Only four spots in the IEM Cologne group stage are left up for grabs as the first day of the Play-in stage concludes.

FaZe and BIG have secured berths in the main event at IEM Cologne following victories over Complexity and OG in the Play-in stage's upper bracket semi-finals, respectively. Meanwhile, MIBR are the second team to be eliminated from the tournament, with Renegades moving on in the lower bracket at their expense.

It was a rough day in the office for the Brazilians, who will undoubtedly leave the event contemplating all the 'what-ifs' after missing several opportunities to pick up wins in Cologne. Gustavo "⁠yel⁠" Knittel's squad entered the event with a double-overtime loss to Spirit despite having seven cahnces to close the opening match and went on to suffer a similarly heartbreaking loss to Renegades just hours later, unable to close out 15-11 and 13-10 leads on Vertigo and Mirage against the Australian side.

FaZe have maintained impressive form throughout the first day of the Play-in stage in the meantime, having first brought down Evil Geniuses in the opening round before putting on a rather convincing display against Complexity in a 2-0 series to lock down their spot in the main event group stage.

"I think the nerves faded mostly, for me it varies per map because I have a lot of new spots," Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken said after the match on the topic of shaking off the nerves after FaZe's opening win. "I feel like I have a little bit of pressure on me to perform in my spots, especially on LAN now, but after the opening match I'm feeling pretty great."

Having passed a historically tricky local Sprout matchup without any issues, BIG went up against OG in the second round and sent the European side down to the lower bracket despite Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså's best efforts to turn Mirage around with perhaps the biggest standout performance of the day.

Day two of the Play-in will see four more teams make it through to the next stage and six teams sent packing, with TeamOne-Sprout and Evil Geniuses-ViCi kicking off the second day at 13:30 .

FaZe	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Russel 'Twistzz' Van DulkenTwistzz	37 - 26	+11	77.1	1.28
Håvard 'rain' Nygaardrain	44 - 33	+11	90.0	1.27
Helvijs 'broky' Saukantsbroky	33 - 26	+7	63.6	1.11
Finn 'karrigan' Andersenkarrigan	37 - 39	-2	85.4	1.08
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjerolofmeister	32 - 31	+1	62.7	0.93

Complexity	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Valentin 'poizon' Vasilevpoizon	39 - 38	+1	81.3	1.11
Kristian 'k0nfig' Wieneckek0nfig	40 - 38	+2	86.0	1.10
Benjamin 'blameF' BremerblameF	31 - 36	-5	74.4	1.02
Justin 'jks' Savagejks	25 - 36	-11	54.5	0.77
William 'RUSH' WierzbaRUSH	17 - 36	-19	38.5	0.65

BIG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Nils 'k1to' Gruhnek1to	57 - 31	+26	87.4	1.49
Johannes 'tabseN' WodarztabseN	50 - 39	+11	98.5	1.32
Ismailcan 'XANTARES' DörtkardeşXANTARES	40 - 38	+2	79.9	1.14
Florian 'syrsoN' RischesyrsoN	40 - 41	-1	71.5	1.06
Tizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschtiziaN	30 - 38	-8	53.9	0.85

OG	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Valdemar 'valde' Bjørn Vangsåvalde	56 - 36	+20	90.2	1.29
Nikolaj 'niko' Kristensenniko	39 - 43	-4	69.8	1.01
Mateusz 'mantuu' Wilczewskimantuu	32 - 44	-12	65.1	0.84
Shahar 'flameZ' ShushanflameZ	33 - 48	-15	64.4	0.75
Aleksi 'Aleksib' VirolainenAleksib	27 - 47	-20	56.5	0.64

MIBR	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Gustavo 'yel' Knittelyel	47 - 40	+7	77.4	1.17
Bruno 'shz' Martinellishz	47 - 45	+2	73.0	1.05
Marcelo 'chelo' Cespedeschelo	35 - 41	-6	70.2	0.95
Ricardo 'boltz' Prassboltz	37 - 37	0	64.3	0.92
Raphael 'exit' Lacerdaexit	30 - 40	-10	61.5	0.87

Renegades	K - D	+/-	ADR	Rating 2.0
Alistair 'aliStair' JohnstonaliStair	51 - 42	+9	78.0	1.19
Joshua 'INS' PotterINS	37 - 34	+3	75.1	1.14
Jordan 'Hatz' BajicHatz	37 - 40	-3	73.5	0.98
Liam 'malta' Schembrimalta	40 - 42	-2	64.9	0.96
Simon 'Sico' WilliamsSico	37 - 39	-2	58.8	0.91