Tag: CS2 esports

  • IEM Beijing 2026: CS2 Schedule in IST, Results, Teams and How to Watch

    IEM Beijing 2026: CS2 Schedule in IST, Results, Teams and How to Watch

    One of Team Falcons or FaZe Clan will be knocked out of IEM Beijing on Tuesday afternoon, India time. Both lost their opening series on Monday, and they meet in an elimination match at 12:30 pm IST.

    IEM Beijing 2026 runs November 2 to 8 at Wukesong’s Bloomage Biotech·Biohyalux ECM Arena, with 16 teams playing for $1,250,000 (about ₹11.9 crore). Group matches start at 7:30 am IST, Friday and Saturday playoff matches at 12:00 noon IST, and Sunday’s best-of-five grand final at 1:00 pm IST, all free on ESL’s YouTube, Twitch and Kick channels.

    Results current to 10:00 am IST, Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

    The winner takes $360,000 (about ₹3.4 crore), an ESL Pro Tour Masters trophy and points in the ESL Grand Slam VII race. It is not a Major, but it is a tier-one event in a city that last hosted IEM in 2019, for a fifth of this year’s prize pool. And it fits inside the Indian day: Beijing is only two and a half hours ahead of IST.

    IEM Beijing 2026 at a glance

    Key facts, from ESL’s official IEM Beijing event page and Liquipedia’s IEM Beijing 2026 page:

    DetailIEM Beijing 2026
    DatesMonday, November 2 to Sunday, November 8, 2026 (no matches on Thursday, November 5)
    VenueBloomage Biotech·Biohyalux ECM Arena (Wukesong Arena), Haidian District, Beijing
    Prize pool$1,250,000 (about ₹11.9 crore)
    Teams16
    Group stageTwo eight-team double-elimination groups, all best-of-three; top three in each group advance
    PlayoffsSix-team single elimination, best-of-three, with a best-of-five grand final
    Map poolAncient, Anubis, Cache, Dust II, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke
    StatusESL Pro Tour Masters event, counts toward ESL Grand Slam VII
    Wukesong Arena in Beijing, a large building with a bronze vertical-fin facade, under a clear blue sky
    Wukesong Arena, photographed in October 2021 under its earlier Cadillac Arena name, hosts IEM Beijing 2026. Photo: N509FZ, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    The first day has already moved the favorites around.

    IEM Beijing results so far: Falcons and FaZe drop to the lower bracket

    Monday sent four teams in each group to the lower bracket, where one more defeat ends the week.

    The loudest result came last. Natus Vincere beat Team Falcons 2-0, 13-5 on Ancient and 13-11 on Mirage, and sent the NiKo and m0NESY lineup to the lower bracket on day one.

    FaZe Clan followed after the biggest swing of the day. Down 2-10 at the half on Ancient, FaZe won 11 of the next 12 rounds to take the map 13-11, then won only nine rounds across Dust II and Cache as FURIA closed out the series 2-1.

    On Monday morning, The MongolZ came from a map down against Legacy, losing Mirage 13-16 in overtime before taking Dust II and Ancient. Legacy are playing with a stand-in, ksloks, after benching n1ssim on October 28.

    Group B already has its first playoff team. PARIVISION beat G2 Esports 2-1 on Monday and Team Liquid 2-0 on Tuesday morning (13-7 on Ancient, 13-9 on Inferno). Both upper finalists advance, so Wednesday only decides whether PARIVISION skip the quarterfinals. On the second stream, Aurora Gaming and G2 Esports were level at 1-1 going into a Dust II decider at 10:00 am IST, with the loser out.

    Monday, November 2

    GroupWinnerScoreLoserMaps (winner’s score first)
    AThe MongolZ2-1LegacyMirage 13-16 (OT), Dust II 13-6, Ancient 13-8
    AHEROIC2-0B8Nuke 13-4, Dust II 13-7
    AFURIA2-1FaZe ClanAncient 11-13, Dust II 13-5, Cache 13-4
    ANatus Vincere2-0Team FalconsAncient 13-5, Mirage 13-11
    BTeam Liquid2-0Aurora GamingInferno 13-3, Anubis 13-4
    BPARIVISION2-1G2 EsportsDust II 9-13, Anubis 13-7, Ancient 13-9
    BBetBoom Team2-19zDust II 8-13, Ancient 13-7, Mirage 13-9
    BMOUZ2-0TYLOOInferno 13-6, Nuke 13-7

    Dust II and Ancient were Monday’s busiest maps, five plays each out of 20. Cache showed up once, in FURIA’s 13-4 decider against FaZe.

    First-person view of a rifle aimed down a sunlit sandstone lane in Counter-Strike 2
    Image: Valve via Steam

    Tuesday is where the bracket starts to bite.

    Tuesday’s IEM Beijing schedule in IST: four teams go home

    Four of Tuesday’s eight matches are eliminations. Each loser finishes 13th to 16th and takes $4,000 (about ₹3.8 lakh). Each upper-semifinal winner books a playoff spot.

