IEM Cologne 2021 seeding revealed

Tournament operator ESL presented the list of groups of the main stage of IEM Cologne 2021 and the starting pairs of opponents at the Play-In stage. Sixteen teams in the Double Elimination bracket will determine the eight participants in the group stage during the Play-In stage. The opening matches will be played in BO1 format, while the rest of the matches will switch the format to the best-of-three series.

Pairs of IEM Cologne 2021 Play-In starting matches:

  •  NIP –  LDLC
  •  Bad News Bears –  mousesports
  •  Team Spirit –  MIBR
  •  Renegades –  Vitality
  •  OG –  TeamOne
  •  Sprout –  BIG
  •  Evil Geniuses –  FaZe
  •  Complexity –  ViCi

The eight strongest teams of the Play-In phase will join eight other directly invited teams. The winners of the first three places in each group will qualify for the playoffs.

Play-in brackets

The currently known participants in the group stage are as follows:

Group A

 Gambit
 Liquid
 Virtus.pro
 G2

Group B

 NAVI
 FURIA
 Astralis
 Heroic

Recall that IEM Cologne 2021 with a prize pool of $1 million will be the first major LAN event in a year and a half. The participants will gather in Cologne and play in a studio format from July 6 to 18 without spectators.