Woeful T sides put The MongolZ on the brink of the elimination at IEM Cologne Major 2026
The MongolZ's woeful T sides have continued to haunt them as the Asian team have been dropped to the brink of elimination after going down to Natus Vincere (NAVI) in their 1-1 bracket game at the IEM Cologne Major 2026 Stage 3. NAVI pulled off a resilient reverse sweep which sees them move a BO3 win away from making Playoffs while The MongolZ are one BO3 loss away from being sent home from Cologne.
NAVI got The MongolZ's pick of Nuke going with the early advantage on their CT side, going 6-3 up before The MongolZ salvaged the way to tie up the score line. A big pistol win on their CT side saw The MongolZ take the lead and it was a clean CT hold with a 910 1v2 closing out a 13-8 win to draw first blood in the series.
The MongolZ started Ancient with a flawless pistol opened up by Techno's Dualies and a quad kill from Techno in the first gun round helped The MongolZ go 5-0 up. w0nderful and iM opened the A site from Main and Donut to get NAVI on the board. A couple of late A hit gave NAVI a chance to close The MongolZ's lead but Techno and 910 helped the Mongolian squad turn around a 3v5 in the final round of the half that saw them go 8-4 up.
NAVI had the shot to close down the gap when they started with the CT pistol off a retake on the A site but it was the Tec-9 openings from bLitz and Techno saw The MongolZ answer back with the force instantly. The MongolZ hit eleven in no time before impact from b1t, iM along with crucial clutches from makazze saw NAVI bring it to a tied game at 11-11. A literal last millisecond defuse helped NAVI take map point first on the back off a nervy A site retake against Deagles and one AK but it was The MongolZ holding on the scrape by to overtime. The T side woes continued as NAVI pulled it all the way back to steal a 16-13 win with b1t on top of the score board with 27 kills.
Flat T sides continued as the decider on Mirage saw start it with the T pistol but only managed two more gun rounds that saw NAVI pick up a 9-3 lead. Techno and 910 shut down a B execute to make sure The MongolZ locked in both pistols on Mirage. The first gun round, though went the way of NAVI and Aleksib's boys wrapped up the series quickly at 13-6 to complete the reverse sweep at 2-1.
Natus VincereThe MongolZ| Natus Vincere |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy |
61 - 38 | +23 | 89.0 | 78.3% | 1.31 |
 Drin 'makazze' Shaqiri |
52 - 42 | +10 | 80.8 | 76.8% | 1.23 |
| Ihor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov |
59 - 41 | +18 | 83.1 | 81.2% | 1.18 |
 Mihai 'iM' Ivan |
44 - 42 | +2 | 68.7 | 76.8% | 1.00 |
 Aleksi 'Aleksib' Virolainen |
31 - 46 | -15 | 56.1 | 75.4% | 0.75 |
| The MongolZ |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 3.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Sodbayar 'Techno' Munkhbold |
48 - 49 | -1 | 80.4 | 69.6% | 1.13 |
| Garidmagnai 'bLitz' Byambasuren |
42 - 50 | -8 | 69.9 | 71.0% | 1.04 |
| Anarbileg 'cobrazera' Uuganbayar |
46 - 46 | +0 | 71.9 | 71.0% | 1.02 |
| Usukhbayar '910' Banzragch |
36 - 52 | -16 | 54.1 | 68.1% | 0.84 |
| Ayush 'mzinho' Batbold |
36 - 50 | -14 | 58.7 | 63.8% | 0.81 |
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