IEM Cologne Group stage matchups announced

With less than two weeks until the start of the event on July 26, ESL has revealed the opening matches of the IEM Cologne Play-in stage as well as the group stage allocation of the main event. The seeding is based on the ESL World Ranking, which fluctuated significantly up and down as a result of several roster changes over the off-season. The group stage of the main event features Vitality, FaZe, and G2, along with the redesigned Natus Vincere, who made the shocking decision to add Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen, Mihai "iM" Ivan, and Justinas "jL" Lekavicius to their roster.

The other team is made up of the No. 1 team right now, Heroic, ENCE, and Cloud9, who have recently unveiled their highly anticipated new roster with the additions of Denis "electroNic" Sharipov and Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy. Group A is completed by GamerLegion, who have not yet revealed their complete lineup after losing iM to NAVI and Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek to MOUZ.