ESL has released the lineup of teams that will take part in IEM Cologne and their distribution on the tournament grid. Sixteen teams will begin their fight for a place in the finals from the play-in stage, where they were selected on the basis of their qualification match results and performance in the ESL Pro Tour, as well as their position in the ESL rankings. Eight of them will make it to the next stage.
The most notable matches on the opening day of the tournament promise to be the confrontation between FaZe and Evil Geniuses, as well as the competition between two German teams – Sprout and BIG. It is also worth paying attention to the only Russian team playing in this stage: Spirit will fight for the right to get to the next stage with Brazilian MIBR:
Eight more teams will start their performance at IEM Cologne right from the main stage – these are those who have taken the leading positions according to the results of the ESL Pro Tour. Gambit, who are currently topping the world rankings, as well as G2, Virtus.pro, and Liquid, were all placed in Group A. Group B also looks very impressive, with Natus Vincere and Astralis, as well as Heroic and FURIA.
There are less than two weeks left until the start of the competition. IEM Cologne will be the first competition since the start of the pandemic to be held in the usual LAN format.