BetBoom start the Cologne Major without S1ren as d1Ledez steps in

Two days before their first match at the IEM Cologne Major, BetBoom have changed their five. The team announced that S1ren will not be in the starting lineup for at least the first day of the tournament's opening stage, HLTV, the reference news site for Counter-Strike 2, reported on Sunday, May 31, 2026. His place goes to d1Ledez, the player BetBoom registered as their substitute.

The announcement gives no reason for the absence, and HLTV's report adds none. It says only that S1ren will join the squad later. The site notes that the word leaves two readings open: later in Stage 1, or later in the event if BetBoom get through it.

BetBoom open against Gaimin Gladiators on Tuesday, June 2. The five listed for that match are Boombl4, Magnojez, zorte, d1Ledez and FL4MUS.

What BetBoom announced, and what they left open

The facts fit in three lines. S1ren, who is 23, is out of the starting five for day one of Stage 1 at least. He remains a BetBoom player and is expected to rejoin the squad. d1Ledez, 22, starts in his place.

Everything else is unsettled. HLTV's report carries no statement from S1ren or from the team's staff, no date for his arrival and no word on whether he would go straight back into the five. The site's guide to Stage 1, published the same evening, repeats the same wording: d1Ledez starts, and S1ren is set to join later.

S1ren was in the five that played with two stand-ins in March, in the roster the team announced in April and in the lineup at IEM Atlanta in May, each time alongside Magnojez and Boombl4. The player who comes in has, by contrast, played little. HLTV's figures for the last three months show d1Ledez with 22 maps, a map being one full game inside a series, against 57 for each of the three regulars.

The rating is HLTV's own measure, one figure that sums up a player's kills, deaths and damage over a period. On that measure d1Ledez arrives with the second-best number in the group, though over fewer than half the maps of his teammates.

One substitution, and one way back

A Major does not let a team field whichever five players it likes. The Majors are the championships sponsored by Valve, the publisher of the game, and Valve writes their rules. Teams are invited on the basis of a ranking, the Valve Regional Standings, and the invitation belongs to a lineup: the rulebook says the registered roster must match the invited one, which it calls the Core Lineup. A team may add one substitute.

HLTV's report applies that rule to BetBoom in the same terms: a team may field its substitute until it chooses to go back to its original lineup, and after that no further change is possible. The rulebook spells out the consequence. A team that has reverted and then finds itself a player short must play shorthanded or forfeit.

For BetBoom the mechanism is simple to describe. Starting d1Ledez is the one substitution the rules allow. Once BetBoom go back to their original lineup, no further substitution is possible for the rest of the Major. The decision on when to make that swap is the team's alone, and it can be made only between matches unless there is a medical emergency, according to the rulebook.

A lineup that has been open since March

The uncertainty did not start this weekend. HLTV writes that BetBoom's Major lineup had been unclear until now, largely because of visa issues. The site's reports of the spring trace that history. None of them gives a reason for S1ren's absence this week.

A stand-in is a player borrowed to fill a place for a limited time. BetBoom used two of them at the end of March, in the last weeks before the cut-off. With FL4MUS and zorte the team took a trophy at Roman Imperium Cup VII in Portugal and finished runner-up at Stake Ranked Episode 1 in Barcelona, HLTV reported, and climbed into the invitation places.

That success fixed the shape of the Major roster. HLTV wrote on April 9 that BetBoom's official lineup for Cologne would include both FL4MUS and zorte, with one substitution available. The same report relayed the team's announcement on the rest of the roster. ArtFr0st was moved to the bench, a decision the team attributed to ongoing visa problems, and zorte took his place for the season as the AWPer, the player who uses the game's most powerful sniper rifle. d1Ledez came back into the lineup after taking part in training and debriefings while he could not be with the team in Europe.

