Spirit book IEM Cologne Stage 3 spot after 2-0 sweep

Spirit secured a place in Stage 3 of the IEM Cologne Major 2026 with a 2-0 win over 9z on June 7 in Cologne. Danil “donk” Kryshkovets finished the match 48-16 with 155.1 ADR, 93.3% KAST and a 2.55 rating. Spirit completed Stage 2 without dropping a map.

Spirit entered Stage 2 as the highest-ranked team after winning PGL Astana. Across June 6-7 they beat BetBoom 13-5, MIBR 13-1 and 9z 2-0, conceding 10 rounds across four maps in the three matches.

The series opened on Mirage, Spirit’s pick. Donk produced six multikills in the first half and recorded 150.3 ADR there. Spirit led 9-3 at half and closed the map after switching to CT, with donk collecting eight kills and one death across the final four rounds.

The second map, Nuke, was 9z’s pick. Donk posted 100% KAST, 144.9 ADR and a 23-7 K/D on Nuke, registering a 2.76 map rating, which ranks as his second-highest map rating on LAN.

Individual match lines show Spirit’s control. Danil “donk” Kryshkovets 48-16, Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich 30-19 with 110.6 ADR, Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov 24-13, Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia 20-12 and in-game leader Boris “magixx” Vorobiev 16-16. 9z posted Luciano “luchov” Herrera 21-27, Franco “dgt” Garcia 17-29, Maximiliano “max” Gonzalez 15-27, Matias “HUASOPEEK” Ibañez Hernandez 12-28 and Ignacio “meyern” Meyer 11-27.

Key moments included a 1v4 survival by dgt, a coordinated 2v4 by sh1ro and zont1x, a three-kill round from meyern that did not change the match outcome, and a four-kill round from donk that helped close several rounds for Spirit.

With the sweep Spirit advance to Stage 3 and will join teams that started the Major later in the event, including Vitality, Natus Vincere and Falcons.