The play-in stage of the IEM Cologne CS:GO event kicks off this Wednesday with all 16 teams competing in best-of-one series. Below you will find our free betting picks for all eight matches on July 26.

After their much-improved performance in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, Ninjas in Pyjamas enter the IEM Cologne play-in stage as one of the favourites to advance to the main event. Into The Breach will be playing their first competitive map after the player break, so expect them to be a little rusty; however, given their performance at the BLAST.tv Paris Major, they have a good chance to advance to the main event.

MOUZ and TheMongolz will debut new rosters in their opening IEM Cologne play-in series. MOUZ will be looking to start a new chapter under the Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek’s leadership, after he returned to MOUZ from GamerLegion during the player break. Both teams have proven that they are able to match it with the best in the world; however, with new rosters engaged on both sides, we could see a bit of rustiness early on.

This is set to be one of the best series of the opening round, with both Fnatic (17th) and Complexity (19th) sitting inside the top 20 in the CS:GO world rankings. Complexity will be looking to bounce back after they ended their BLAST Premier Fall Groups campaign with three straight losses, while Fnatic will be playing their first series since the player break.

OG are yet to win a series with their new roster, having lost against FaZe Clan, G2 Esports and BIG in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups. 9INE have been consistently good during 2023, earning qualification to most of the S-Tier events so far this year. Given that they didn’t make any changes to their roster during the player break, we expect 9INE to begin their play-in campaign with a win over OG.

Astralis and Team Liquid both made changes to their rosters. The new-look Astralis side qualified for the BLAST Premier Fall Final after they defeated Team Liquid 2-0 in the final round of the playoffs. Despite that result, we expect Liquid to put up a better showing and play out a close best-of-one series here.

This series between Monte and Imperial appears to be one of the hardest series to predict, as both teams have made roster changes that don’t seem to be improvements. Monte lost one of their better players in Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas, who carried them to their fifth-eighth finish at the BLAST.tv Paris Major. Meanwhile, Imperial lost in-game leader Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, who moved to FURIA during the player break. Anything could happen here, so the outsiders at the round line looks a solid play.

Apeks only made the one change to their roster over the player break, adding Aleksandar “CacaNito” Kjulukoski for Justinas “jL” Lekavicius. After finishing third-fourth at the BLAST.tv Paris Major earlier this year, the world no.9 team comes into this with a bit of buzz around it. BIG had an up-and-down BLAST Premier Fall Groups, and this new roster may take some time to work things out, so all signs point to an Apeks win.

Grayhound are one of the underdogs to qualify for the IEM Cologne main event, and they will be up against when they take on the best Brazilian team in the tournament. FURIA are ranked 18th in the world, but with the new additions of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes, they have improved their roster massively. FURIA are not only short favourites to get out of the play-in, but they are eighth favourite to win IEM Cologne.

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