IEM Cologne 2021 Odds, Picks, Predictions, Schedule and Prize Pool

• IEM Cologne gets underway on July 6th, with the grand final taking place on July 18th
• The tournament features a $1 million USD prize pool with top spot earning $400,000
• Gambit are the slight favorites after winning three consecutive tournaments in the span of a month

One of the biggest CSGO tournaments of the year gets started on July 6th. IEM Cologne is broken up into three stages: the Play-in Stage, the Group Stage, and the Playoffs. Only eight teams have currently qualified for the Group Stage, while 16 teams will compete in the Play-in Stage to join the likes of Gambit and Natus Vincere, who are the current favorites in the IEM Cologne 2021 odds.

IEM Cologne features a $1 million USD prize pool and Gambit are currently favored to win the majority of it. They have several recent first-place finishes to their name, including a convincing win at IEM Summer. Make sure to check out the latest sportsbook promos to optimize your winnings.

 CSGO IEM Cologne 2021 Odds

Odds as of July 5th

Top Two Favorites

Gambit enters IEM Cologne as a slight favorite, and there’s absolutely no discussion that it’s deserved after the past month they’ve had. They finished first at the EPIC CIS League Spring, IEM Summer, and the BLAST Premier Spring Finals. Not only did they win those events, but they also did it in dominant fashion. Gambit was undefeated at BLAST Premier and only dropped a single map to NAVI. They’re on fire entering IEM Cologne, and there’s really only a handful of teams that could realistically take down Gambit in their current form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En8lZOIOxqY&t=0s

One of those teams is NAVI, who come in right behind Gambit at +300 odds of winning IEM Cologne. Natus Vincere has been the only team that has truly rivaled Gambit over the past couple of months. They’ve played a ton over the past few tournaments, and the CIS rivals will more than likely go head-to-head again at IEM Cologne. At the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals, Gambit defeated NAVI in both the Upper Bracket Final and Grand Final.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03TXsxNSliE

Prior to that, NAVI won the previous two matchups against Gambit. On July 4th, NAVI also defeated Gambit 3-2 at StarLadder in a reverse sweep to win the event. At this point, it’s practically a toss up as to who wins the head-to-head matchup. Although it’s hard to predict who would win between these two teams, whoever comes out on top will likely be the team that goes on to win IEM Cologne.

G2 or Virtus Pro

After Gambit and NAVI, both G2 and Virtus Pro come in with +600 odds. If you’re looking to see who has a better chance of cashing in on those odds, the answer is G2. They’ve been on the up over the last few events, as they finished in third at both BLAST Premier and IEM Summer after losses to either NAVI or Gambit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bhNPJK5-hk

They’re the better pick at +600, however, they’ll likely have to overcome both NAVI and Gambit, and that’s no easy feat at the moment.

IEM Cologne Best Bet & Dark Horse Pick

The field at IEM Cologne is stacked with all of the top teams in the world, so it’s hard to imagine a Cinderella run from a dark horse. If there was a team that could do it, I would look at Vitality. At the end of 2020, Vitality was in a similar position to where Gambit is now. From the get go in 2021, Vitality stumbled and are still figuring things out after some shuffling of their roster. The glimmer of a return came at IEM Summer where they managed to finish third – their best result so far in 2021. Their biggest vote of confidence is thanks to a 2-0 win over Gambit at that tournament. It’d be a tough road for Vitality, but they could be in for quite an underdog run.

This pick really does come down to NAVI or Gambit. Although their head-to-head matchups are difficult to predict, Gambit has been racking up tournament wins with very few close calls and off performances.

Pick: Gambit (+250)