IEM Cologne 2021 Preview & Predictions

Last April ESL adjusted its official schedule for the rest of the competitive season The news announced that ESL One Cologne 2021 would be played in LAN format but without an audience To be more precise in a studio environment to ensure the health of the participants While things may change over time ESL One Cologne is not one of them The schedule remains the same July 6 to 18 24 teams will play for a fraction of 1 MDD in prize money All in a studio in Germany

Another point to note is that ESL One Cologne is part of the Intel Grand Slam So it will award 20 teams with 6210 Pro Tour points There will also be 6400 BLAST Premier points for the Top 8 of the competition All matches will be broadcasted on the official twitch of the competition

Now about the format lets start with the play in phase Here we find 16 teams that will play in a double elimination format The first matches will be best of one while the rest will be best of three Only eight participants will advance to the group stage For the second part of the event there will be two groups playing a double elimination format Each will have eight teams organized according to the EPT and ESL World rankings All matches are BO3 defining the playoff participants The most important instance is direct elimination with quarterfinals and semifinals to BO3 Only the grand final is the best of five matches The participants are organized as follows

• The winners of the group stage are in the semifinals
• The runners up start from the quarterfinals at the top
• The third places reach the quarterfinals at the bottom

The dates are as follows

July 6 and 7 play in phase

July 8 to 11 group stage

July 16 to 18 playoffs

The eight teams already in the main event are

• Australia
• Fnatic
• Natus Vincere
• G2 Esports
• Team Liquid
• mousesports
• 100 Thieves
• Faze Clan

There will be a total of 16 teams in the main event so the remaining eight places will be played in the so called Play In In this stage sixteen teams will face each other to reach the main stage of the so called Counter Strike Cathedral

The list for the Play in stage will be completed on July 7

• Team Vitality
• Evil Geniuses
• FURIA Esports
• Ninjas in Pyjamas
• Renegades
• Cloud9
• BIG
• TYLOO
• Team Heretics
• Sprout

Betting line

Evil Geniuses +300

Fury +450

Liquid +450

100 Thieves +600

Gen G +600

Chaos Esports Club +800

Cloud 9 +1000

Triumph +1600