The best-of-three Swiss experiment at the IEM Cologne Major 2026 began on June 11, and the opening Stage 3 day delivered on the promise of more meaningful matches. Seven headline series shaped the picture.
Day 1 Results
- Team Spirit 2-0 NAVI — Dust2 (13-11), Anubis (13-8). Spirit's Ukrainian rivals could not solve donk and sh1ro across the series.
- Team Falcons 2-1 G2 — the karrigan-led side needed all three maps to hold off a spirited G2 roster.
- Aurora 2-0 Monte — the Turkish side led by XANTARES continued to build momentum.
- FURIA 2-0 B8 — the Brazilians dispatched Ukraine's overachievers in convincing fashion.
- Vitality 2-1 FUT — the French favorites needed three maps but got there.
- MOUZ 2-0 Legacy — the young MOUZ core showed poise.
- BetBoom 2-1 The MongolZ — Stage 1 miracle team BetBoom kept climbing.
The BO3 Difference
The switch to best-of-three immediately produced deeper storylines. Falcons vs G2 in particular showed how a BO3 lets a team recover from a lost map — G2 had every chance in the series decider before Falcons pulled through.
Notable Individual Play
donk was the top-rated player of the day across all Stage 3 matches. m0NESY played through discomfort in the Falcons win, still posting a strong series. XANTARES looked like a man possessed on Nuke in Aurora's victory.
What's Next
Day 2 on June 12 would settle the 2-0 and 0-2 buckets, and one of the tournament's biggest upsets was already brewing.
