(Photo credit: ESL FACEIT Group)

The first Counter-Strike arena event of 2026 kicks off on Wednesday with the start of IEM Krakow.

The ESL Pro Tour Championship event takes over for Poland's iconic IEM Katowice, moving to a bigger city with a bigger setting at the 15,000-seat Tauron Arena.

The top 24 teams per the Global VRS as of Jan. 5 were invited to compete at IEM Krakow, and each accepted. The top eight teams have been seeded into their Stage 2 groups, with the remaining 16 teams competing in a double-elimination bracket for Stage 1.

STAGE 1 teams: Astralis, Aurora, B8, BC.Game, FUT, GamerLegion, HEROIC, Legacy, Liquid, Ninjas in Pyjamas, NRG, Passion UA, paiN, PARIVISION, G2, 3DMAX.

Liquid announced Satirday that Canadian rifler Keith 'NAF' Markovic will miss IEM Krakow due to 'urgent family matters.' He will be replaced by Germany's Karim 'Krimbo' Moussa. Moussa most recently competed for BIG, was moved to the bench in October in favor of Lukas 'FreeZe' Hegmann.

The competition will begin with Aurora taking on GamerLegion while HEROIC faces PARIVISION, who claimed the BLAST Bounty Winter championship with a 3-0 sweep of Team Falcons in Sunday's grand final at Attard, Malta. GamerLegion announced Monday that Adrian 'imd' Pieper has been promoted from interim to full-time head coach following the departure of Ashley 'ash' Battye.

Stage 2 will take place from Jan. 31-Feb. 3, with Tauron Arena playing host to the playoffs Feb. 6-8.

GROUP A: Furia, Spirit, NAtus Vincere, The MongolZ

GROUP B: Vitality, Falcons, MOUZ, FaZe

PRIZE POOL

1st: $460,000 and ESL Grand Slam Championship notch

2nd: $216,000

3rd: $131,000

4th: $85,000

5-6th: $61,000

7-8th: $38,000

9-12th: $23,000

13-16th: $10,000

17-20th: $4,500

21-24th: $2,500

Krakow last played host to a marquee Counter-Strike event with a PGL Major in 2017.

'For almost two decades, Intel Extreme Masters has built a heritage full of emotional and defining moments in esports history. From the early days in Hannover to the rise of new legends in Katowice, every stop along the way has left its mark on our legacy,' ESL FACE IT Group VP of Product Development Michal Blicharz said in announcing the host city change last year. 'As we begin a new chapter of this story, we look forward to continuing it with the world's best gamers and esports fans, as they add new pages to it in Krakow, on a bigger scale than ever before.'

--Field Level Media