apEX finally got his hands on the coveted trophy after his team ran out 3-0 winners in a one-sided final.
Vitality win IEM Katowice after a dominant performance
Vitality won IEM Katowice 2025 following a 3-0 victory over Spirit, stopping the Russian team in their tracks as they looked in prime position to add to their Shanghai Major and BLAST Bounty trophies.
It was Vitality’s first title since last year’s IEM Cologne and it came less than two months after the team welcomed Robin “ropz” Kool into the roster. They produced their best performance with the Estonian rifler in a series they controlled from the outset, with Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut leading the charge with a 1.69 rating.
For Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, the victory finally ends his long quest for the Katowice trophy. The 31-year-old, who first played in the tournament in 2015, had said that Katowice was one of the trophies he wanted to win before retiring.
“It took time but I’ve finished the game, won every big tournament,” he said after the match. “It finally happened. It was my best final for years individually. I wanted this so much.”
He added: “I’ll be 32 in a few days. You set new goals all the time. All the people who want me to retire, I won’t, I’m sorry.”
A quiet day at the office for donk
Danil “donk” Kryshkovets headed into the grand final chasing his eighth MVP medal, but it was an afternoon to forget for the 18-year-old phenom.
A stunning quad-kill with a Desert Eagle early on Dust2 was one of the few bright moments he had in the series.
He lacked his usual composure and flair and was unable to pull off the sort of hero rounds his team desperately needed in a series like this. Even on Mirage, the closest of the three maps, it was Boris “magixx” Vorobiev who came to rescue the team in the second half with key rounds.
donk finished the series with just a 0.88 rating and a disappointing duel record against Vitality’s two key stars, ZywOo (6-12) and ropz (7-14).
ropz growing into his role
ropz produced a fine performance in this series, especially on Dust2, where he had his best-ever Big Event map as he posted a 2.18 rating. The Estonian rifler had multi-kills in eight rounds and averaged a whopping 142 damage per round during the game.
It was the sort of performance that dispelled any doubts about ropz’s ability to be a star player and help Vitality win trophies. Watching him in the BLAST Bounty made for some uncomfortable moments on the T side as it was clear he was still adjusting to his new surroundings as a replacement for Lotan “Spinx” Giladi.
In an interview with HLTV in Copenhagen, William “mezii” Merriman admitted that T-side struggles are normal for a new team because of a lack of chemistry, and expressed confidence in apEX to find a solution.
Vitality ended IEM Katowice with a 60.4% T winrate in Katowice (a tournament-high), up from just 46.5% in the online portion of BLAST Bounty and 40.9% at the LAN Finals. ropz ended the tournament with a 1.23 rating, the fourth-highest of his career at Big Events, showing just why many thought his free signing was about as big a steal as you can get in Counter-Strike.
fnatic still the only back-to-back Katowice winner
With Spirit failing to defend their 2024 Katowice trophy, fnatic remains the only team to have won back-to-back trophies in the Polish city.
fnatic first lifted the trophy in 2015, when ESL One Katowice was a Major, after beating Ninjas in Pyjamas 2-1 in the grand final. They repeated the feat the following year by sweeping Luminosity in a best-of-five final with almost the same roster. (Dennis “dennis” Edman had replaced Markus “pronax” Wallsten as IGL, and Viktor “vuggo” Jendeby had taken over from Jonatan “Devilwalk” Lundberg as coach.)
fnatic at ESL One Katowice 2015
The Swedish team would add a third Katowice trophy to their cabinet in 2018, this time with Maikil “Golden” Selim and Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson on the roster.
All Katowice champions:
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