Team Spirit and MOUZ are set to face off in the grand final of IEM Cologne 2025 in an exciting best-of-five series. Both teams are in excellent form: Spirit aim to solidify their status as favorites, while MOUZ look to cap off their impressive run with a title after shocking the CS2 world by ending Vitality’s 37-match winning streak in the semifinals.
Current Form of the Teams
Team Spirit arrive at the IEM Cologne 2025 grand final in excellent shape. Over the last three months, they’ve played 36 maps and won 28 — a strong indicator of consistency and quality. In the past month, they’ve only competed at this event, picking up four wins out of five matches against HEROIC, MOUZ, Aurora, and NAVI. Their only loss came against MOUZ.
MOUZ are also in top form, with 28 wins across 44 maps over the past three months. Like Spirit, they’ve only participated in this tournament in the past month. They’ve claimed four wins in five matches — over NAVI, Liquid, FURIA, and Vitality — with their sole loss coming against Spirit.
Most notably, MOUZ ended Team Vitality’s historic 37-match win streak in the semifinals, which had lasted over half a year. It was one of the biggest upsets of the tournament and proof that MOUZ are peaking at the right time.
Map Pool Analysis
In a BO5 series, teams typically ban their weakest maps. Based on stats:
- Spirit usually ban Inferno
- MOUZ consistently ban Ancient
Given this, the predicted veto and pick order is:
- MOUZ ban Ancient — their least favorable map
- Spirit ban Inferno — a map they frequently avoid
Then the picks:
- MOUZ pick Mirage — their most played map with a 62% win rate
- Spirit pick Dust2 — one of their most successful picks with an 89% win rate
- MOUZ pick Nuke — a map they’ve used well against Spirit before
- Spirit pick Overpass — 100% win rate, and a confident win over MOUZ on this map during the tournament
- Decider: Train — the last remaining map if needed
Predicted map pool: Mirage, Dust2, Nuke, Overpass, Train
Head-to-Head and Key Players
These teams know each other very well — they’ve faced off four times in the past six months, with MOUZ winning three of those encounters:
- ESL Pro League S21 — 2:1 for MOUZ (Nuke, Dust2, Ancient)
- BLAST Open Lisbon 2025 — 2:1 for MOUZ (Ancient, Nuke, Dust2)
- BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 — 2:1 for MOUZ (Nuke, Dust2, Mirage)
- IEM Cologne 2025 — 2:1 for Spirit (Overpass, Mirage, Ancient)
Despite MOUZ having the edge in past meetings, Spirit’s most recent victory in this very tournament boosts their confidence heading into the final.
Key players:
MOUZ:
- xertioN — rating 1.14
- torzsi — rating 1.20
Both players have shown consistency, especially on opening maps.
Spirit:
- donk — incredible 1.49 rating at this event
- sh1ro — steady AWP presence with a 1.29 rating
donk continues to prove he’s one of the best players in CS2 right now, often putting up MVP-worthy performances.
Match Prediction
The IEM Cologne 2025 grand final promises to be intense and entertaining. Both teams are in top form, with deep map pools and star-studded rosters. While MOUZ have won three of the last four head-to-head matchups, Spirit’s recent win over them in the tournament gives them a psychological edge.
With donk at his peak and sh1ro offering reliable AWP support, Spirit have the tools to dominate if they can take control on Overpass and Dust2. That said, MOUZ have proven they can adapt and exploit weaknesses — and they’ve already done it multiple times against this very team.
Prediction – Spirit to win 3–2.
However, the series is expected to be highly competitive, with the fifth map — Train — potentially deciding the champion.
