IEM Cologne Stage 1 Draw Lands, and North America Starts From the Bottom

ESL has locked in the Stage 1 matchups for the IEM Cologne Major 2026, and it’s a rough draw for North America. All three NA-rostered teams, M80, NRG, and Team Liquid, open their Major campaigns in the very first stage. None of them get to skip ahead. With under two weeks until the action begins on June 2, the road to the Lanxess Arena now has clear opening battles.

This is the first Counter-Strike Major in Cologne in a decade. Stage 1 throws 16 teams from all five regions into a fight for just eight spots in Stage 2.

The eight opening matches

Here’s how Stage 1 kicks off:

• GamerLegion vs NRG
• B8 vs TYLOO
• HEROIC vs Sharks
• BetBoom vs Gaimin Gladiators
• BIG vs Liquid
• M80 vs Lynn Vision
• MIBR vs THUNDER dOWNUNDER
• SINNERS vs FlyQuest

Swiss format, Bo1 danger

Stage 1 runs on a Swiss system, so teams play until they rack up either three wins or three losses. The matches that decide qualification or elimination are Best-of-3. Everything else is a single map. That Bo1 format is where things get spicy. One bad map, one off day, and a favourite is suddenly staring down the barrel of an early exit.

The stage runs June 2 to 5. It’s billed as the lower-seeded stage, but the names tell a different story. Team Liquid, HEROIC, MIBR, and IEM Atlanta grand finalists GamerLegion all have to scrap through here. That means upsets are basically guaranteed before the bigger guns even join in Stage 2.

The Major also arrives with a fully revamped collectables system. Valve scrapped capsules entirely for a direct-buy sticker shop, so fans can grab their favourite team’s logo without the old RNG grind.

For more on the road to Cologne, follow our CS2 news hub and our IEM Cologne Major hub. Full brackets are tracked on HLTV.