Eternal Fire and FaZe continue fighting for a spot in the playoffs of IEM Katowice 2025, while 3DMAX and G2 exit the tournament. The Turkish squad faced unexpected resistance from 3DMAX but managed to turn the game around, and FaZe in a tense battle proved stronger than G2. How the maps unfolded is covered in our review.

Eternal Fire vs. 3DMAX

One of today's first matches in Group A was between Eternal Fire and 3DMAX, where the Turkish team was the clear favorite. Despite this, the first map ended with a lopsided score of 13:3 in favor of 3DMAX, who showed incredible performance.

The second map was Anubis, Eternal Fire's best map. In the first half, they fully justified this reputation and finished it with an 8:4 score. Unexpectedly, in the second half, they gave it up in a mirrored score. In overtime, they had no trouble securing the map and took the game to the third map. On the third map, Dust2, the first half ended 7:5 in favor of Eternal Fire, and the second half was closely contested. Nevertheless, Eternal Fire proved stronger and won 13:10. As a result, they advance to the next stage, while 3DMAX are out of the tournament.

FaZe vs. G2

Judging by the team names, the match was expected to be incredible. Indeed it was, with the first map being closely contested, both halves ending 6:6. In overtime, FaZe were stronger and managed to win 16:13. 

The second was Inferno, where the first half ended 8:4 in favor of FaZe, but G2 managed to claw back, winning 9 rounds, 5 of them consecutively. The third was Nuke, where the first half was also 6:6, indicating a tight match. However, in the second half, FaZe won a streak of 6 rounds and clinched victory 13:8.

IEM Katowice 2025 takes place from January 29 to February 9 in Katowice, Poland. Twenty-four teams are competing for a prize pool of $1 million. You can follow the schedule and results of the event through this link.