Team Vitality and Team Falcons are facing off in the IEM Dallas semifinals, but how can you bet against either one of these superteams? It’s actually surprisingly easy.
After looking downright terrifying in its last few outings, Team Falcons has looked a bit shaky in IEM Dallas. Its journey through the group stage was an extraordinary carry job by Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, who looked the part of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev circa 2021.
Against GamerLegion in the quarterfinals, Falcons showed uncharacteristically solid teamwork. While much of the banter surrounding the match focused on Nikola “NiKo” Kovač struggling, a Team Falcons that actually works together well is a scary concept. Can you bet on this team pulling off a win against Team Vitality in IEM Dallas, though?
QUARTER-FINAL! Falcons vs GamerLegion – HIGHLIGHTS – IEM Dallas 2025 | CS2
On May 24, 2025, Team Vitality and Team Falcons will play in the IEM Dallas semifinals. This match will determine the second competitor in the event’s grand finals. The loser will walk out with a $25,000 third-place prize while the winner will retain their shot at the $125,000 top prize and will win the first tournament in ESL Grand Slam Season 6.
Team Vitality has actually shown some kinks in its armor at IEM Dallas. While the team is still on an extraordinary run overall, it hasn’t been the dominant force that was regularly handing top-10 teams map losses in under 20 rounds. The team has won its three IEM Dallas matches in just seven maps, but five of its six map wins have come in 22 rounds or more.
The team is still looking strong overall, but it has looked oddly beatable in Texas so far. Bettors and fans alike should feel a bit uneasy about that against Team Falcons and looking forward to the BLAST Austin Major.
Team Vitality is on a 28-match winning streak at this point, which now includes a 3-0 run through the IEM Dallas group stage:
Vitality’s full 2025 roster is in attendance for IEM Dallas and the team looks to be as sharp as ever:
Across Vitality’s winning streak, it has lost just 12 maps. Four of those losses came on Mirage and three came on Nuke. Don’t mistake that with the team being weak on those maps though, as Vitality is still 10-4 and 13-3 on those maps during that stretch. The team instantly bans Ancient.
Falcons went 2-1 in the IEM Dallas Group stage and beat GamerLegion to earn a match against Vitality. That said, it played against Vitality in the finals of BLAST Rivals Spring, too.
m0NESY was added to Team Falcons last month from G2 Esports and has been the talk of the town since:
Since adding m0NESY, Falcons has been at its best on Ancient and Dust 2. The new Falcons roster is off to a 4-0 start on Ancient, but has routinely steered things to Dust 2. That’s paid off with an 8-2 record. The team is actually at or around 50-50 on Nuke, Mirage, Train, and Inferno. It still bans Anubis.
Team Vitality and Falcons have played three times in 2025. After avoiding each other for almost four months, the two were paired up three times across two weeks in IEM Melbourne and BLAST Rivals Spring. Vitality have won all three matches, but two of them were razor-thin 3-2 victories in grand finals.
WINNER TO SEMI-FINAL! Vitality vs TheMongolz – HIGHLIGHTS – IEM Dallas 2025 | CS2
Vitality is a solid favorite to beat Team Falcons in the IEM Dallas playoffs. Betting sites aren’t buying into the idea of Vitality looking shaky. The moneylines are currently set at 1.39 against 2.91. That shows betting sites are still quite confident that ZywOo and apEX can do the trick.
Vitality should be able to beat Team Falcons in the IEM Dallas playoffs. Until that winning streak actually ends, it’s really hard to pick or bet against Vitality. The door could be cracked open for Falcons, but it’s also possible Vitality recovers or finds something in the tapes that it can exploit.
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