An exciting match between IEM Katowice 2025 Play-in's group stage will take place between paiN and Virtus.pro. Both teams have shown commendable results in recent qualifiers and are ready to face off. In this article, we will analyze the teams' current form, map pool, and make a prediction for the match outcome.
Current Form of Teams
The paiN team has shown commendable results over the past month, with their average rating in S-tier tournaments standing at 5.8. During the BLAST Bounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier, the team played three matches, where they defeated GamerLegion and FaZe, but lost to NAVI with a score of 2-1 in a tense battle. PaiN demonstrates stability and confidence, especially in matches against strong opponents.
Virtus.pro has a slightly higher average rating over the past month — 6.0 across all tournaments. In the same qualifying tournament, the team played two matches: they crushed Complexity 2-0, but lost to Vitality 0-2. VP shows decent form, but less match practice might pose a challenge against paiN.
Map Pool
paiN will likely ban Ancient, which they exclude most frequently (63 bans over 6 months). The team will probably choose Anubis, where their win rate stands at 65% over 26 games, or Nuke with an impressive win rate of 68% over 31 games. It is also expected that Inferno will be a part of their strategy due to a steady win rate of 67%.
Virtus.pro is likely to ban Nuke, where the team has a 0% win rate over the past 6 months (0 games). The main choice will probably be Mirage (14 games, 71% win rate), as the most stable map. Another possible choice is Ancient, although the win rate on it is only 39%.
- Dust2 - choice of paiN
- Train - choice of VP
- Inferno - decider
Match Prediction
The match between paiN and Virtus.pro promises to be intense. PaiN demonstrates confidence in matches against strong opponents, while Virtus.pro has a slight advantage in average rating and broader map pool.
paiN 2:1 Virtus Pro
IEM Katowice 2025 will take place from January 29 to February 9 in Katowice, Poland. Twenty-four teams will compete for a prize pool of $1 million. You can follow the event schedule and results through this link.
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