At IEM Dallas 2025, all eyes were locked on one man - a legendary figure in the Counter-Strike scene, making his long-awaited return to tier-one competition after a lengthy absence.

You already know who we’re talking about. His name carries too much weight to ignore.

Thank you for gracing us with your presence, nexa.

Oh yeah, and some guy name s1mple was there as well.

He actually didn’t do too bad, finishing with a 1.11 rating across seven maps. The sniper and this random little org called FaZe managed to take down BC.Game, but got eliminated at the hands of HEROIC. Not bad at all for someone who plays two FACEIT games every other week and hadn’t played an official since November.

As for skullz… ugly stuff. Sure, playing in a new team doesn’t exactly set you up for success, but this wasn’t a great showing for the Brazilian. Not even close.

In other news, Vitality won every game… again. Shocker.

They did come dangerously close to ending their streak against The MongolZ though, as the Mirage decider ended 13-11 in Vitality’s favor. Very entertaining series overall. If you haven’t watched it yet, we highly recommend it.

On the contrary, there are a few teams we strongly advise against watching. Unless you’re into self-inflicted pain, that is.

3DMAX, Lynn Vision, and Legacy put on performances that might just make you want to poke your eyes out. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

While GamerLegion seemed to bounce back from their disastrous Astana showing - making it to their second straight IEM playoffs - FURIA, on the other hand, looked far less convincing after what was a promising run in Kazakhstan. We’ll have to wait and see which version shows up at the Major.

In what was an even more predictable outcome than nexa and BC.Game being terrible, MOUZ and Falcons breezed through their opening matches to meet in the upper bracket final.

The series wasn’t nearly as entertaining as its Group A counterpart, but it was still a fun watch – torszi popped off, while none of the Falcons ever really took flight.

Aurora secured the final playoff spot after a rough start, dropping their opening match to HEROIC. They managed to bounce back through the lower bracket, going all the way and punching their ticket to the Playoffs by exacting revenge in the qualifying game.

With IEM Dallas’ Group Stage wrapped up, the teams qualified for the playoffs are:

🇪🇺 Falcons

🇪🇺 GamerLegion

🇲🇳 TheMongolZ

🇪🇺 Vitality

🇪🇺 MOUZ

🇹🇷 Aurora