    ISTBeijingMatchWhat is at stake
    7:30 am10:00 amPARIVISION 2-0 Team Liquid (B, upper semifinal)Done: PARIVISION into the playoffs, Liquid to the lower bracket
    7:30 am10:00 amAurora Gaming vs G2 Esports (B, lower bracket)Loser is out; 1-1 going into Dust II at 10:00 am IST
    10:15 am12:45 pmTYLOO vs 9z (B, lower bracket)Loser is out
    11:00 am1:30 pmMOUZ vs BetBoom Team (B, upper semifinal)Winner books a playoff spot
    12:30 pm3:00 pmFaZe Clan vs Team Falcons (A, lower bracket)Loser is out
    12:30 pm3:00 pmThe MongolZ vs HEROIC (A, upper semifinal)Winner books a playoff spot
    3:00 pm5:30 pmFURIA vs Natus Vincere (A, upper semifinal)Winner books a playoff spot
    3:00 pm5:30 pmLegacy vs B8 (A, lower bracket)Loser is out

    Treat these as listed times: a match starts only when the series before it on the same stream ends. Monday ran late. Natus Vincere vs Team Falcons was slotted for 3:00 pm IST on ESL’s arena schedule and started at 5:15 pm IST, according to Liquipedia’s match log.

    The 10:15 am IST match carries the most local weight. TYLOO, the only Chinese team in the field, lost 2-0 to MOUZ on Monday and now play 9z for their tournament lives in front of a home crowd.

    Survive Tuesday, and Wednesday sorts out the rest of the bracket.

    The full IEM Beijing schedule in IST, through Sunday’s grand final

    Wednesday, November 4, finishes the group stage with both upper finals, all four lower semifinals and both lower finals. ESL’s arena schedule uses the same four slots as Tuesday, 7:30 am, 10:00 am, 12:30 pm and 3:00 pm IST. Liquipedia has not attached start times to Wednesday’s matches yet.

    Thursday, November 5, has no matches. The playoffs run Friday to Sunday:

    DateISTBeijingMatchFormat
    Fri, Nov 612:00 pm2:30 pmQuarterfinal 1: Group B second place vs Group A third placeBo3
    Fri, Nov 63:15 pm5:45 pmQuarterfinal 2: Group A second place vs Group B third placeBo3
    Sat, Nov 712:00 pm2:30 pmSemifinal 1: Group A winner vs a quarterfinal winnerBo3
    Sat, Nov 73:15 pm5:45 pmSemifinal 2: Group B winner vs a quarterfinal winnerBo3
    Sun, Nov 89:30 am12:00 pmThird-place deciderBo3
    Sun, Nov 81:00 pm3:30 pmGrand finalBo5

    ESL’s arena schedule estimates each playoff day finishing around 10:00 pm Beijing time, which is 7:30 pm IST.

    Where each team lands in that bracket comes down to a format that forgives exactly one loss.

    How the IEM Beijing format works

    Each group is an eight-team double-elimination bracket of best-of-three series. Win your first two and you are in the playoffs; the upper final then decides who tops the group and skips to Saturday’s semifinals, and who finishes second and plays Friday’s quarterfinals as a high seed. The lower bracket produces each group’s third playoff team.

    Lose twice and you are out, and when you go out sets your finish: 13th to 16th in Tuesday’s first lower-bracket round, 9th to 12th in Wednesday’s lower semifinals, 7th to 8th in the lower finals.

    The playoffs are single elimination, so quarterfinal losers finish 5th to 6th. There is one extra match: the two beaten semifinalists play a best-of-three third-place decider at 9:30 am IST on Sunday, and the gap between third ($160,000) and fourth ($120,000) is $40,000.

    Here is everyone still chasing that money.

    All 16 IEM Beijing teams and how they qualified

    Ten teams were invited through the global Valve Regional Standings (VRS), three through regional VRS spots for North America, South America and Asia, two through ESL’s global qualifier, and one, TYLOO, through the Asian qualifier.

    TeamGroupQualified via
    Natus VincereAVRS global
    FURIAAVRS global
    The MongolZAVRS Asia
    HEROICAGlobal qualifier
    Team FalconsAVRS global
    FaZe ClanAVRS global
    LegacyAVRS global
    B8AGlobal qualifier
    PARIVISIONBVRS global
    MOUZBVRS global
    BetBoom TeamBVRS global
    Team LiquidBVRS North America
    Aurora GamingBVRS global
    G2 EsportsBVRS global
    TYLOOBAsian qualifier
    9zBVRS South America

    A few rosters arrive changed. The MongolZ benched tikuak and DarkMeister in September, then added nin9 from The Huns in October and brought cobrazera back into the lineup. HEROIC named Snappi head coach on October 1, and PARIVISION signed HObbit in September.

    For star power, Falcons field NiKo, m0NESY and karrigan, FaZe have Twistzz and frozen, and FURIA pair FalleN with KSCERATO, yuurih and YEKINDAR. Team Vitality and Team Spirit are not in the field.

    Which leaves the question Indian fans will ask first.

    Is there an Indian team at IEM Beijing?

