ESL announce IEM Melbourne 2025 team list

ESL revealed on February 14th the 16 teams invited to IEM Melbourne 2025, which will take place in April. Ten invites were handed out based on the Valve global standings, while the remaining six were sent out to the best teams in Europe, Americas, and Asia, according to the Valve Regional Standings (VRS).

Liquid is the only North American team invited and they received the invitation based on the Americas VRS.

Most top teams accepted the IEM Melbourne invite, minus G2, FURIA, and Astralis. The 16 teams will fight for their share of the $1 million prize pool — in which $300,000 is for the players and $700,000 goes to revenue share.

IEM Melbourne 2025 kicks off on April 21st and ends on April 27th with the best-of-five grand finals. The group stage will split the teams into two double-elimination brackets, which will see the group winners progress to the semifinals and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams move on to the quarterfinals.

The playoffs will use the good ol' single-elimination bracket format. All IEM Melbourne matches will be best-of-three series, aside from the aforementioned grand finals.

Here is the complete team list for IEM Melbourne: