IEM Cologne 2025 switches to new map pool

Through a post on X, ESL has announced that the ongoing ESL Pro League Season 22 qualifiers will continue with the current patch, keeping the same map pool that includes Anubis. All of ESL's Counter-Strike tournaments starting with IEM Cologne 2025 will switch to the new map pool.

In the same update that deployed Premier's third season, Valve made a subtle map pool change, swapping out Anubis to bring Overpass back into the active duty map pool. Known for its T-sidedness, Anubis was one of the least played maps at high profile events over the last six months and was the second least picked map at the recently concluded BLAST.tv Austin 2025 Major.

Stage 1 of IEM Cologne (play-in) kicks off on 23rd July 2025, hosting sixteen teams in a double-elimination bracket with eight teams going into the main event. Three days later, IEM Cologne 2025 begins with sixteen teams in double-elimination brackets across two groups, sending the top three from each group into the single-elimination playoffs.