🇩🇪 IEM Cologne Major 2026 - Stage 1

The Major opens in Cologne. 16 teams, 8 Stage 2 spots, Swiss format - entry door to the rest of the bracket.

There will be 16 matches today – each team will play two Bo1 matches, from 10:30 AM to 6:30 PM UTC.
There will be a lot of good CS today!

See live win probability updating in real time on the page!
👉 https://cs2analytics.com/matches

#IEMCologne #Major

🔥TOP 5 talent Pick'Ems

We ran five well-known names' Cologne Stage 1 Pick'Ems through our probability model.

"5/10 or Better Chances" here is the model's estimate that a bracket hits at least 5 of 10 correct predictions - the reward threshold. No one cracked 25%.

Build your own on Pick'Em and see what your chances are!
👉 https://cs2analytics.com/pickem

PICK'EM's in trouble!

How did the tier list change after the first two matches?

Chances to advance by VRS (live):
NAME - advance % NOW - (advance % WAS)

🌎 M80 - 69.8% (49.4%)
🇦🇺FlyQuest - 35.1% (20.6%)
🇨🇳Lynn Vision - 34.9% (53.9%)
🇨🇿SINNERS - 29.9% (50.3%)

Check it out!
👉 cs2analytics.com/iem-cologne-major-2026/advancement

🚨 BREAKING: 🇦🇺 FlyQuest 1:0 🇨🇿 SINNERS at IEM Cologne Stage 1

Check the probabilities LIVE as the Major plays out

https://cs2analytics.com/iem-cologne-major-2026/advancement

🇦🇺 FlyQuest's chance to advance just jumped from 20.6% → 41.3%.

Watch matches live!
👉 https://cs2analytics.com/matches

Maybe they misunderstood the Pick'EMs 😅

Watch Australia smash the Pick'EMs live on CS2Analytics!
👉 https://cs2analytics.com/matches

While most are recovering from broken Pick'Ems, coach of 🇦🇺THUNDER DOWNUNDER is surging to first place 😳

Here they are, the Australian Pick'Ems..

Track how the leaderboard changes live!
👉 https://cs2analytics.com/iem-cologne-major-2026/talent-picks

🤑 $353M IN STICKERS

Across the last 9 CS Majors, teams have earned an estimated ~$353 million in sticker revenue. Paris 2023 alone accounted for almost a third of it.

🕹 Estimated team sticker earnings per Major (since 2019):

🇩🇪 StarLadder Berlin 2019 - $10M
🇸🇪 PGL Stockholm 2021 - $30M
🇧🇪 PGL Antwerp 2022 - $30M
🇧🇷 IEM Rio 2022 - $25M
🇫🇷 BLAST Paris 2023 - $110M
🇩🇰 PGL Copenhagen 2024 - $48M
🇨🇳 Perfect World Shanghai 2024 - $45M
🇺🇸 BLAST Austin 2025 - $25M
🇭🇺 StarLadder Budapest 2025 - $30M

Paris 2023 was the all-time peak - 🇩🇰 HLTV's original investigation in early 2024 put team earnings there north of $110M, more than 3x what a "normal" Major produces. Since then, every event has trended back toward the historical average.

❔ Why Cologne might break the pattern?

Valve introduced a new sticker system for this Major. Revenue distribution now rewards performance more directly - meaning lower-ranked orgs are expected to take a hit, while players themselves receive a bigger cut of the pool. Several orgs and players are already in disagreement on how pre-existing contracts apply to the new model.

The end result: teams may earn less from Cologne than from any Major in the last 5 years.

Full breakdown of the new sticker system on 🇩🇰 HLTV.
👉 hltv.org/news/44737/sticker-fans-come-here-ft-messioso

#IEMCologne #Major

🔥 BEST upside down PICK'EM 🔥

Follow well-known names' Pick'Em chances LIVE!
https://cs2analytics.com/iem-cologne-major-2026/talent-picks

TOP 10 TALENT PICK'EMS after day 1

The first day of 🏆 IEM Cologne Major 2026 Stage 1 has ended and here's what the leaderboard looks like.

Follow well-known names' Pick'Em chances LIVE!
👉https://cs2analytics.com/iem-cologne-major-2026/talent-picks

👑 THE #1 CLUB

Only 7 players in modern CS history have spent 100 or more weeks ranked #1 in the world by HLTV. ropz and apEX are the newest names on that list.

❔ Most weeks at #1 in 🇩🇰 HLTV rankings (2015-2026):

🇩🇰 dupreeh - 141 weeks
🇩🇰 dev1ce - 123 weeks
🇩🇰 Xyp9x - 123 weeks
🇩🇰 gla1ve - 121 weeks
🇩🇰 Magisk - 113 weeks
🇪🇪 ropz - 102 weeks
🇫🇷 apEX - 100 weeks

Five of seven names are the🇩🇰 Astralis core - the same five players who built one of the most dominant eras in CS history. 🇪🇪 ropz cracked the list while still active at the top of his game with 🇫🇷 Vitality, and 🇫🇷 apEX got there as an IGL - a rarity for the role.
Both will play in Cologne. The number can still grow.

Stats: HLTV

See the live Player VRS!
👉 https://cs2analytics.com/players

#ropz