HLTV announced the winner of the MVP medal design contest for the IEM Cologne Major 2026

HLTV has announced the results of a week-long vote for the design of the commemorative MVP medal for the IEM Cologne Major 2026 in CS2. Design D won the contest - the only colored option among the four proposed designs. It received 44.4% of the vote and confidently outpaced its competitors.

Fans chose between four options. Designs A and B were almost tied, receiving 24.6% and 24.1% respectively. Design C was the least popular, earning just 6.9% of the votes. However, the clear favorite was Design D, created in the style of a bright stained-glass window.

The medal features several references to Counter-Strike and Cologne at once: an AWP rifle, a chocolate bar, Shadow Daggers, a Karambit, Cologne Cathedral, theologian John Calvin, and graffiti dedicated to the legendary highlight by Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev. That moment took place exactly 10 years ago in the semifinal of ESL One Cologne 2016. The graffiti was later removed from CS2 after the updated version of Cache was released.

Voting was available only to users who had registered on HLTV before May 24, 2026, in order to reduce the risk of vote manipulation.

IEM Cologne Major 2026 Stage 1: teams, format, and opening matches

The IEM Cologne Major 2026 will take place in Germany from June 2 to 21. The tournament will feature 32 teams, but only 16 of them will start from the first stage, which will be held from June 2 to 5. All stages before the playoffs will traditionally be played in a Swiss-system format.