Natus Vincere clawed back from an 0-1 deficit in the IEM Cologne Major 2026 pool stage, taking down Brazilian squad Legacy on the Ancient map with a 13-10 scoreline. The win moves NAVI to a 1-1 record in the Swiss-system format, keeping their major hopes firmly alive.
The IEM Cologne Major 2026, held in Cologne, Germany, carries a $1.25 million prize pool and stands as the first major Counter-Strike 2 tournament of the year.
How the maps played out
The best-of-three series featured a strategic veto phase that told its own story. Legacy opted to remove Anubis from the pool, while NAVI eliminated Overpass. From there, Legacy selected Inferno as their pick, and NAVI countered by choosing Ancient.
NAVI’s roster, featuring Aleksib, b1t, iM, and makazze, showed the kind of composure you’d expect from an organization that has been a fixture at the top of Counter-Strike for the better part of a decade. Legacy, fielding arT, dumau, latto, n1ssim, and saadzin, brought real fight. A 13-10 margin on Ancient is not a blowout.
