NAVI Defeat FaZe, While NIP Fall to aurora in Opening Matches at IEM Cologne 2025

aurora and Natus Vincere continue their journey through the upper bracket of the IEM Cologne 2025 after decisive victories over Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe, respectively. Both teams showcased strong performances on the deciding maps and advanced to the tournament semifinals.

aurora vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
On the first map, Dust2, aurora maintained a slight advantage for most of the match and secured the win — 13:11. The second map, Train, was more dramatic: after a hard-fought battle in regulation, the teams went into overtime, where aurora eventually edged out their opponent — 19:15.

Throughout the series, aurora demonstrated cohesive play and confidence in clutch situations. The match MVP was Özgür "woxic" Eker — 53 kills, 30 deaths, ADR 93, rating 7.6.

Natus Vincere vs. FaZe
FaZe started the match with a win on Ancient (13:11), where they performed well on defense and made a comeback, but then fell on Mirage. The map chosen by Natus Vincere ended with a score of 13:9 after a strong offensive in the second half. On the deciding Nuke, NAVI dominated from the start — 7:5 on offense, and then flawlessly closed the map on defense — 13:5.

The best player of the match for NAVI was Valeriy "b1t" Vakhovskiy with 55 frags and 38 deaths, 86 ADR.

Both teams advance further, where they will play for a spot in the playoffs. NAVI will face the winner of Mouz /Liquid, while aurora will meet the winner of the match between Spirit / Heroic . FaZe and NIP, on the other hand, drop to the lower bracket and will play against the losers of Mouz /Liquid and Spirit / Heroic , respectively.

IEM Cologne 2025 takes place from July 23 to August 3 in Germany . The tournament prize pool is $1,000,000.