Get caught up on all the action as Spirit, Vitality reign supreme in first day of IEM Cologne Major Stage Three

The IEM Cologne Major has reached the top 16, where the teams who battled through Stage Two are now meeting the third stage direct invites.

With the revamped Stage Three rules, all matches are best-of-three, compared to the best-of-one format used in previous stages, except for progression/elimination matches.

Also read: ZywOo kicks off Major with two aces against FUT

Vitality 2-1 FUT

Major favorites Vitality, led by Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut, kicked off their campaign against FUT. FUT came into Stage Three after a perfect 3-0 run in Stage Two. They looked keen to continue that form v. Vitality, storming the defending Major champions 13-5 on Anubis. That might have been the wake-up call Vitality needed, as they bounced back in map two on Overpass with a decisive 13-2 victory, followed by another 13-8 win on Nuke to win the series and start 1-0 in Cologne.

IEM Cologne Major 2026

Bo3

Vitality

2 - 1

FUT

StatisticsOverview

All maps

Vitality	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut	53 - 30	+23	101.1	75.9%	1.66
Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan	50 - 39	+11	94.4	83.3%	1.52
Robin 'ropz' Kool	32 - 34	-2	65.2	74.1%	1.06
Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire	36 - 34	+2	77.5	68.5%	1.01
William 'mezii' Merriman	22 - 32	-10	51.8	66.7%	0.78

FUT	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Džiugas 'dziugss' Steponavičius	40 - 37	+3	78.7	72.2%	1.10
Aulon 'Krabeni' Fazlija	37 - 41	-4	82.1	70.4%	1.07
Dmytro 'dem0n' Myroshnychenko	36 - 42	-6	76.1	63.0%	0.91
Nikita 'cmtry' Samolotov	33 - 34	-1	58.0	63.0%	0.86
Laurențiu 'lauNX' Țârlea	23 - 39	-16	42.8	64.8%	0.65

Maps

5

Anubis

13

13

Overpass

2

13

Nuke

8

dem0n17 kills

Most kills

Krabeni1.80 rating

Best rating

lauNX2.18 rating

Best t-side

Krabeni1.71 rating

Best ct-side

Anubis Rounds

flameZ19 kills

Most kills

flameZ2.47 rating

Best rating

flameZ2.60 rating

Best t-side

apEX2.65 rating

Best ct-side

Overpass Rounds

ZywOo27 kills

Most kills

ZywOo2.14 rating

Best rating

ZywOo1.82 rating

Best t-side

ZywOo2.38 rating

Best ct-side

Nuke Rounds

Falcons 2-1 G2

Falcons v. G2 was another matchup of playoff contenders, as G2 got the affair started with a close win on Inferno, 13-10. A strong first half from Falcons propelled them to a 13-8 win on Dust2, leveling the series. The deciding map, Ancient, was the closest of the three maps, as the two sides couldn't be separated at the end of regulation. G2 won the first overtime round, but the rest went the way of the Falcons as they squeaked out a 16-13 map win and won the series 2-1 to advance to the 1-0 pool.

IEM Cologne Major 2026

Bo3

Falcons

2 - 1

G2

StatisticsOverview

All maps

Falcons	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač	60 - 40	+20	80.1	76.7%	1.51
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov	63 - 41	+22	91.0	76.7%	1.41
Maksim 'kyousuke' Lukin	52 - 53	-1	81.7	80.8%	1.14
René 'TeSeS' Madsen	44 - 50	-6	64.2	71.2%	1.02
Finn 'karrigan' Andersen	30 - 52	-22	49.3	64.4%	0.69

G2	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Nikita 'HeavyGod' Martynenko	57 - 52	+5	81.5	74.0%	1.26
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač	47 - 47	+0	78.8	76.7%	0.97
Guy 'NertZ' Iluz	50 - 53	-3	71.0	67.1%	0.93
Matúš 'MATYS' Šimko	42 - 51	-9	66.5	68.5%	0.84
Álvaro 'SunPayus' García	39 - 48	-9	57.1	69.9%	0.74

Maps

10

Inferno

13

13

Dust2

8

16

Ancient

13

NiKo27 kills

Most kills

NiKo2.27 rating

Best rating

NiKo1.86 rating

Best t-side

NiKo2.65 rating

Best ct-side

Inferno Rounds

m0NESY23 kills

Most kills

m0NESY1.86 rating

Best rating

m0NESY2.11 rating

Best t-side

TeSeS1.64 rating

Best ct-side

Dust2 Rounds

kyousuke24 kills

Most kills

kyousuke1.37 rating

Best rating

kyousuke1.47 rating

Best t-side

huNter-1.63 rating

Best ct-side

Ancient Rounds

Spirit 2-0 NAVI

Spirit and NAVI rounded out the day in the highest-profile matchup of the opening games. Spirit looked like they would run away with the series early, winning map one on Dust2 with a dominant 13-1 scoreline. A 9-1 run to close out the first half of Anubis left NAVI trailing 9-3 and in need of a huge comeback in map two. NAVI managed to cut the Russians' lead to 10-8, but that was as close as the map would get. Spirit ended all hope of a NAVI resurgence with a 13-8 win in the Egyptian map.

IEM Cologne Major 2026

Bo3

Natus Vincere

0 - 2

Spirit

StatisticsOverview

All maps

Natus Vincere	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov	25 - 26	-1	74.9	74.3%	0.99
Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy	30 - 25	+5	91.0	68.6%	0.96
Mihai 'iM' Ivan	24 - 32	-8	79.3	68.6%	0.89
Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri	15 - 29	-14	56.5	71.4%	0.60
Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen	12 - 24	-12	49.4	68.6%	0.58

Spirit	K - D	+/-	ADR	KAST	Rating 3.0
Danil 'donk' Kryshkovets	38 - 24	+14	111.0	82.9%	1.98
Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov	35 - 16	+19	99.4	85.7%	1.90
Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia	29 - 23	+6	86.6	85.7%	1.44
Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev	19 - 23	-4	61.2	80.0%	0.90
Andrey 'tN1R' Tatarinovich	15 - 21	-6	45.1	65.7%	0.76

Maps

1

Dust2

13

8

Anubis

13

donk19 kills

Most kills

donk2.48 rating

Best rating

iM3.01 rating

Best t-side

donk5.27 rating

Best ct-side

Dust2 Rounds

b1t24 kills

Most kills

sh1ro2.22 rating

Best rating

sh1ro2.52 rating

Best t-side

sh1ro1.81 rating

Best ct-side

Anubis Rounds

Here are the results from the five other matches in the first day of play at IEM Cologne Stage Three:

• 9z 2-1 PARIVISION
• Aurora 2-0 Monte
• FURIA 2-0 B8
• MOUZ 2-0 Legacy
• BetBoom 2-1 The MongolZ

And here are the second day's matches, slated for tomorrow beginning at 05:00AM:

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