Vitality and FURIA are through the IEM Chengdu 2025 semifinals following victories over Astralis and The MongolZ, respectively, on November 7th.
An inspiring performance from Shahar “flameZ” Shushan (58 kills, 91.5 ADR, and 1.35 rating) paved the way for Vitality’s 2-1 victory over Astralis.
As for FURIA, they comfortably beat The MongolZ by 2-0, as the Kazakh star Danil “molodoy” Golubenko won them a couple of decisive rounds toward the end of Overpass, the second map of the series. It was a solid effort from The MongolZ, considering that they played their first tournament with Unudelger “controlez” Baasanjargal instead of Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold.
Aside from Spirit failing to reach the playoffs following yet another defeat to The MongolZ, all the other best CS2 teams in the world have made deep runs at IEM Chengdu. Vitality will face MOUZ in the IEM Chengdu semifinals, while FURIA will play against Falcons.
The IEM Chengdu semifinals kick off on November 8th at 7:30 a.m. CET with MOUZ vs. Vitality, and carry on with FURIA vs. Falcons at 10:45 a.m. CET. Those two are great matches to bet on, in case you’re into CS2 betting.
Vitality lost to MOUZ earlier in the tournament, but their head-to-head record is infinitely better. Credit: © ESL
This is the worst matchup possible for MOUZ, as Vitality have defeated them in five grand finals or semifinals this year. The only time that MOUZ beat Vitality in a do-or-die game was at the IEM Cologne 2025 semifinals.
MOUZ fans have the right to argue that Vitality were practically unbeatable in the first six months of 2025, but still, this 5-1 record in knockout matches is nothing short of awful.
The good news for MOUZ fans is that they defeated Vitality in the IEM Chengdu group stage, so Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás and co. should start the semifinals with that extra inch of confidence. But, at the same time, everyone knows that Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Robin “ropz” Kool are players who come alive in playoffs.
If I were to bet on this game, I’d pick Vitality to win the best-of-three and advance to the IEM Chengdu grand finals over MOUZ.
| Market | Odds |
|---|---|
| Vitality to win | 1.64 |
| MOUZ to win | 2.20 |
| Over 2.5 maps | 1.87 |
| Under 2.5 maps | 1.85 |
These are my picks:
The odds above are via Stake and are subject to change.
Molodoy is a serious candidate for Rookie of the Year despite all the kyousuke hype. Credit: © ESL
FURIA have had a meteoric rise after picking up molodoy and Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis ahead of the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025. Mixing the Brazilians with those two CIS players have turned FURIA into a solid top-five team in the world, and they already won FISSURE Playground 2 in September and the Thunderpick World Championship in October.
Meanwhile, Falcons are still fighting to win their first trophy since bringing in Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin following their BLAST.tv Austin Major fiasco. They’ve had good runs after a slow start, and Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov is seemingly returning to his prime form, but they’re still lacking in decisive matches.
FURIA have beaten Falcons twice since August, once in a do-or-die match at IEM Cologne, and the other in the FISSURE Playground 2 semifinals.
If I were to bet on this game, I’d pick FURIA to defeat Falcons and advance to the IEM Chengdu grand finals.
| Market | Odds |
|---|---|
| Falcons to win | 1.50 |
| FURIA to win | 2.40 |
| Over 2.5 maps | 2.01 |
| Under 2.5 maps | 1.71 |
These are my picks:
The odds above are via Stake and are subject to change.
Feature image credit: © ESL
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