The fifth Counter-Strike 2 Major arrives in Cologne, Germany from June 2 to June 21, 2026, with the playoff stages held at the Lanxess Arena. The total prize pool is $1.25M. The team field is locked at 32, all directly invited via the VRS ranking system — no closed qualifiers, no wildcards, no last-second roster swaps after the April 6 cutoff.
Three-stage format
The tournament splits teams into three tiers by VRS rank. Stage 1 (teams ranked 17-32) starts at the bottom. Stage 2 (ranked 9-16) joins one round later. Stage 3 (the Legends, ranked 1-8) gets the most direct path to playoffs. The Legends bracket: Vitality, NAVI, Falcons, PARIVISION, Aurora, MOUZ, FURIA, and The MongolZ.
Stage 2 (Challengers)
Spirit, Astralis, G2, paiN, Monte, Legacy, 9z, and FUT make up the Challengers bracket. Spirit drop here despite winning PGL Astana 2026 on May 17 — the VRS cutoff was April 6, before the run that earned them the trophy. Astralis and G2 are the legacy brands in this stage; both arrive with rebuilt rosters since their previous Major appearances.
Notable absences and first-timers
FaZe Clan miss the Major for the first time since entering Counter-Strike in 2016, ending a ten-year streak across sixteen Major appearances. SINNERS claim their first-ever Major berth after winning BC.GAME Masters Championship Season 1. karrigan plays for Falcons rather than FaZe and enters Cologne as Falcons' IGL, with apEX (Vitality) now poised to take over from karrigan as the player with the most Major appearances if Cologne plays out as scheduled.
