Team Spirit Dominates IEM Cologne 2025 with 3-0 Sweep Over MOUZ, Donk Shines as MVP
- Sagar Mankar
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Team Spirit secured the IEM Cologne 2025 championship this weekend with a dominant 3-0 victory over MOUZ in the Grand Final, walking away with a hefty $400,000 prize and one of the most prestigious titles in Counter-Strike esports.
Held at the iconic LANXESS Arena in Cologne, Germany, the event delivered top-tier gameplay in front of thousands of live spectators and over a million online viewers. Team Spirit, already on the radar as one of the top contenders, cemented their legacy with a performance that was both tactically disciplined and individually explosive.
Before reaching the final, Spirit navigated a challenging bracket. They topped Group B by beating MOUZ, securing a direct spot in the semifinals. Vitality, who came into the event on a hot streak with seven consecutive tournament wins—most notably the BLAST.tv Austin Major—were widely expected to be the final boss. However, MOUZ stunned everyone by sweeping Vitality in the semifinals, setting up a rematch with Spirit in the Grand Final.
From the first map, Spirit made their intentions clear. They opened the series with a crushing 13-7 win on Mirage, shutting down MOUZ’s momentum before it could even begin. The second map, Ancient, offered a bit more resistance as MOUZ took an early 11-5 lead, but Spirit clawed their way back, eventually sealing the comeback 13-11. A highlight of the map was Danil "donk" Kryshkovets pulling off a brilliant 1v2 clutch that sent the crowd into a frenzy. The final map, Nuke, was all Spirit once again, as they wrapped up the series with a 13-6 win.
Donk, just 18 years old, earned the tournament MVP award with an astonishing 1.50 rating in the final. This marks his 3rd MVP award of the year (after Shanghai Major and IEM Katowice) and 9th of his career—pushing him past Counter-Strike legends like GuardiaN, f0rest, and coldzera, who each have eight MVPs. He’s now firmly in the conversation as one of the most dominant players in the world.
This win completes what many fans are calling a “trophy trifecta” for Team Spirit, who have now captured IEM Katowice, a Major, and IEM Cologne in the same competitive cycle. Boris “magixx” Vorobiev, one of the team’s newest additions, also made an impressive debut, seamlessly integrating into Spirit’s system and contributing to their championship run.
The event also set new records on the viewership front. According to Esports Charts, the Grand Final peaked at over 1.09 million viewers, making it the second most-watched CS tournament of 2025 so far. Over the 84-hour event, IEM Cologne 2025 pulled in more than 35 million hours watched, with an average viewership of over 416,000.
Here’s the complete prize pool breakdown for the event:
Placement | Prize | Team |
1st | $400,000 | Team Spirit |
2nd | $180,000 | MOUZ |
3rd-4th | $80,000 | Team Vitality, NAVI |
5th-6th | $40,000 | FURIA, The MongolZ |
7th-8th | $24,000 | G2 Esports, FaZe Clan |
9th-12th | $16,000 | Falcons, 3DMAX, Aurora, NiP |
13th-16th | $10,000 | Astralis, GamerLegion, Liquid, HEROIC |
17th-20th | $4,500 | paiN, Virtus.pro, TYLOO, FlyQuest |
21st-24th | $2,500 | BIG, MIBR, Complexity, B8 |
Looking ahead, all eyes will now be on the IEM Cologne 2026 Major, scheduled for June 18–21, 2026, at the LANXESS Arena once again.
For now, Spirit fans have every reason to celebrate, while the rest of the CS scene is left asking one big question: can anyone stop this team?