MOUZ, MongolZ surge ahead at IEM Melbourne

MOUZ and The MongolZ will meet in the Group A upper-bracket final after their victories Tuesday at the $300,000 Intel Extreme Masters Melbourne 2025 event in Australia.

Team Vitality and Team Falcons will square off in the upper-bracket final in Group B at the 16-team Counter-Strike 2 tournament.

The top three teams from each group advance to the playoffs, with group stage winners moving to the semifinals, runners-up advancing to the quarterfinals as high seeds, and third-place teams advancing the quarterfinals as the low seeds. The single-elimination playoffs begin on Friday. All matches are best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final, with the winner earning $125,000.

In Tuesday's Group A upper-bracket semifinals, MOUZ defeated GamerLegion with a 13-6 win on Inferno and a 16-13 win on Nuke. The MongolZ beat FaZe Clan with a 13-8 win on Dust II and a 16-13 decision on Ancient.

In Group B, Team Vitality took down Team Liquid with a 13-5 win on Mirage and a 13-8 win on Nuke. Team Falcons overcame a 13-9 loss to Natus Vincere on Inferno with a 13-11 win on Mirage and a 13-4 victory on Dust II.

In the Group A lower-bracket quarterfinals, 3DMAX eliminated BIG and Complexity knocked out paiN Gaming, both via sweeps. In Group B, FlyQuest swept Virtus.pro and MIBR sent SAW home with a 2-1 win.

Wednesday's schedule:

Group A

--MOUZ vs. The MongolZ (upper-bracket final)

--Faze Clan vs. 3DMAX (lower-bracket semifinal)

--GamerLegion vs. Complexity (lower-bracket semifinal)

Group B

--Team Vitality vs. Team Falcons (upper-bracket final)

--Natus Vincere vs. FlyQuest (lower-bracket semifinal)

--Team Liquid vs. MIBR (lower-bracket semifinal)

IEM Melbourne prize pool:

1. $125,000

2. $50,000

3-4. $25,000

5-6. $12,500

7-8. $7,000

9-12. $5,000

13-16. $4,000 -- BIG, paiN Gaming, Virtus.pro, SAW

--Field Level Media