IEM Cologne 2023 viewer's guide

The prestigious IEM Cologne 2023 LAN tournament with a prize pool of $1 million will take place from July 26 to August 6. The event will be held in Cologne, Germany, while the playoffs will play out at LANXESS arena.

IEM Cologne 2023 will kick off with the Play-In stage, which will feature sixteen teams. They will compete for eight tickets to the group stage of the event in a Double Elimination format. The openers will play out in a best-of-one format, while all the remaining matches will be BO3s.

The team list for the Play-In stage is:

 MOUZ (frozen, torzsi, xertioN, siuhy, Jimpphat)
 Apeks (nawwk, jkaem, STYKO, kyxsan, CacaNito)
 9INE (Goofy, KEi, Kylar, mynio, hades)
 FURIA (arT, yuurih, KSCERATO, FalleN, chelo)
 Liquid (NAF, oSee, YEKINDAR, Rainwaker, Patsi)
 Imperial (boltz, VINI, JOTA, HEN1, felps)
 TheMongolz (bLitz, Techno4K, hasteka, 910, mzinho)
 Grayhound (Sico, INS, aliStair, Liazz, Vexite)
 fnatic (KRIMZ, mezii, roeJ, dexter, afro)
 Monte (Woro2k, DemQQ, kRaSnaL, sdy, br0)
 NIP (k0nfig, REZ, hampus, Brollan, headtr1ck)
 Astralis (device, b0RUP, blameF, Staehr, Buzz)
 Into the Breach (Thomas, rallen, CRUC1AL, Bymas, NEOFRAG)
 Complexity (EliGE, JT, floppy, hallzerk, Grim)
 OG (nexa, FASHR, k1to, F1KU, regali)
 BIG (tabseN, prosus, Krimbo, s1n, S3NSEY)

The seeding of the Play-In bracket looks as follows:

The group stage of the tournament will take place from July 29 to August 1 and will play out in a Double Elimination format best-of-three format. Three teams from each group will advance to the playoffs: the winners will go to the semi-finals, while the runner-ups will advance to the quarter-finals.

The decisive stage of IEM Cologne 2023 will play out from August 4 to 6 in a Single Elimination format with best-of-three matches, while the grand final will be BO5.

Group stage invitees are:

Group A

 Heroic (cadiaN, stavn, TeSeS, sjuush, jabbi)
 ENCE (Snappi, Maden, dycha, SunPayus, NertZ)
 Cloud9 (HObbit, Ax1Le, sh1ro, electroNic, Perfecto)
 GamerLegion (isak, acoR, Keoz, neaLaN, volt)

Group B

 Vitality (apEX, Magisk, ZywOo, flameZ, Spinx)
 NAVI (s1mple, Aleksib, iM, b1t, jL)
 G2 (NiKo, huNter-, jks, HooXi, m0NESY)
 FaZe (karrigan, rain, Twistzz, ropz, broky)

The prize pool distribution is:

1. $400,000 + IEM Katowice 2024 slot
2. $180,000
3-4. $80,000
5-6. $40,000
7-8. $24,000
9-12. $16,000
13-16. $10,000
17-20. $4,500
21-24. $2,500

The full schedule and live broadcast of IEM Cologne 2023 can be found on the tournament page via this link.