Team Liquid vs FaZe Clan: IEM Cologne 2025 CS2 betting odds, tips

Luke Warr Published July 23, 2025

FaZe Clan’s back in action and it’s a win over Team Liquid away from the IEM Cologne 2025 group stage; can you bet on them getting it?

Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev is back on NaVi’s bench wondering what’s next. Meanwhile, Helvijs “broky” Saukants is back in action for FaZe Clan. While there was reason to question the state of the team after his odd hiatus, FaZe returned with an emphatic win to start its IEM Cologne 2025 run. Can it keep up that momentum against Team Liquid?

FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid match overview

• Tournament: IEM Cologne 2025
• Stage: Play-in Stage
• Game: Counter-Strike 2
• Format: Best-of-three

Betting tip: FaZe with broky is, quite simply, a better team than Team Liquid.

My FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid pick: FaZe Clan wins ()

FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid in-depth team, match analysis

There was plenty of reason to doubt FaZe Clan heading into IEM Cologne. The addition of s1mple was a success thanks to its top-eight run in the BLAST Austin Major. Still, the team never looked particularly comfortable.

The team gelled quickly enough, and s1mple showed enough of his younger self, to advance to the playoffs. But the execution was never there in a way where the team could really be comfortably favored against top-10 opponents. So after a downgrade in terms of raw firepower, can fans really feel bullish on FaZe Clan’s chances in IEM Cologne? Yes, apparently.

While “FaZe Magic” is a real phenomenon, the team simply didn’t need it. The team didn’t need to clutch or finagle its way to victory. It simply took an early lead and turned that into a win. Wild FaZe Clan comebacks and rallies are certainly fun to watch but a seasoned, polished roster is much safer to bet on. That’s bad news for Team Liquid.

Liquid had a strong debut of its own in IEM Cologne, scoring a handy win over Pain Gaming. It was a much-needed win for the team, which looked to be in a shambolic state after flopping in the BLAST Austin Major and failing to qualify for ESL Pro League Season 22.

While that’s a key victory for the team, it does not translate into a strong chance of success against a top-10 team. Never mind against a top-10 team that could be in peak form.

Rosters and roles

Map pool

• FaZe has been strong on Ancient in 2025 and roughly everywhere else, except for Mirage. Mirage is the one map where the team has a losing record, going 3-7 so far this year.
• Team Liquid has struggled in 2025, going roughly even across a majority of the game’s maps while losing a stronger majority of its games on Dust 2, Nuke, and Mirage.
• Neither Team Liquid nor FaZe have a permaban, though both have generally avoided playing on Train.
• Both teams have Anubis as one of their best maps, but Anubis was replaced by Overpass in the active duty rotation.

Key stats

Stats include all matches played by both teams in 2025 thus far.

FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid head-to-head record

Dating back to the start of 2024, Team Liquid and FaZe Clan have played seven matches against each other. FaZe has won six of them, but Team Liquid took the most recent match in IEM Dallas. However, that match was FaZe’s debut with s1mple where it was also forced to use another substitute.

FaZe Clan and Team Liquid recent match history

FaZe returned to action after a top-eight finish in the BLAST Austin Major by starting IEM Cologne with a win over BIG.

• BIG: 2-0 win
• The MongolZ: 2-0 loss
• The MongolZ: 2-0 win
• Legacy: 1-0 win
• MOUZ: 1-0 win

Team Liquid’s win over Pain Gaming broke an ugly losing streak for the team that stretched across three tournaments:

• Pain Gaming: 2-0 win
• Sashi Esport: 2-1 loss
• MOUZ: 2-1 loss
• The MongolZ: 1-0 loss
• Lynn Vision Gaming: 1-0 loss

FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid betting odds snapshot

Lines pulled from at 2:45 pm MT on July 23, 2025.

FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid betting picks and predictions

FaZe Clan is a big enough favorite on the that fans and bettors will need to get creative to turn a significant profit. Still, there’s also good opportunity for low-risk, low-reward plays.

Best picks

• FaZe Clan wins @ 1.54 – FaZe Clan should be looked at as a decent favorite for this match, but 1.54 offers enough of a return to make this a solid play.
• FaZe Clan wins 2-0 @ 2.64 – Team Liquid doesn’t have a “home” map advantage anywhere and with its struggles on Dust 2 and Nuke, there’s a good chance of this being a FaZe sweep.
• EliGe under 15.5 kills on map 1/2 @ 2.31 – Win or lose, EliGe has not been turning in many kills for FaZe Clan. In 20 of FaZe’s 34 maps in the last three months, EliGe has turned in under 15.5 kills. With his teammates operating at a high level, there probably won’t be too many kills left for him regardless of how well he’s playing individually.

FaZe Clan vs Team Liquid Prediction

Our pick: FaZe Clan as the match winner at 2-0 at 2.64 odds at GG.BET.