IEM Atlanta Day 1: NA preview
With less than 24 hours before IEM Atlanta starts, let's take a look at the teams who will be defending their home soil, and which opponents they'll be defending it against.
NRG vs 
FUT
Now the third-highest ranked team in North America, NRG will be looking to reestablish themselves after an underwhelming showing at FRAG 20. Their first opponent in Atlanta will be PGL Bucharest champions FUT, who will likely be returning to full strength with Laurențiu "lauNX" Țârlea.
Ranked #5 in the global VRS, FUT recently took a map off #1 Vitality with coach András "coolio" Fercsák as a stand-in, before being eliminated from BLAST Rivals by Astralis. When they last met NRG in Bucharest, the North American squad were unfortunately only able to win five rounds over two maps, which is hardly a promising sign for their Atlanta debut.
NRGFUT| NRG |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael 'Grim' Wince |
40 - 40 | +0 | 80.3 | 66.7% | 1.03 |
| Nick 'nitr0' Cannella |
27 - 39 | -12 | 73.1 | 64.7% | 0.99 |
 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek |
29 - 40 | -11 | 64.1 | 56.9% | 0.95 |
 Alexander 'br0' Bro |
32 - 36 | -4 | 73.1 | 66.7% | 0.91 |
| Josh 'oSee' Ohm |
20 - 33 | -13 | 40.8 | 70.6% | 0.65 |
| FUT |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Džiugas 'dziugss' Steponavičius |
49 - 27 | +22 | 104.7 | 84.3% | 1.58 |
 Dmytro 'dem0n' Myroshnychenko |
45 - 28 | +17 | 83.6 | 70.6% | 1.48 |
 Aulon 'Krabeni' Fazlija |
45 - 37 | +8 | 100.0 | 72.5% | 1.25 |
| Nikita 'cmtry' Samolotov |
27 - 25 | +2 | 54.4 | 76.5% | 1.00 |
 Laurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea |
22 - 34 | -12 | 59.1 | 74.5% | 0.82 |
NAVI vs 
Passion UA
Passion UA will be taking on BLAST Rivals runners-up NAVI, who are ranked behind champions Vitality in the global VRS. Since losing Azbayar "Senzu" Munkhbold to BC.Game, Passion UA have played and lost one match with Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev, providing just a small glimpse into how the new roster might fare.
Meanwhile, NAVI have gone 14-4 in their last 18 matches, with three of those losses coming against Vitality. They will surely be the favorites in this match, and any other match against teams not named Vitality.
Natus VincerePassion UA| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
40 - 25 | +15 | 76.8 | 73.9% | 1.40 |
| Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
32 - 29 | +3 | 79.9 | 76.1% | 1.29 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
40 - 30 | +10 | 88.1 | 82.6% | 1.21 |
| Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri |
30 - 34 | -4 | 80.0 | 71.7% | 1.14 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
24 - 30 | -6 | 61.1 | 71.7% | 0.86 |
| Passion UA |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vladyslav 'Kvem' Korol |
41 - 38 | +3 | 99.4 | 82.6% | 1.34 |
| Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou |
32 - 33 | -1 | 74.7 | 73.9% | 1.05 |
 Santino 'try' Rigal |
25 - 28 | -3 | 58.3 | 65.2% | 0.81 |
| Nick 'nicx' Lee |
24 - 32 | -8 | 60.4 | 60.9% | 0.77 |
| Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev |
21 - 35 | -14 | 66.4 | 73.9% | 0.76 |
Legacy vs M80
M80 will face Americas regional rivals Legacy, currently ranked #14 in the world. Like NRG, M80 underwhelmed at FRAG 20, but unlike NRG, M80 went on to win the Thunderpick World Championship 2026 NA.
Legacy are themselves coming off a championship win at BETBOOM Rush B Summit Season 3. If past tournament momentum plays a big part in this Americas match-up, it might just be a close game.
LegacyM80| Legacy |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guilherme 'saadzin' Pacheco |
36 - 14 | +22 | 102.5 | 89.5% | 1.68 |
| Vinicius 'n1ssim' Pereira |
27 - 21 | +6 | 74.2 | 84.2% | 1.27 |
| Andrei 'arT' Piovezan |
27 - 22 | +5 | 72.2 | 81.6% | 1.13 |
| Eduardo 'dumau' Wolkmer |
25 - 22 | +3 | 66.5 | 76.3% | 1.08 |
| Bruno 'latto' Rebelatto |
27 - 22 | +5 | 75.9 | 84.2% | 1.05 |
| M80 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh 'JBa' Barutt |
19 - 25 | -6 | 52.3 | 65.8% | 1.00 |
| Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
23 - 29 | -6 | 77.8 | 68.4% | 0.94 |
| Mason 'Lake' Sanderson |
23 - 29 | -6 | 74.6 | 65.8% | 0.88 |
 Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
19 - 29 | -10 | 65.4 | 65.8% | 0.71 |
| Elias 's1n' Stein |
16 - 30 | -14 | 39.7 | 55.3% | 0.66 |
Liquid vs Astralis
While some teams have won events rather recently, Liquid have not played a match since April 14th when they lost to 3DMAX at IEM Rio. Since bringing on Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa in March, Liquid have struggled to a 6-14 map count.
PGL Bucharest runners-up Astralis have been somewhat inconsistent, but Victor "Staehr" Staehr has had a great year so far, accumulating a 1.15 rating over 74 maps. Liquid will have to stop him, as well as former Wildcard AWPer Love "phzy" Smidebrant if they want to win.
LiquidAstralis| Liquid |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa |
33 - 32 | +1 | 89.9 | 70.7% | 1.11 |
| Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski |
25 - 33 | -8 | 77.3 | 68.3% | 1.04 |
 Roland 'ultimate' Tomkowiak |
26 - 28 | -2 | 59.6 | 65.9% | 0.98 |
| Kamil 'siuhy' Szkaradek |
17 - 29 | -12 | 48.0 | 58.5% | 0.65 |
 Keith 'NAF' Markovic |
16 - 32 | -16 | 44.2 | 65.9% | 0.57 |
| Astralis |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard |
41 - 22 | +19 | 94.1 | 78.0% | 1.68 |
| Victor 'Staehr' Staehr |
33 - 26 | +7 | 90.6 | 70.7% | 1.36 |
| Gytis 'ryu' Glušauskas |
32 - 25 | +7 | 82.3 | 82.9% | 1.25 |
 Love 'phzy' Smidebrant |
28 - 21 | +7 | 66.0 | 80.5% | 1.00 |
| Rasmus 'HooXi' Nielsen |
19 - 23 | -4 | 57.3 | 68.3% | 0.84 |
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