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IEM XVII Cologne preview and favorites

The upcoming Intel Extreme Masters Cologne is the biggest CS:GO event of this Summer. The tournament is almost as... Radu M. | 3. July 2022

The upcoming Intel Extreme Masters Cologne is the biggest CS:GO event of this Summer. The tournament is almost as important as a Major and brings together the best teams in the world.

IEM Cologne is scheduled to take place between July 5–17. As usual, the group stage will take place at a Hyatt Regency Cologne while the playoffs will be played in the city’s LANXESS arena, in front of a live audience.

IEM Cologne details

IEM Cologne will feature 24 participants. While eight of them are directly qualified teams, the other 16 are play-in teams that will need to fight each other to determine the eight winners who will get to compete in the group stage.

The directly qualified teams are the following:

  • FaZe Clan
  • Natus Vincere
  • Cloud9
  • G2 Esports
  • Ninjas in Pyjamas
  • ENCE
  • FURIA Esports
  • Team Liquid

The play-in teams are listed below:

  • Heroic
  • Team Vitality
  • Outsiders
  • 00 Nation
  • Complexity Gaming
  • MIBR
  • ORDER
  • TYLOO
  • BIG
  • Astralis
  • Team Spirit
  • Imperial Esports
  • Movistar Riders
  • paiN Gaming
  • MOUZ
  • Sprout

On both lists, there are a lot of great teams, so the matches are definitely worth watching.

Competitive format

The competitive format of IEM Cologne is simple. The play-in stage uses a double-elimination format. The four teams that win their first two matches advance to the group stage, while the losing teams get a second chance in the lower bracket. Every competitor needs to win two matches to qualify and not lose more than one.

The group stage divides the 16 participants into two groups of eight. In each group, three teams qualify for the playoffs. These teams are the upper bracket finalists and the lower bracket winner.

The playoffs stage consists of two quarterfinals, two semifinals, and the Grand Final. The winners of the group stage start playing directly in the semifinals.

Throughout the tournament, all matches are best-of-three with two exceptions — the first round of the play-in matches which are best-of-one and the Grand Final, which will be best-of-five series.

Favorites

For the play-in stage, the big favorites are Heroic, Vitality, BIG, Astralis, Team Spirit, MOUZ, 00 Nation, and Outsiders.

Overall, the competition looks very unpredictable. There are a lot of great teams here and at least eight of them could realistically win the race. On paper, the best of the best are probably Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, Cloud9, and BIG. But there are many more who have the potential to cause serious upsets and reach the later stages.

Header: ESL l Steffie-Wunder l IEM Cologne