FL4MUS was a separate question. He is on loan from Virtus.pro, and that loan to BetBoom expired after Stake Ranked. BetBoom said in April that it was in talks with Virtus.pro to extend the loan to cover IEM Atlanta and Cologne, without a full transfer.

When ESL, the organizer of the Major, published the 32 registered rosters on April 22, BetBoom's was the one lineup HLTV could not confirm. A week later, on April 29, BetBoom chief executive Artem "Pioneer" Saveliev told the site that the question of who would play in Cologne would stay open until all players had received their visas. The team had applied right after the ranking cut-off, he said, and he declined to predict the outcome. "For any CIS team, visas are always a major challenge," he told HLTV. CIS is the usual shorthand in Counter-Strike for the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Fourth in Atlanta with a similar five

The five that starts in Cologne differs by one name from the five that played BetBoom's last big tournament. At IEM Atlanta in May, FL4MUS played in place of d1Ledez: Pioneer had explained in April that FL4MUS held a valid United States visa and had already played three tournaments with the group. S1ren, Magnojez, Boombl4 and zorte completed the lineup.

On May 12 BetBoom beat Vitality, first in HLTV's world ranking, two maps to one in a best-of-three series, the format in which the first team to win two maps takes the match. The win put them in the playoffs. They went on to the semi-finals, lost there to Natus Vincere, and lost the match for third place to Legacy on May 17, 13-4 on Mirage and 13-3 on Nuke. A map is normally won by the first team to reach thirteen rounds. HLTV's report of May 31 records the outcome as a fourth place.

The ranking followed. BetBoom were 29th in HLTV's world ranking on March 23, the day the stand-ins were announced. They were 24th on April 6, 22nd on May 11 and 17th in the ranking of May 25, the last before the Major.

In Cologne, then, four of the five who finished fourth in Atlanta are on the opening lineup. The fifth seat changes hands from S1ren to d1Ledez.

Stage 1 and the Gaimin Gladiators opener

The IEM Cologne Major runs from June 2 to June 21 and carries a prize pool of US$1.25 million. Its 32 teams do not all start together. Sixteen play Stage 1, and the eight that survive it join eight others in Stage 2; the same happens again for Stage 3 before an eight-team playoff bracket.

Stage 1 is played in the Swiss system, HLTV's guide of May 31 explains. Over five rounds, each team meets an opponent with the same record of wins and losses. Valve's rulebook sets the thresholds: three wins send a team to the next stage and three losses eliminate it. The first two rounds are played as a best-of-one, a single map. Matches that can send a team through or send it home are best-of-three.

All sixteen teams were invited on the standings of April 6. Measured by HLTV's ranking of May 25, BetBoom are among the strongest of them: 17th in the world, behind only GamerLegion, 11th, and B8, 15th. MIBR are 20th, M80 24th, HEROIC 25th and Liquid 26th.

BetBoom's opponent is the second-lowest ranked team of the stage, ahead only of THUNDER dOWNUNDER. Gaimin Gladiators, a Brazilian team, are listed with fer, HEN1, NEKIZ, Luken and JOTA. They are also a team that starts with its substitute: fer was registered in that place on ESL's list of April 22, and HLTV wrote then that he would play from the first match.

What the first week will show

The opening match is a single map. After it, winners meet winners and losers meet losers in a second round that is also a best-of-one. From the third round on, the rulebook's thresholds mean that some matches become best-of-three series with a place in Stage 2 or an exit at stake.

Nothing in the announcement says how long the present five will last. The team committed to one day. If S1ren joins during Stage 1, BetBoom must choose between keeping the lineup that is playing and returning to the one that was invited, knowing that the second choice is final. If he joins after it, the question only arises if the team is among the eight that advance.

The calendar beyond Stage 1 is known. ESL announced in February that Stage 3 will be played from June 11 to 15, in best-of-three series only. The playoffs then bring the last eight teams together, and the Major ends on June 21.

The .esports registry publishes Esports Observer, so the whole scene can read its news for free.