Five North American teams drop to lower bracket at IEM Atlanta

Eight winners advanced to the upper-bracket semi-finals and eight teams dropped to the lower bracket on the opening day of IEM Atlanta on May 11, 2026. Five teams with North American ties-FaZe, Liquid, NRG, Passion UA and M80-lost their opening matches and will play elimination matches in the lower bracket.

paiN beat FaZe 2-0, taking Dust2 13-6 and Anubis 13-8. FaZe won all four pistol rounds in the series but failed to reach double digits on either map. João “snow” Vinicius and Guilherme “piriajr” Barbosa led paiN. Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski produced a quad-kill with the USP for FaZe’s most notable moment.

BetBoom recovered from a 16-14 loss on Mirage to beat B8 2-1 by winning Nuke 13-8 and Dust2 13-5. Vitality returned to a win with a 2-0 result over BC.Game, taking Mirage 13-7 and Dust2 13-10. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut posted a 1.52 rating across the series. During the Mirage map, Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold knifed ZywOo and Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire reacted angrily before Vitality completed the comeback.

FUT beat NRG 2-0 after an overtime Ancient that ended 16-13 and a 13-9 finish on Overpass. Aulon “Krabeni” Fazlija won nine attacking rounds on Overpass to help close the match. FUT’s Laurențiu “lauNX” Țârlea, returning from a recent health-related benching, recorded a team-low 0.82 rating.

Natus Vincere overcame Passion UA 2-0 after a dramatic Anubis in which Passion UA led 9-3 on the CT side. NAVI forced overtime and won the extra rounds 4-1, then won Mirage 13-4. Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen led NAVI’s push.

GamerLegion beat SINNERS 2-1. Fredrik “REZ” Sterner posted a 1.62 rating on Mirage and a 1.57 on Inferno. GamerLegion closed the series on Nuke with a nine-round T-side and a 13-8 final.

Astralis defeated Liquid 2-0, winning Dust2 13-4 and Ancient 13-11. Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard finished with a 1.68 rating and a +7.36% impact swing. Legacy eliminated M80 2-0, taking Inferno 13-5 and Mirage 13-7, with Guilherme “saadzin” Pacheco posting a 1.68 rating, 102.5 ADR and a +8.76% swing.

Individual performances included Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s 28-13 K/D, 109.9 ADR and 1.62 rating on Dust2 in the BC.Game match, and ZywOo’s 1.52-rated series for Vitality.

Lower-bracket elimination matches scheduled for May 12 include FaZe versus NRG, Liquid versus M80, and Passion UA versus SINNERS. Winners will remain in the lower bracket; losers will be eliminated from the tournament. Upper-bracket matches set for May 12 are BetBoom versus Vitality, B8 versus BC.Game, paiN versus FUT, and Natus Vincere versus GamerLegion. IEM Atlanta group play uses a double-elimination bracket where opening losses send teams to the lower bracket.