MOUZ, Vitality secure semifinal spots at IEM Melbourne

MOUZ and Team Vitality earned direct berths into the semifinals of the $300,000 Intel Extreme Masters Melbourne 2025 event in Australia on Wednesday.

In the upper-bracket final of Group A, MOUZ defeated The MongolZ 13-9 on Mirage and 13-7 on Nuke to advance.

In the same round in Group B, Vitality topped Team Falcons 16-13 on Mirage and 13-8 on Inferno.

MongolZ and Falcons moved into the quarterfinals of the Counter-Strike 2 tournament.

There, Falcons will meet GamerLegion, which qualified by defeating FaZe Clan in a hotly contested lower-bracket final in Group A. GamerLegion opened with a 19-16 win on Mirage, followed by a 13-11 triumph on Nuke.

In Group B, Team Liquid swept MIBR 2-0 in the lower-bracket semifinal, then topped Natus Vincere 2-1 in the final to advance.

Liquid sandwiched a 13-6 win on Anubis and a 13-8 victory on Ancient around a 13-10 loss on Inferno to qualify for the playoffs.

Liquid will face MongolZ in the quarterfinal round.

The top three teams from each group advanced to the single-elimination playoffs, which begin Friday. All matches are best-of-three until Sunday's best-of-five grand final, with the winner earning $125,000.

Friday playoff schedule:

--Team Falcons vs. GamerLegion (quarterfinal)

--The MongolZ vs. Team Liquid (quarterfinal)

Saturday playoff schedule:

--MOUZ vs. winner of Team Falcons vs. GamerLegion (semifinal)

--Team Vitality vs. winner of The MongolZ vs. Team Liquid (semifinal)

IEM Melbourne prize pool:

1. $125,000

2. $50,000

3-4. $25,000

5-6. $12,500

7-8. $7,000 - FaZe Clan, Natus Vincere

9-12. $5,000 -- 3DMAX, Complexity, FlyQuest, MIBR

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

--Field Level Media