IEM Kraków opening matchups revealed

ESL has revealed the opening matchups of Stage 1 at IEM Kraków 2026. The successor to IEM Katowice comes as the second big event of 2026, taking place in the last week of January. Stage 1 will run for three days starting 28th January 2026 with Stage 2 following up from January 31st. In Stage 1, sixteen teams battle it out in a double-elimination best-of-three bracket with the top eight advancing to the next stage.

s1mple is set to play his first S-tier LAN with BC.Game as they take on Legacy in the opener. s1mple's last recorded high profile LAN came at the Austin Major with FaZe.

The opening matchups for IEM Kraków 2026 are as follows:

Aurora vs GamerLegion
HEROIC vs PARIVISION
Liquid vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
Passion UA vs G2
Legacy vs BC.Game
FUT vs 3DMAX
Astralis vs paiN
NRG vs B8

The MongolZ will begin their campaign directly in Stage 2. Alongside The MongolZ in group A are FURIA, Spirit and NAVI. A fierce looking group B places Vitality, Falcons, MOUZ and FaZe alongside each other. Stage 2 hosts two double-elimination brackets across two groups sending the top three from each group into a six-team single-elimination bracket playoffs.

A best-of-five grand-final will determine the winner on 8th February 2026.