The Cologne Major’s Stage 1 is one of four fantasy games, with Stage 1 and Stage 2 awarding regular-season points; matches are structured as BO3 for eliminations and progressions, and BO1 for other games.

The on-air talent lineup features a mix of presenters, analysts, and casters, including spunj, machine, justHarry, Hugo, moses, Dinko, scrawny, Launders, and others, with Ashley ash Battye making his analyst debut.

Team notes focus on MIBR’s LNZ advocating respect and growth; Heroic’s yxngstxr is a cautious AWPer; TYLOO’s Jee discusses practice issues; BIG’s blameF leads a balanced fragging IGL role; Liquid’s siuhy reflects on a tough moment; Lynn Vision’s GUM addresses systemic issues and qualification quirks; SINNERS’ beastik notes international lineup impact; NRG’s Grim comments on nitr0’s captaincy; Sharks’ koala highlights Major qualification; FlyQuest faces visa issues but strong map strengths; Gaimin Gladiators’ fer returns as veteran presence; Thunder Down Under’s dexter talks Major participation and TjP’s trash-talk potential.

Top BIG players blameF and tabseN are among the game’s top-10 picks, with their inclusion freeing up about $4,000 in fantasy budget when both are selected within a $200,000 per-player limit.

MIBR is the most-picked team in Cologne Major Stage 1 Fantasy, featuring in about 60% of lineups.

Graphic conventions cover the Power Ranking, player ratings since January, role color-coding, recent event results, year-long HLTV ranking trend, and May 25 world ranking, followed by map-pool data by total wins.

GamerLegion stands as the only top-10 team in Stage 1, led by Sna x after a runner-up finish at IEM Atlanta, with other top-20 teams like B8, BetBoom, and MIBR also in Stage 1.

Daniil d1Ledez replaces Pavel S1ren in MIBR’s lineup and takes his price in the fantasy game.

Prizes include 10 Hellcase-sponsored items, with four item categories listed, awarded to top participants based on season points.

Opening matchups on the Cologne Major include M80 vs Lynn Vision, Sinners vs FlyQuest, B8 vs TYLOO, MIBR vs Thunder Down Under, GamerLegion vs NRG, Heroic vs Sharks, BetBoom vs Gaimin Gladiators, and BIG vs Liquid.

An introductory visual infographic series will explain how to read graphics for all 16 teams at IEM Cologne Major 2026 Stage 1, detailing the metrics shown.

GamerLegion is highlighted as the stage favorite (HLTV rank 11) with four players designated as golden cards, though Snax remains the most popular individual choice for reliability.