For the first time in Counter-Strike history, s1mple, dev1ce, and karrigan will all be absent from the same Major. The IEM Cologne Major 2026 begins June 2 at the LANXESS Arena with 32 teams and a $1,250,000 prize pool, but none of the three most decorated players of the past decade will be among them. Their respective squads, BC.Game, 100 Thieves, and FaZe Clan, all failed to accumulate enough Valve Regional Standings points to earn an invite.
Between them, the trio carries five Major trophies, 40 HLTV MVP awards, and a combined 40+ Major appearances. Seeing all three locked out of the same tournament would have been unthinkable even a year ago. The 2026 VRS system had other plans.
How FaZe Lost karrigan’s Major Streak
karrigan’s absence is the most painful. The Danish IGL had not missed a Major in 10 years, the longest active streak in CS history. That streak ended on a stage in Belgrade, not Cologne.
FaZe entered 2026 as Budapest Major grand finalists. What followed was a freefall. The team attended four S-tier events and failed to make a single playoff, finishing last at two of them. Coach NEO departed. Results at DraculaN Season 6 were disastrous: 9th-12th place, losses to Passion UA and Fnatic.
With the April 6 VRS invite deadline approaching, FaZe made a desperate call. They skipped PGL Bucharest entirely, forfeiting two matches, and flew to HLC Belgrade PRO as their last shot. They tore through the bracket without dropping a series until the grand final against BIG. karrigan opened Dust2 with a 2.32 rating, one of the best individual maps of his career. Then momentum collapsed: an 11-13 loss on Overpass, followed by a 3-13 demolition on Anubis, a map FaZe have not won in roughly ten months.
karrigan’s post on X was unsparing: “Deserved not to go to the major, that’s for sure, and there are no freaking excuses.” In an HLTV interview after FaZe’s elimination from PGL Bucharest days later, he added that the failure would leave a scar he would either try to heal or let break him. With Vitality’s apEX now set to overtake karrigan’s record for most Major appearances as an IGL, the sting cuts even deeper.
BC.Game and s1mple: The Math Never Added Up
s1mple’s path to Cologne was uphill from the start. The GOAT joined BC.Game in mid-2025, building a roster around former SAW players and electroNic. An analyst estimated their qualification chances at just 34% back in February, and the numbers proved right.
BC.Game dropped to 42nd in VRS after a group-stage exit at the Roman Imperium Cup. Then came the decisive blow: the team withdrew from ROG JOURNEY Spring 2026, one of their final opportunities to earn ranking points. The stated reason was a need to fix internal chemistry. The team’s Bucharest run ended when FOKUS eliminated them in the group stage.
At age 28, ranked #46 on HLTV, s1mple remains one of the most mechanically gifted players alive. But individual brilliance cannot substitute for a roster operating outside the top 30 in global standings.
100 Thieves: dev1ce’s Slow Fade
dev1ce’s situation is the quietest of the three but perhaps the most telling. The four-time Major champion joined 100 Thieves in January 2026 alongside rain, with former teammate gla1ve coaching and three young talents in Ag1l, sirah, and poiii filling out the roster. The organization deliberately chose to build from scratch rather than buy a VRS-ranked core.
The gamble was always long-term. 100 Thieves peaked at 38th in VRS after decent showings at Roman Imperium Cup V and DraculaN Season 5, taking scalps off NiP, Eternal Fire, and FlyQuest. But the climb stalled. dev1ce posted a 1.00 rating across the team’s campaign, a far cry from the player who once dominated Majors with Astralis. Observers noted he was visibly struggling to keep pace mechanically with younger opposition. 100 Thieves simply did not accumulate enough points by the cutoff. No dramatic last-chance qualifier, no Belgrade heartbreak. They just fell short.
What the VRS System Changed for IEM Cologne Major 2026 Teams
The broader picture is staggering. Twelve teams from the Budapest Major will not be at Cologne: FaZe Clan, BC.Game, 100 Thieves, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Imperial, Passion UA, 3DMAX, Rare Atom, Red Canids, The Huns, Fluxo, and Fnatic. Three of the most historically significant CS organizations, FaZe, Fnatic, and NiP, are all absent from the same Major for the first time ever.
Valve’s VRS rewards sustained LAN performance across the entire qualification window. Legacy, brand power, and past results carry zero weight. The system forced teams to grind tier-two and tier-three LANs across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, turning the final weeks before the April 6 cutoff into a chaotic sprint. Margins were razor-thin; in several cases, 1-2 VRS points separated qualified teams from eliminated ones. SINNERS, who won BC Game Masters Championship Season 1, claimed their first-ever Major berth directly because FaZe fell in Belgrade. Meanwhile, teams like HEROIC, Gaimin Gladiators, and Lynn Vision locked in their spots through relentless regional grinding.
Three Legends, One Empty Cathedral
| karrigan | s1mple | dev1ce | |
| Major trophies | 1 (Antwerp 2022) | 1 (Stockholm 2021) | 4 (Atlanta 2017, London 2018, Katowice 2019, Berlin 2019) |
| Major appearances | ~17 | 14 | 16 |
| HLTV MVPs | 0 | 21 | 19 |
| HLTV #1 seasons | 0 | 3 (2018, 2021, 2022) | 0 |
| 2026 team | FaZe Clan | BC.Game | 100 Thieves |
| Why they missed Cologne | Grand final loss at HLC Belgrade | VRS withdrawal + 42nd-place slide | Insufficient VRS from scratch build |
None of them are retired. All three are actively competing. And yet the system built to reward current form over past glory locked all of them out simultaneously. The Cathedral of Counter-Strike will still be packed with elite talent in June: Vitality as defending champions, NaVi, PARIVISION, Aurora, and The MongolZ all qualified. But the absence of s1mple, dev1ce, and karrigan from the same Major will echo louder than any crowd in Cologne.
For the old guard, the message is clear. The CS2 VRS system in 2026 does not care who you were. It only asks who you are right now.
