BetBoom Team becomes first Stage 1 team to reach IEM Cologne playoffs

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.

Who is BetBoom Team, and why should you care

BetBoom as an organization was founded in 2022. The team is backed by BetBoom, a traditional iGaming company that’s been expanding aggressively, including into Latin American markets. In January 2026, BetBoom and FURIA announced a two-year partnership deal that included jersey branding.

The IEM Cologne Major 2026 notably lacks prominent crypto sponsorship, a stark contrast to previous iterations of the event. Traditional betting companies have stepped into the gap. BetBoom’s visibility at this tournament, both as a sponsor and as a competitive team, illustrates that dynamic.

What this means for the esports investment landscape

Betting sponsorship in esports has always been somewhat controversial, particularly around concerns about match integrity and the optics of gambling brands targeting younger audiences. As traditional iGaming fills the void left by crypto, regulators in Europe and elsewhere may pay closer attention to sponsorship arrangements in competitive gaming.

The FURIA partnership announced in January suggests BetBoom is thinking long-term about cross-regional growth. A two-year deal with jersey branding, combined with the LATAM expansion of BetBoom’s core betting business, points to a diversified, multi-market presence. BetBoom has already written themselves into the history books as the first Stage 1 team to reach the IEM Cologne playoffs. The playoffs are held at the Lanxess Arena, where best-of-three elimination matches await.

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