G2 Esports secured a best-of-3 victory over FUT Esports during Stage 3 of the IEM Cologne Major 2026, advancing through the Swiss-system bracket of one of Counter-Strike’s most prestigious tournaments. The match, played on June 12, was part of a $1.25 million prize pool event held in Cologne, Germany.
For the first time in recent memory, the IEM Cologne Major featured zero crypto sponsorships. Not a single token, protocol, or blockchain company had its logo plastered across the broadcast. That’s a stark departure from previous years, when the esports industry and crypto seemed to be in an enthusiastic, if sometimes awkward, courtship.
The match and the money
Stage 3 of the IEM Cologne Major uses a Swiss-system format, which means teams are matched against opponents with similar records in each round. G2’s victory over FUT keeps the organization on track in the tournament’s elimination rounds. For FUT Esports, the loss is a setback in what was already a challenging bracket.
The shift toward traditional corporate sponsorships reclaiming their territory in esports is hard to ignore. Where 2021 and 2022 saw a flood of crypto exchanges and NFT platforms sponsoring everything from jersey patches to analyst desks, 2026 tells a different story.
