% | 1.69 |
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
51 - 32 | +19 | 95.8 | 85.2% | 1.44 |
| Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
45 - 36 | +9 | 94.8 | 77.0% | 1.37 |
 Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
44 - 44 | +0 | 78.2 | 72.1% | 1.12 |
 William 'mezii' Merriman |
31 - 28 | +3 | 51.1 | 85.2% | 0.99 |
| Spirit |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia |
39 - 47 | -8 | 76.3 | 60.7% | 0.89 |
 Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets |
40 - 49 | -9 | 69.0 | 59.0% | 0.88 |
| Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev |
35 - 43 | -8 | 62.1 | 57.4% | 0.82 |
| Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov |
35 - 47 | -12 | 63.4 | 63.9% | 0.76 |
| Leonid 'chopper' Vishnyakov |
20 - 53 | -33 | 42.0 | 44.3% | 0.47 |
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