IEM Chengdu 2025 team list confirmed

The full list of 16 Counter-Strike teams has been locked in for the upcoming Intel Extreme Masters event in China.

August 26, 2025 0

ESL Intel Extreme Masters esports tournaments

ESL has announced the complete list of Counter-Strike 2 teams that will attend Intel Extreme Masters Chengdu 2025, which starts on November 3.

The 16 teams will head to China for the second iteration of IEM Chengdu, marking the 20th S-Tier CS2 esports tournament of the season.

Like most events of 2025, IEM Chengdu will not hold qualifiers. Instead, ESL distributed invites to teams based on their position in the Valve Regional Standing (VRS) as of the August 4 update.

Of the 16 invites, 10 were sent out via the Global VRS. The remaining six were distributed between teams based on their regional VRS standing in Europe, the Americas, and Asia.

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The finalized list will include many of the world’s top dogs — including defending champions FaZe Clan, reigning Major winners Team Vitality, Esports World Cup title holders The MongolZ, and the surging Team Spirit.

Two noteworthy absentees are GamerLegion and EWC 2025 finalists Aurora Gaming, who declined invitations and were replaced by Virtus.pro and HEROIC.

The tournament kicks off with two eight-team double-elimination groups. There, the participating squads will fight in best-of-three series to determine which three teams per group advance to the single-elimination playoffs.

Group winners will be awarded a semifinal bye. Meanwhile, the second- and third-placed teams will proceed to the quarterfinals as high and low seeds, respectively.

Playoffs will be best-of-three fixtures — except for the grand final, which will be best-of-five.

With over two months separating us from the IEM Chengdu 2025 kickoff, the top Counter-Strike 2 betting sites have yet to open outright markets.

Those are expected to become available following the conclusion of Thunderpick World Championship 2025 on October 19.