CS2 fans get ready! The alignment for the beginning of 2026 has been made and officially confirmed — ESL has presented a team roster for the upcoming IEM Krakow 2026. Apparently, the organizers didn’t mess around and relied on the latest data from Valve’s regional tables (VRS) for January. In fact, all 24 top teams from the world ranking have already confirmed their participation, so the first major event of the season promises to be really hot. By the way, it’s worth considering that this tournament is part of a global deal between Krakow and ESL FACEIT Group, with an impressive $1,000,000 at stake.
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Return of s1mple and team transfers before IEM Krakow
Of course, the main news was the official comeback of Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev on the shooting gallery-1 stage. This happened after BC.Game bought out the main cast of SAW on January 5, 2026 — a pretty audacious move, really. In addition, it will be interesting to see the guys from NRG, who, apparently, jumped on the departing train thanks to the triumph on Frag Miami 2.
In general, the fight in the first stage will be tough, because, by the way, GamerLegion, Team Liquid, and even Aurora Gaming will be registered there. Everything is very meaningful: there will be no passing matches.
Tournament format and seeding of participants in the Play-In and GSL stages
Along the way, the ESL Pro Tour 2026 starts according to the classic scheme — the tournament will unfold from January 28 to February 8, 2026. Apparently, the fans of Team Vitality will have to wait a little longer than the rest, as the current champions of IEM Katowice 2025 will fly right into the second stage. It seems that they will be accompanied by FaZe Clan and The MongolS, who, in fact, secured warm seats after a powerful performance at the StarLadder Budapest Major.
Let us tell you this that the system of conducting has remained familiar: first, the Double Elimination grid in the first stage, and then the GSL groups in the second. Only eight lucky people from the first stage will be able to break through higher — like this.
List of IEM Krakow 2026 teams
For convenience, we will divide the participants into two echelons, as the publisher did.
Stage 1
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Aurora Gaming, B8, Legacy
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G2 Esports, Team Liquid, 3DMAX
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Astralis, Parivision, HEROIC
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paiN Gaming, FUT ESports, Ninjas in Pyjamas
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Passion UA, BC.Game Esports, NRG, GamerLegion
Stage 2
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FURIA, Team Vitality, Team Falcons
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Team Spirit, NAVI, MOUZ
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FaZe Clan, The MongolZ
Finally, we have a classic line-up of participants for an event of this magnitude. In fact, the first stage is a meat grinder of 16 teams, where only half will survive. The prize money of $ 1,000,000 (which, by the way, is about 740,980 pounds) is a great incentive to show the maximum at the very beginning of the year.
Analysis of win rate and odds of favorites at LAN tournament in Poland
The structure of the competition has remained classic, but that doesn’t make it any less jaw-dropping. First, we will have the opening phase of the Play-In, and then the main group stage, which will turn into the playoffs, where, by the way, the Single or Double Elimination format will force teams to adapt on the fly. Apparently, when analyzing the odds, it is worth taking into account not the bare numbers of the total win rate, but the performance at LAN tournaments – this is critical.
In general, along the way, surviving in the decisive BO3 and BO5 series against representatives of the top 10 rating is a task with an asterisk. Teams often swim under pressure from the stands — and that’s where the fun comes in.
Forecast for the favorites and outsiders of IEM Krakow 2026
It seems that the list of main contenders for the IEM Krakow trophy looks impressive — NAVI, FaZe Clan, Team Vitality, MOUZ, Team Spirit and G2. In fact, these lineups contain the entire elite with deep muppets and performers of the ZywOo, NiKo, s1mple, ropz or donk levels, who consistently deliver S-Tier performance.
But there is also a second line, the so—called “dark horses” – Liquid, Falcons, The MongolZ and Heroic. These guys, apparently, can go very far with bold tactics and aggressive style, but, frankly, they often lack composure in big finals. It’s a shame, really.