    No. The 16-team field has no Indian or South Asian side, and the Asian route sent exactly one team to Beijing: TYLOO.

    That route opened with an online open qualifier on August 23 and 24. Liquipedia counts 85 teams in it and documents the last 32, and that is where the South Asian story ends. Firedup Gaming, a lineup Liquipedia lists with two Indian players, RobbeN and PwN, lost 13-3 on Ancient to JS.CN in the round of 32 on August 23. Legion.pk, with three Pakistani players, beat Walk The Talk 13-5 on Dust II, then lost 13-4 on Mirage to Rare Atom in the round of 16.

    Four teams came through it (The Huns, NEXVOID, Kaleido and Rare Atom) and joined four VRS-ranked Asian teams (TYLOO, Lynn Vision Gaming, FlyQuest and DEPO) in the closed qualifier from September 2 to 4. TYLOO won it without dropping a map: 2-0 over Kaleido and DEPO, then forfeit wins over Rare Atom (a scheduling clash) and FlyQuest (connection problems).

    One thread runs from that open qualifier to the main stage: nin9 played it for The Huns in August and is in Beijing this week with The MongolZ.

    If you want an Asian team to follow this week, you have two. The MongolZ are already in an upper-bracket semifinal, and TYLOO play to stay alive at 10:15 am IST. Our India hub is where GamersGags covers Indian teams and players.

    You do not need a ticket to Beijing to watch any of it.

    How to watch IEM Beijing in India

    Every match is free. ESL streams the English broadcast on ESL Counter-Strike’s YouTube channel, Twitch and Kick, and during the group stage the parallel matches run on a second stream, ESL CS B.

    PlatformMain streamSecond stream (group stage)Language
    YouTube@ESLCS@ESLCS, separate live streamEnglish
    TwitcheslcseslcsbEnglish
    KickeslcseslcsbEnglish
    Douyu, Bilibili, HuyaESL’s Chinese channelsESL’s Chinese channelsChinese

    Liquipedia’s stream list has no Hindi broadcast, so the English feed is the one to pick. The English desk has SPUNJ, Machine, JustHarry and Hugo Byron on commentary, with STYKO, YouM3 and YNk as analysts.

    Liquipedia links a YouTube VOD for every finished map, so a 7:30 am IST series you miss for work or college is easy to find in the evening.

    The money is easier to feel in rupees.

    IEM Beijing prize money in rupees

    All 16 teams get paid from the $1,250,000 pool. Rupee figures below use about ₹95 to the US dollar, the late-October 2026 rate in the US Federal Reserve’s FRED data (₹94.94 on October 23).

    PlacePrize (USD)About (INR)
    1st$360,000₹3.42 crore
    2nd$210,000₹2 crore
    3rd$160,000₹1.52 crore
    4th$120,000₹1.14 crore
    5th to 6th$87,500 each₹83 lakh each
    7th to 8th$54,500 each₹52 lakh each
    9th to 12th$25,000 each₹24 lakh each
    13th to 16th$4,000 each₹3.8 lakh each

    On its own, the winner’s $360,000 is more than the entire prize pool the last time IEM came to Beijing.

    IEM returns to Beijing for the first time since 2019

    ESL FACEIT Group calls this IEM’s first return to Beijing since 2019. That November, Astralis swept 100 Thieves 3-0 in the final of IEM XIV Beijing, with $250,000 on the table. This year’s prize pool is five times bigger.

    The show has grown with the money. IEM Beijing 2026 uses a 360-degree stage, IEM’s first since the IEM Rio Major in 2022, and ESL expects more than 45,000 fans across the six match days. Beijing’s official English-language portal, citing The Beijing News, says the event is expected to become the largest standalone IEM ever held in Asia.

    Wukesong Arena, in Haidian District, hosted basketball at the 2008 Olympics and now carries the Bloomage Biotech·Biohyalux ECM Arena name.

    A packed arena crowd under purple stage lights at IEM Katowice 2019
    Fans at IEM Katowice 2019. ESL expects more than 45,000 across Beijing’s six match days. Photo: Esports Kingdom, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

    All of which leaves one practical question: when to watch.

    Your IEM Beijing watch plan from India

    • One series today: FaZe Clan vs Team Falcons, 12:30 pm IST. One famous roster is out by the end of it.
    • The home side: TYLOO vs 9z, 10:15 am IST.
    • After work: FURIA vs Natus Vincere and Legacy vs B8, listed for 3:00 pm IST, and likely to drift into your evening if earlier series run long, as Monday’s did.
    • The weekend: semifinals from 12:00 noon IST on Saturday, the grand final at 1:00 pm IST on Sunday.

    When the Beijing broadcast ends, Nersing’s own CS2 Premier climb lives on the GamersGags YouTube channel; one of his streams is below. Every CS2 story we publish lands on the GamersGags CS2 hub and in our gaming news section.

    By Tuesday night in India, four teams will be out of IEM Beijing. By about 7:30 pm IST on Sunday, if ESL’s schedule holds, one will be left holding the trophy, and you will have watched it happen before dinner.