ESL has rounded out the team list for the IEM Cologne play-in stage, which will see eight CS:GO squads advance to the $1 million main event that will kick off on July 8.
The tournament organizer handed out invites to mousesports, BIG, Vitality, FaZe, OG, Bad News Bears, and LDLC, according to today’s update of its world rankings. Those six teams will join the likes of Complexity, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Team Spirit in the play-in stage for IEM Cologne, where 16 squads will compete in a double-elimination bracket from July 6 to 7.
This is good news for mousesports, who beat NiP yesterday in the grand finals of Flashpoint Three, the first Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament for Europe. Other notable teams such as FunPlus Phoenix and Extra Salt didn’t make the cut after the last ESL world ranking update.
The eight-best teams from the IEM Cologne play-in stage will make it into the main event, where Gambit, Astralis, Heroic, Natus Vincere, Virtus Pro, FURIA, G2, and Liquid will be waiting. ESL plans to hold the event on LAN without an audience, but the tournament organizer will make its final decision after evaluating the conditions of the global health and travel conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The full team list for the IEM Cologne play-in stage can be find below.
- Complexity
- Spirit
- NiP
- mousesports
- BIG
- Vitality
- FaZe
- OG
- Evil Geniuses
- Bad News Bears
- Sprout
- MIBR
- LDLC
- Renegades
- Team oNe
- ViCi Gaming
