Photos: The road to the LANXESS gets underway in Cologne

Take a peek at some of the best moments captured by our photographers on the first day of the IEM Cologne Play-In.

Sixteen teams began their journey in Cologne, Germany on Tuesday, all hoping to claim one of the eight spots on offer at IEM Cologne via the Play-In stage. Four have already confirmed their berth — HEROIC, Spirit, Outsiders, and Movistar Riders — while two have had their tournament hopes brought to an swift end, Complexity and paiN both finding themselves eliminated early on from the final event in the calendar before the tournament break gets underway.

With so many teams battling through the Play-In, our photographers Radosław "⁠MAKKU⁠" Makuch and Josip "⁠brcho⁠" Brtan had plenty to capture throughout the first day. Take a look at some of the highlights as seen through their lenses below, or peruse through the whole gallery from day one here.

Radosław 'MAKKU' Makuch Age: 24 Team: HLTV.org Staff Rating 1.0: 1.33 Maps played: 14 KPR: 0.94 DPR: 0.63 Josip 'brcho' Brtan Age: - Team: HLTV.org Staff Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 10 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.68 Movistar Riders #14 Alejandro 'alex' MasanetAlejandro 'mopoz' Fernández-Quejo CanoRaúl 'DeathZz' Jordán NietoÁlvaro 'SunPayus' GarcíaDavid 'dav1g' Granado Bermudo Outsiders #16 Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevAlexey 'Qikert' GolubevDzhami 'Jame' AliDavid 'n0rb3r7' DanielyanPetr 'fame' Bolyshev HEROIC #10 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard Spirit #11 Leonid 'chopper' VishnyakovBoris 'magixx' VorobievPavel 'S1ren' OgloblinRobert 'Patsi' IsyanovIhor 'w0nderful' Zhdanov Complexity #36 Johnny 'JT' TheodosiouRicky 'floppy' KemeryMichael 'Grim' WincePaytyn 'junior' JohnsonJustin 'FaNg' Coakley paiN #30 Vinicios 'PKL' CoelhoGabriel 'NEKIZ' SchenatoWesley 'hardzao' LopesRodrigo 'biguzera' BittencourtGabriel 'nython' Lino