High drama abounds as 3 more eliminated at IEM Cologne

Field Level Media|published: Sun 14th June, 22:52 2026

Nov 5, 2022; San Francisco, California, USA; Fans react during the League of Legends World Championships between T1 and DRX at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

On a day a trio of teams booked playoff spots and another three were eliminated at the Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major in Germany, it was hard to find a team more relieved at the end of Sunday's Stage 3 action than Team Falcons.

Unless you're looking at The MongolZ.

Team Vitality and Aurora Gaming joined Falcons in advancing to the playoffs out of the Round 4 high matches, while Monte -- who fell to MongolZ -- was eliminated in the low matches, along with MOUZ and Legacy.

At the start of Stage 3, 16 teams were still standing at the Counter-Strike 2 tournament that began with 32 entrants, competing for their share of a $1.25 million prize pool with the grand final scheduled for June 21. The champion receives $500,000.

Stage 3 utilizes a Swiss System format and all matches are best-of-three. The top eight finishers will proceed to the playoffs next week while the bottom three will be eliminated.

Falcons won a marathon third map, needing two overtimes to down Natus Vincere 2-1 to book a spot in the playoffs. After Falcons topped Natus Vincere 13-3 on Dust II, they lost 13-7 on Mirage. After the teams were tied 12-12 at the end of regulation on Anubis, they again were even at 15-15 at the end of the first overtime. Falcons dominated the second extra frame, outscoring Natus Vincere 4-1 in the second OT to win the map 19-16.

Russia's Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov led the way for the Falcons with 57 kills and a plus-21 kill-death differential. Natus Vincere's Mihai "iM" Ivan of Romania also posted 57 kills in the loss.

In the biggest blowout of the day, Aurora handled 9z Team 2-0, winning 13-1 on Nuke and 13-5 on Dust II. Caner "soulfly" Kesici led all-Turkish Aurora with 34 kills and a plus-18. Argentina's Luciano "luchov" Herrera posted a team-high 20 kills in the loss.

In the third high match, Vitality took Overpass 13-8 and Nuke 13-11 to sweep BetBoom Team. Despite the short match, France's Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut tallied 53 kills and a plus-19 in the win. BetBoom, made up entirely of Russian players, was led by Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhailov's 36 kills.

As for MongolZ, they sat one map from elimination after dropping Nuke 13-9 to Monte. But they responded with a 13-7 win on Inferno and 13-11 win on Dust II to survive and send Monte home.

FUT Esports beat MOUZ 13-11 on Ancient before dropping Nuke 13-10. FUT emerged in the winner-take-all final map with a 13-7 win on Mirage. The final low match of the day provided the round's only sweep, with G2 Esports beating Legacy 13-7 on Dust II and 13-4 on Overpass.

Monday will see the six remaining teams play for the final three available playoff spots in a trio of elimination matches.

Intel Extreme Masters Cologne Major

Monday's schedule

--9z Team vs. The MongolZ

--BetBoom Team vs. FUT Esports

--Natus Vincere vs. G2 Esports

Prize Pool

1. $500,000

2. $170,000

3-4. $80,000

5-8. $45,000

9-11. $15,000