IEM Atlanta 2026 Playoffs: Preview
ESL's last event in the first season of 2026 before the Cologne Major- IEM Atlanta 2026 heads into its concluding phase following the group stage's conclusion. Here we take a quick look at how things have shaped up for the playoffs and how things went down in the group stage.
IEM Atlanta began with double-elimination brackets across two groups of eight teams each. In group A, Vitality conceded an uncharacteristic loss to BetBoom in the upper semi-final after taking down s1mple's BC.Game in their opening matchup. BetBoom went on to clear group A and secure a direct semi-final slot while Vitality who cleared the lower bracket will start in the quarter-final. Group A's runner-up, paIN will also start in the quarter-final.
NAVI's dominant start in group B was stopped in its tracks by Legacy who took them down in the group final to confirm their semi-final spot. NAVI ended up settling for a quarter-final spot. GamerLegion took down Liquid and Astralis in the lower bracket to stay alive and confirm their quarter-final appearance. The playoffs begin later today with paIN taking on GamerLegion at 10:45 PM IST.
The single-elimination best-of-three playoffs bracket ends with a best-of-five grand-final. Here are the opening matchups in the playoffs:
-
GamerLegion vs 
paIN (Winner faces Legacy) -
Vitality vs NAVI (Winner faces
BetBoom)
Natus VincereVitality| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
59 - 28 | +31 | 85.2 | 82.8% | 1.45 |
| Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
49 - 33 | +16 | 81.7 | 85.9% | 1.27 |
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
43 - 36 | +7 | 64.5 | 81.2% | 1.08 |
 Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri |
36 - 38 | -2 | 64.1 | 82.8% | 0.97 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
29 - 31 | -2 | 64.5 | 73.4% | 0.92 |
| Vitality |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Robin 'ropz' Kool |
36 - 37 | -1 | 58.5 | 73.4% | 1.00 |
 Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut |
39 - 40 | -1 | 57.0 | 65.6% | 0.95 |
 Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan |
38 - 46 | -8 | 63.4 | 65.6% | 0.95 |
 William 'mezii' Merriman |
28 - 44 | -16 | 63.8 | 68.8% | 0.76 |
| Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire |
25 - 49 | -24 | 57.1 | 64.1% | 0.67 |
paiNGamerLegion| paiN |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guilherme 'piriajr' Barbosa |
57 - 39 | +18 | 94.1 | 71.2% | 1.25 |
| Rafael 'saffee' Costa |
42 - 42 | +0 | 71.1 | 71.2% | 1.09 |
| João 'snow' Vinicius |
40 - 42 | -2 | 79.0 | 72.9% | 1.09 |
| Rodrigo 'biguzera' Bittencourt |
33 - 38 | -5 | 62.2 | 74.6% | 0.86 |
| Vinicius 'vsm' Moreira |
22 - 48 | -26 | 50.8 | 64.4% | 0.68 |
| GamerLegion |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Milan 'hypex' Polowiec |
44 - 36 | +8 | 80.3 | 83.1% | 1.36 |
 Fredrik 'REZ' Sterner |
43 - 40 | +3 | 79.4 | 67.8% | 1.21 |
 Oldřich 'PR' Nový |
47 - 37 | +10 | 76.4 | 72.9% | 1.10 |
 Sebastian 'Tauson' Tauson Lindelof |
39 - 39 | +0 | 83.9 | 74.6% | 1.02 |
| Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski |
33 - 44 | -11 | 60.6 | 61.0% | 0.72 |
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