IEM Krakow 2026-Everything You Need to Know

Just like in many other sports, Esports have a winter break. For all of us who love Counter Strike the break is over and we can once again enjoy CS competition of the highest level. The best news is that we have the Intel Extreme Masters Krakow ahead of us as one of the major tournaments during this part of the season. Let's compare it to the Four Hills Tournament in ski jumping. Jokes aside, the tournament in Krakow is one of the biggest ones of the year, despite being in January, as far as Counter Strike goes.

For fans of the event, the biggest change is the fact that after quite a few years, the venue has changed locations. IEM no longer belongs to Katowice. Instead, it has been moved to Krakow. Yet, as far as prestige goes, this tourney remains equally important to both the fans of the game and those who participate. If you're eagerly expecting this event to start, let us walk you through everything you need to know about the Krakow showdown.

When, Where & Prize Money Talks

IEM Krakow will be held in Krakow, Poland, from January 28th until February 8th. This IEM tournament means that there will no longer be a tourney in Katowice. While the city has been a fine host throughout the years, the tournament has outgrown its venue, and the surrounding area no longer supports a competition of IEMs size. Krakow is an ideal choice, leaving the event tied to Poland, but just in another city, bigger, with better infrastructure, with the same love for Esports.

As far as the playoffs for the tourney go, they will be hosted in the Tauron Arena. This venue can receive around 22,000 visitors and the people behind the event are expecting that it will be packed to the roof for the playoffs. As we're used to from the Polish crowd the atmosphere is going to be deafening, and both the fans and the players will enjoy the tournament. The same as in Katowice, the Krakow tourney belongs in the group of Grand Slam tournaments in Counter Strike, so the main prize pool is going to close to $1 million. When you know what's on the line, and the teams and players know too, you can expect that everyone is going to give their best, play smart, tactically, and aim for the head.

The matches, from first to last, are all going to be tight. As far as 2026 goes, only two tournaments provide the winners with gold bars for their final ranking of the season. 2026 IEM Krakow is one of those two tournaments. The stakes are never higher, and you can bet that every team will try to play their best game. Talking about betting, if you're into sports wagering you can see how to bet on IEM Kraków 2026 before the tournament starts. At the moment, everyone, including fans, pundits, and bookies see Team Vitality as favorites to take home the trophy, but more on that later.

With million dollars, a few gold bars, and a lot of prestige on the line, you can expect that everyone will fight until the last man standing. The winner takes home $400 thousand, and that's not a sum you want to miss out on. But, before you lay your hands on it, you need to walk through the tournament's bracket. Let's take a look at the IEM Krakow 2026 Format.

2026 IEM Krakow Format

Not much has changed since Katowice days. 2026 IEM Krakow will have three stages. The initial one is play in. It's followed by the group stage, and what comes after are the playoffs. The play in is reserved for teams who are seeded from position No9 to position No24. They will play two, or if a draw is the result after two duels, three matches. You can lose one duel and still be in play, but to go through the group stage, you need two wins.

Once we're in the group stages, the fun starts. Here, IEM Krakow will be no different from any other standard tournament that follows ESL format. If you're not familiar with this format, it looks something like this. In group stages, we have sixteen teams divided into groups of two. All matches played are done through a Double Elimination bracket. The winners of each bracket are through to the semi finals directly. The teams that lose the finals of each bracket also go through but only to the playoffs spots. Also, the winner of the lower bracket gets the same treatment. These teams enter the playoffs in the quarter final stage. All other teams are deemed as losers, and their participation ends in the group stages.

As far as the playoffs go, they're played in a Single Elimination format. The moment the tournament moves to the quarter finals, semi finals, the format changes to the best of three. The Grand Final is played as a best of five series. If you plan to bet on IEM Kraków 2026, we're going to give you the teams that participate, single out early favorites, before we give you a short guide on betting markets tied to Counter Strike.

Who Made it to IEM Krakow 2026 & Early favorites to Win it All

The total number of teams that secured their place for the 2026 IEM Krakow is 24. The top eight Counter Strikes teams at this moment are qualified for the second stage from the get go. As you could guess the eight teams that are in the best position of them all are Team Vitality, FURIA, Team Falcons, Team Spirit, Natus Vincere, MOUZ, FaZe Clan, and The MongolZ, if you plan to wager on this tournament on Stake.com, the chances are that the winner will come out of these eight teams.

