With only a few days until April 21st, when IEM Melbourne 2025 kicks off at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park (capacity: 14,820), this is going to be a major event, I feel.

We’re looking at $125,000 USD for the 1st place team.

The matches are split into two groups. Group A has one matchup I’m looking forward to, while Group B has a few that seem even more interesting.

Group A features the FaZe vs paiN matchup during the opening day of the event.

FaZe has 6 wins, while paiN only has 4 wins against them. At the time of writing, FaZe sits at 1.29 to 1.31 odds on the majority of sportsbooks right now.

Group B has Natus Vincere vs MIBR and Liquid vs Virtus.pro.

MIBR has had only a single match against Natus, where MIBR won, yet Natus is currently ranked #10 on the ladder, according to HLTV.

So this could be an interesting matchup.

The main reason I’m interested in the Liquid vs Virtus.pro match is that Virtus.pro has a lineup mostly made up of Ruskis, and my loyalty to Liquid makes me wonder how this might go.

Liquid is currently ranked #15 on the ladder and has won 4 of their previous matchups, with Virtus.pro only winning 2; Yet with Liquid having NertZ, I have some hope—his K/D (Kill/Death) ratio is 1.37, and with a 52.0% headshot rate, there’s definitely potential for this Israeli player to make an impact.

Yet at the same time, Virtus.pro holds the #11 spot in the rankings—so fingers crossed to see how the Ruskis do this time around.