Vitality and FURIA have made it into the IEM Chengdu 2025 grand finals after defeating MOUZ and Falcons, respectively. The winner of the Chinese LAN will take home $285,000 and score a valuable point in the ESL Grand Slam 6.
This is everything you need to know about the IEM Chengdu grand finals between Vitality and FURIA.
| Match | Vitality vs. FURIA – IEM Chengdu 2025 grand finals |
|---|---|
| Kick-off | November 9th, 2025, at 3 a.m. ET / 9 a.m. CET |
| Top pick | Vitality to win 3-2 |
| Betting favorite | Vitality |
In summary, this will be a battle between the two best CS2 teams in the world at the moment. Vitality was the undisputed No. 1 team in the world in the first six months of 2025, as they went on to win eight tournaments in a row, topping this winstreak with the BLAST.tv Austin Major in June.
Vitality have slowed down after the player break, but they’re already near their peak again, as they won ESL Pro League Season 22 in October.
FURIA, on the other hand, have had a successful season too, and won FISSURE Playground 2 and the Thunderpick World Championship thus far. But they have not beaten Vitality this year yet.
They faced each other at ESL Pro League Season 22, and Vitality knocked FURIA out to advance to the semifinals. As much as FURIA have played so well lately, it would be unwise to bet on them against Vitality.
Odds are subject to change.
Vitality are the undisputed best CS2 team in the world in 2025 thus far. Credit: © ESL
Vitality had a sort of slow start at IEM Chengdu 2025 as they’ve dropped one map to Virtus.pro — a team that are nowhere near their level at the moment — in their debut, and lost to MOUZ next.
They found themselves in a rare lower-bracket run, but prevailed with wins over Lynn Vision and G2 to reach the IEM Chengdu playoffs.
And then, we’ve once again seen this Vitality team show their strength in knockout matches. They won comfortably against Astralis in the quarterfinals, and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Robin “ropz” Kool carried the team in a tough semifinals against MOUZ.
MOUZ had a good chance to start the series 1-0, but Vitality recovered from a 9-3 deficit to force overtime and take Nuke. They have that never-give-up mentality and have won many matches through sheer grit this year. This is a result of having ZywOo and ropz, two players who can single-handedly win rounds.
Given all they’ve accomplished this year and their recent form, Vitality undoubtely arrive at the IEM Chengdu grand finals as the big favorite versus FURIA.
Molodoy is having a phenomenal tournament, but can he do it versus ZywOo? Credit: © ESL
FURIA were breezing past the IEM Chengdu group stage until they met MOUZ in the upper-bracket final. The Brazilians lost despite their best efforts, but they’ve been flawless in the playoffs thus far, having eliminated The MongolZ and Falcons in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively.
Despite entering the grand finals as the underdog, FURIA fans have reason to stay positive. All their players, minus the IGL Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, are on top of their game, individually speaking. We’ve seen highlights from Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, Yuri “yuurih” Santos, Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis, and most notably Danil “molodoy” Golubenko.
The Kazakh AWPer is playing like a veteran in his rookie year and is already one of the best CS2 players in the world.
ApEX has outcalled many IGLs in 2025. Credit: Helena Kristiansson | © ESL
Without exaggerating, Vitality and FURIA are top 1 and top 2, respectively, and they’re the best when it comes to tactics, set plays, and reads at the moment.
It will be interesting to see who prevails: Vitality, who have the best CT-side among the top 10 teams in the past 30 days, or FURIA, who have the best T-side of all the top 10 teams in the past 30 days. There’s a common understanding that the CS2 economy favors the T-side at the moment, so this could help FURIA in this series.
Plus, it will be interesting to see if molodoy, KSCERATO, and yuurih can keep up with ZywOo, ropz, and Shahar “flameZ” Shushan in a do-or-die match such as the IEM Chengdu grand finals. These six — minus yuurih, maybe — are all in the range of winning the MVP award for IEM Chengdu.
Even though this grand final could go either way, it’s never recommended to bet against ZywOo, especially after Vitality signed an extraordinary sidekick in the form of ropz. Those two are simply too clutch and rarely drop the ball in finals.
| Market | Odds |
|---|---|
| Vitality to win | 1.53 |
| FURIA to win | 2.45 |
| Over 4.5 maps | 2.45 |
| Under 4.5 maps | 1.50 |
Odds are subject to change.
These are my picks for Vitality vs. FURIA, if I were to bet on this game:
Feature image credit: © ESL
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