Five things we learned from IEM Beijing's group stage

Groups are finished at IEM Beijing, and oh my, are our European sleep schedules happy.

We're grateful that this event has had some good CS on show, because it's been very early starts for European fans. The group stage days have been starting at 03:00 CET, making it a real challenge to follow live. Because of that, we wouldn't blame you if you missed out on the action, especially if you've got school or work.

Still, you might feel uninformed or behind.

But don't fret; we've got you covered. Because here are the five things we learned from IEM Beijing's group stage:

#1: MaaRaa has a GOAT case

At this point, it's getting hard not to recognize The MongolZ's coach as one of the best to ever do it.

When you zoom out of CS and look at traditional sports, one of the hardest things for coaches is rebuilding. It's what made Sir Alex Ferguson special at Manchester United, and it's why so many success stories end up with a firing. In Counter-Strike, it is not much different. Rebuilding a team is a skill set of its own, usually handled by a GM, with the coach often being part of what gets rotated out.

This is why B1ad3 stands out among his peers in CS; he has always felt like the driving force of that NAVI roster, leading the rebuild. And for a while, he stood alone in this.

Now, it's time to recognize MaaRaa as the #2 to B1ad3's #1. The fact that he has managed to rebuild this MongolZ roster despite losing his two best riflers is insane. Despite a limited player pool, he keeps finding names almost no one has heard of and turning them into tier 1 players. Combine that with the alleged turmoil between Techno and bLitz over the IGL mantle, and the way this team talks about missing him whenever he's gone, like they did at BLAST Rotterdam, and it becomes clear how much of their success falls on him.

If The MongolZ has a good Major, MaaRaa should be winning coach of the year this year, because what he's done has been outstanding.

Though he's not the only coach who deserves credit.

#2: PARIVISION is too good not to have a star

The way dastan and Jame get PARIVISION playing is just outrageously impressive, so impressive that it's becoming frustrating that they don't have a star.

Okay, maybe this isn't entirely new; it's why they signed slaxejezzz in the first place. But while they were trying and failing with him, while also juggling Hobbit, it looked like this team had hit its first inconsistent period. Though obviously we knee-jerked too early, since they've returned to being… exactly what they were last season, just with FL1T now.

That's not a bad thing, by the way; PARIVISION is in a playoff again, which is very positive.

But we really wanted to see them kick on and find out what this team can do with some juice on it. Odds are this team can become a semi-final or maybe even a full-on Grand Final fixture in a scene where the top five regularly skip events. Right now, they're just below that level, with a super-low floor because they rely so heavily on Jame's brilliance. They've surrounded him with a bunch of good, not great, players, all with their own positive maps, and that's fine. But if they can get a single reliable fragger, this team takes such a step up.

Come on, PARIVISION, we know you've got money; give it to dastan and let him cook. We're begging you.

#3: G2 is in worse shape than we thought

Kicking SunPayus and its consequences have been a disaster for G2.

As far as we're aware, the Spaniard was removed for off-the-server reasons, but whatever they were, they can't have led to a team this bad. HuNter has continued to put up assterclass numbers, failing to do his fragging duties while also putting in poor showings as the IGL. And yes, it's easy to make fun of HuNter's IGLing skills, but that doesn't make it wrong. These guys have shown no sign of reliable performance or logical T-sides, despite sAw's best efforts to make the roles work.

At least we assume it isn't sAw's fault, because he's shown he's been a good coach so far.

Though at what point do you become complicit by doing nothing? Like when you're witnessing a crime and you can stop it, when does that go from being smart to actively contributing to the crime? What we're trying to say is, for now, sAw is innocent and a victim in our eyes, but if this regime continues, there comes a point where you're actually enabling. Though we shudder to think of a timeline where HuNter leaves and G2 gets worse.

Obviously, our tongue is planted in our cheek while we write this, though not firmly.

Oh, and don't think that because we focused on the leadership, we forgot about r1nkle's performance. Because we won't be able to forget that for a while, and trust us, we'd like to. We just don't understand how an AWPer on Dust II — the AWPer's paradise — can put up a 0.61 HLTV rating and go 9 for 20. We promise you SunPayus would not be shooting tour dates against woxic on Dust II.

It's a shame, because the individual pieces of this G2 team are fun; the complete picture is just so… meh?

#4: Falcons has clipped wings

Cache has to save these guys at the Major, because it's scary.

The first event post-Major Falcons was at was mid; it's fine because they just won the Major. The second event post-Major Falcons was at was mid; it's fine because karrigan doesn't take small events seriously. The third event post-Major Falcons was at was mid; it's fine beca—

Okay, you get it by now. But this is what the second half of 2026 has felt like so far for Team Falcons. Every time they fail at an event, it just kind of doesn't matter for a lot of reasons. The most popular and easy catchall for this so far has been "karrigan only tries at Majors now," which we're sure has some element of truth, but does it take 110% of karrigan's power not to get grouped at IEM Beijing? Really?

It's clear that this Falcons roster has issues in their foundation.

Maybe that stems from kyousuke not being gifted with great game awareness; maybe it stems from NiKo still playing roles he's not always comfortable in. Maybe it stems from zonic's coaching, or the organization's culture. Who knows. You can point the finger at anyone and everyone, but the reality might be scarier: it might be all of it. All of it might be true to some extent. Falcons has accidentally created the world's most expensive one-show band. A team that consists entirely of good but flawed pieces whose flaws, when combined, will always find a way to surface, but when it clicks, it's the best show in town.

And maybe that's fine if they win the next Major; hell, it's almost certainly fine from the org's perspective.

Though that mentality surely doesn't contribute positively to the team culture. For instance, if it turns out the Falcons has been banning Cache to pull it out at the Major, what good will it really do? Everyone else will be unsurprised, and they will be down reps on it compared to every team that isn't already banning it anyway.

And yes, we're arguing with a strawman; it's only to show you why this "wait for the Major" thing will doom them if they really believe their own hype.

We're losing faith in this roster and their ability to turn it around. They can thank their lucky stars it wasn't FaZe who knocked them out, because this would have been even harsher if that was the storyline.

#5: FaZe is far off it

This spot could be dedicated to a few of the grouped teams, but we're going to focus on FaZe, as newly qualified Major participants and a "legacy brand" in Counter-Strike.

We want to raise the question: Is this team better than the one that missed the last Major, or did they just get better at farming VRS?

It's a question, if we're honest, that we've been thinking about for a minute now. This event just spurred on the thought even further. For most of their group games, it was like watching a tennis match, left to right: "better" to "farming" to "better" to "farming." One map they're getting blown out; oh no, wait, they came back; oh, never mi— nvm, they won.

The point is, it's hard to tell their real level, and if we're honest, we're still not entirely sure.

But IEM Beijing has taught us that they're still pretty far away from actual tier 1 standards. Like, yes, they played the "#1-ranked" FURIA and Falcons and took maps off both. But the maps they lost weren't good enough. There are still about 2.5 good players on FaZe, and who that 2.5 encompasses changes from map to map. It's genuinely going to take them playing well to make it out of stage 1 at the Major, because every map they play will be close thanks to their inability to have more than two guys playing well at any point.

If FaZe still has that karrigan cash, they have to invest it in this next off-season. They're not far off becoming another ENCE at this rate, bankruptcy included.

At least they've got sticker money now; put up or shut up, FaZe Clan.