Nobody starts from the bottom of an IEM Cologne bracket and survives. That was the conventional wisdom, anyway. BetBoom Team just shredded it, becoming the first squad in the tournament’s history to fight all the way from Stage 1 to the playoff bracket.
The IEM Cologne Major 2026, running June 2 through June 21 in Germany, carries a prize pool between $1.17M and $1.25M. BetBoom’s path to the playoffs wasn’t a soft draw, either. They beat Team Liquid 2-1 in Stage 1, upset the MongolZ 2-1 in Stage 3, and then swept Team Falcons 2-0 to punch their ticket to the Lanxess Arena for the playoff rounds.
The grind from Stage 1 to history
Their opening victory over Team Liquid during the June 2-5 Stage 1 window set the tone. Stage 3 is where the run got genuinely absurd. On June 11, BetBoom knocked off the MongolZ 2-1. One day later, they turned around and swept Team Falcons 2-0.
Analysts have singled out Magnojez as a standout performer throughout the tournament. The roster, assembled between 2023 and 2025, has shown the kind of chemistry that usually takes years to develop.