The rest of the participants will have a bit longer road to the finals, if they're even capable of reaching it at all. Those teams are Aurora Gaming, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Astralis, Parivision, Heroic, Ninjas in Pyjamas, BC.Game Esports, B8, Legacy, 3DMAX, Pain Gaming, FUT Esports, Passion UA, NRG, and GamerLegion.

For all true fans of the game, during the play ins all eyes will be on BC.Game Esports. The reason is simple, as their roster has one legendary Counter Strike name in s1mple who is making his return to the big stage in this tournament with a new team. Play ins will be a lot of fun despite not featuring any of the top teams. Talking about them, let's take a look at which teams could be the betting favorites to take the trophy home. Let's start with the biggest favorites.

Team Vitality

There is no doubt that Team Vitality is the team to beat, not only in Krakow but in 2026 overall. Their era has only started, and it seems the team is not ready to stop dominating. While we can't claim they will remain top dogs throughout the year, early in 2026 it is expected that they play to the best of their abilities. While the Counter Strike competition was never better, the victory at the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 has cemented Team Vitality as the best team in Esports. Dan “apEX” Madesclaire is probably the best CS player in the world at the moment, and under his leadership, Team Vitality is prepared to take on 2026in style, and it all starts at 2026 IEM Krakow. After winning two back to back Major Championship last year, Team Vitality will try to three peat before they manage to lose to a much weaker competition. Their roster consists of Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, William “mezii” Merriman, Robin “ropz” Kool, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire (IGL), and Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam (Coach). These names are a recipe for success, and we expect to see more of it in coming weeks.

Furia

Furia hasn't been up to their best game in recent months, and yet they remain one of the best CS teams in the world. In addition to Team Vitality we see them as a team that could make strides all the way up to the Grand Final. After all, at the helm of their aspirations stands Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo who is a two time Major Championship winner and is hungry for more. While no longer superstar as he once was, as far as leadership goes he is unprecedented. As far as their recent results go, FalleN has been at the centre of it. Furia relies on his leadership and in game skills, and you could see how good Furia can be once the team is synced like it was at the FISSURE Playground 2. They failed to wrap up 2025 in style, but have been formidable at every tourney they participated in. Yuri “yuurih” Boian, Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato, Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis, Danil “molodoy” Golubenko, Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo (IGL), and Sidnei “sidde” Macedo (Coach) have high goals for 2026, and we believe they can start the year on a high note in Krakow and see them as the second best team before the start of the tournament.

Team Spirit

There is not much difference in quality between team Vitality, Furia and Team Spirit. They're a team that will be looking to get to as many podiums as possible in 2026. Last year at this same stage they finished second in Katowice. This time around they will be aiming for the no1 spot. Team Spirit knows how to win, and they usually do it on the wings of their best players in Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, and AWPer Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov. Last season, they managed to lift four trophies, and to get as twice as many podiums. In Krakow, they will be looking to take the crown, and while it will not be an easy task, it is not an impossible one either. At the moment, they're one of the best teams out there, and one that has made more than a few positive changes to their roster before the start of the competitive year. Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov, Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia, Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich, Boris “magixx” Vorobyev (IGL), and Sergey “hally” Shavayev (Coach) are more than a formidable team, and they're rightly so hoping for an amazing start of the year at the 2026 IEM Krakow.

How Do You Bet on CS2

Betting on Counter Strike 2 is not hard. All you need to do is open an account at an online casino such as Stake, deposit some funds, and start your wagering adventure. If you already have an account, but are not too familiar with how to bet on Esports, and particularly on Counter Strike, here are some available betting markets:

• Match Winner: a standard moneyline bet which works on a two way principle. There are no draws in CS, so you bet on one team to win the duel. Pick a winner and place a bet. It's that simple.
• Match Winner (three way): there are some tournaments where draw is possible during the group stages. When this is the case, you can place a bet on the winner or wager that a duel will end in a draw.
• Map Handicap: When you have Counter Strike tournaments that are played in bets of 3 or best of 5 series, you can wager on the winner via handicap. Let's say that a team has a 1.5 handicap. In a series that's BO3, you wager on a team that has +1.5 handicap attached, that team can lose the duel 2:1 and you would still win your wager.
• Total Maps: Here's a simple over/under wager. In the BO3 or BO5 series, you can wager on the number of maps that will be played. These bets can also be wagered in terms of whether the number will be even or odd.

These are the basic betting markets for CS. Once you handle these you can move onto Correct Score, Map Winner, Wins at Least One Map, Props Bets, Parlays, and Outrights later on. Either way, you have enough time to study Counter Strike bets before the 2026 IEM Krakow starts.