Swisher shines as M80 start IEM Cologne Major with win over Lynn Vision
M80 were the first of the NA teams to debut at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, and they started well with a victory over Chinese side Lynn Vision.
M80 were bolstered by strong play from Michael "Swisher" Schmid, who led all players with 20 frags in the best-of-one series. Swisher has quietly been M80's strongest player in 2026, posting a team-leading 1.13 rating in 102 maps played this year.
M80 fell behind early, but rallied with in the latter stages of the first half to take a commanding 8-4 lead going to the intermission, as Swisher posted fourteen frags on the CT side.
If Swisher was the standout player in the first half, his counterpart in the second period was Josh "JBa" Barutt, who put up a team-high eight frags in their attacking half. The icing on the cake of the win was a 4K 1v3 from JBa at 12-8, which gave M80 the win and a 1-0 start at IEM Cologne Stage 1.
M80Lynn Vision| M80 |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
20 - 15 | +5 | 103.1 | 85.7% | 1.70 |
| Josh 'JBa' Barutt |
10 - 11 | -1 | 59.9 | 81.0% | 1.37 |
| Mason 'Lake' Sanderson |
12 - 11 | +1 | 69.0 | 76.2% | 1.36 |
 Fritz 'slaxz-' Dietrich |
14 - 11 | +3 | 70.5 | 76.2% | 1.15 |
| Elias 's1n' Stein |
14 - 11 | +3 | 61.2 | 76.2% | 0.90 |
| Lynn Vision |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Zhe 'Westmelon' Niu |
14 - 14 | +0 | 88.4 | 71.4% | 1.02 |
| Qihao 'C4LLM3SU3' Su |
14 - 13 | +1 | 69.3 | 81.0% | 0.97 |
| Lizhi 'Starry' Ye |
13 - 13 | +0 | 66.3 | 66.7% | 0.84 |
| Sike 'z4KR' Zhang |
10 - 16 | -6 | 56.7 | 61.9% | 0.69 |
| Junjie 'EmiliaQAQ' Tang |
8 - 14 | -6 | 41.1 | 61.9% | 0.66 |
M80 will now face another 1-0 team in the first Swiss stage at IEM Cologne later today.
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