IEM Cologne group distribution and opening matchups revealed

Four international powerhouses have been pitted against each other in a stacked Group B.

The new Vitality join FaZe, G2, and NAVI in Group B

ESL has announced the opening matchups of the IEM Cologne Play-in stage as well as the group stage distribution of the main event with less than two weeks to go before the event kicks off on July 26. The seeding follows the ESL World Ranking, which underwent several significant moves up and down due to a plethora of roster moves in the off-season.

The main event's group stage pits three of the current top-four teams according to the HLTV ranking in one group in Vitality, FaZe, and G2, as well as the new-look Natus Vincere, who made a shocking move towards an international roster with the signings of Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen, Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan, and Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius.

The other group features the current No. 1 team, HEROIC, and ENCE along with the highly anticipated new lineup of Cloud9, who have just announced the blockbuster additions of Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy. GamerLegion, who are yet to announce the full roster following the loss of iM to NAVI and Kamil "⁠siuhy⁠" Szkaradek to MOUZ, round out Group A.

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Below is what the two groups currently look like, with four teams set to join each from the Play-in:

Group A
HEROIC
ENCE
Cloud9
GamerLegion

Group B
Vitality
FaZe
G2
Natus Vincere

The highlight bout of the Play-in stage's opening round, which will be played in best-of-one matches before the rest of the event moves into best-of-threes up until the grand final, will see Astralis and Liquid face off against one another after both teams changed two players in the off-season.

While Astralis and Liquid will have had a chance to test their might with new players at the ongoing BLAST Premier Fall Groups, the IEM Cologne Play-in will see a plethora of other teams make their LAN debuts with new players, including MOUZ, Into the Breach, fnatic, Apeks, Imperial, Monte, and FURIA.

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BIG to field S3NSEY at IEM Cologne

Play-in opening matchups

MOUZ vs. The MongolZ
Into the Breach vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas
fnatic vs. Complexity
OG vs. 9INE
Apeks vs. BIG
Astralis vs. Liquid
Monte vs. Imperial
Grayhound vs. FURIA