IEM Cologne Major Stage One Round Two Recap: M80 advance to 2-0 pool; NRG and TL end day with 1-1 records

Day one of the IEM Cologne 2026 Major was come to a close, with the first two rounds of Stage One being played out. The Bo3s will kick off tomorrow with two teams advancing to Stage Two while two teams will face early elimination from the Major.

With the day done and dusted, M80 have done well for themselves by securing a 2-0 record after wins over Lynn Vision and Sharks while NRG and Liquid end the day with 1-1 records after mixed performances.

Liquid in particular had a concerning day as they started things off with a great showing on Nuke against BIG before looking utterly lost on their Dust2 T-side against BetBoom. In that latter game Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek had a disaster-class performance, only finding nine kills while posting a 0.47 rating.

• NRG 13-6 SINNERS on Nuke

• M80 13-6 Sharks on Mirage

• Liquid 9-13 BetBoom on Dust2

Other notable happenings from Round Two saw HEROIC fall to Lynn Vision 13-11 on Dust2, putting the Stage Two favorites on the edge of an early elimination. FlyQuest and THUNDERdOWNUNDER also impressed despite losses in Round Two, with the Aussies pushing GamerLegion and B8, respectively, all the way to the end of regulation in very close 13-11 losses.

Gaimin Gladiators meanwhile had the worst performance of the day as they looked dreadful in a 13-1 loss to BIG on Nuke, with the semi-retired Fernando "fer" Alvarenga being the only player putting up numbers.

Here's are the Round 3 matchups:

• NRG v. FlyQuest

• Sharks v. Lynn Vision

• Liquid v. MIBR

• TdU v. BIG

• GamerLegion v. BetBoom (Bo3)

• TYLOO v. SINNERS (Bo3)

• M80 v. B8 (Bo3)

• Gaimin Gladiators v. HEROIC (Bo3)