Match Prediction: Cloud9 - Team Liquid | CS2 (CS:GO)
ESL Pro League Season 18Welcome to EGamersWorld.
The group stage of the biggest event of autumn 2023 continues. We are still watching ESL Pro League Season 18, where the battles for place in the play-offs are unfolding.
We have a very entertaining lower grid match on the line. Cloud9 and Team Liquid will compete for the next round of the lower grid.
"The American derby of The International is interesting because of its unexpectedness, at least. I'm sure not many people expected to see C9 here.
However, they are here, just like Liquid. It remains for us to figure out which of the teams will be stronger and will continue their way to the play-offs on the lower grid, and which will fall into the last chance basket, deprived of the right to make a mistake.
Let's go.
Cloud9 uniforms.
We start the match analysis by analysing Cloud9's form. In this match they play the first number one.
This is indicated by the best esports betting sites. The odds for the victory of C9 are at around 1.5.
Frankly speaking, such a figure on C9 in this group is a thing quite not trivial. Before the Long Beach matches, it seemed that Clouds would have no trouble getting into the play-offs from the top net, but that was not the case.
The 8th team of the world ranking had a very good half-year. "Cloudy" made it to the grand finals of ESL Pro League Season 17 and won the BLAST Premier: Spring European Showdown 2022.
In addition, the team won the commercial BB Playlist. Urbanistic. In April, C9 seriously stumbled: they lost two qualifications at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 and missed the only Major of the season.
Next up was a top-4 finish at IEM Rio 2023 and a win at Brazy Party. Before IEM Cologne 2023, C9 failed IEM Dallas 2023 (top-8) and BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2023 (top-8).
- Cloud9 line-up: H0bbit, electroNic, Ax1Le, sh1ro, Perfecto.
Before Gamers8 Cloud9 attended another major summer tournament - IEM Cologne 2023. The most prestigious event went well for Cloud9: not good, but not bad either.
A very difficult Long Corner in Cologne forced Cloud9 to mobilise all their resources in order not to drop out at the group stages, and these resources were enough until the first round of play-offs, where C9 were defeated by Vitality.
Next, C9 visited Gamers8, but even there everything was not so good. At the TOP-8 stage the team faced ENCE, and they couldn't do anything against the overclocked Finns. And that's how they ended up in the TOP-8.
In their debut match at EPL Season 18, Cloud9 played against Eternal Fire. The Turks, being a cheerful team on paper, failed to outplay C9 on at least one of the cards: the match ended 2-0 (16-11 Vertigo, 16-12 Eternal Fire).
In the play-offs match C9 faced Complexity. Being the absolute favourite of the match, Cloud9 failed to give CoL a fight and lost 0-2.
Cloud9 Mappool
The best map of C9 is Vertigo. There are 2 wins in 3 matches.
Next is Inferno. On Inferno Cloud9 played 5 times, of which they won 3 matches.
Minus winrate on 4 maps at once: Ancient (42% wins in 7 matches), Overpass (33% wins in 3 matches), Anubis (3 matches, 33% wins), Mirage (2 matches, 0 wins).
Team Liquid's form
We continue with the analysis of Team Liquid's form. In this match they are playing as a number two.
This is indicated by the bookmakers. The odds on the victory of "liquid" is at around 2.4.
This is a very workable position, where you can impose your game. And Liquid have something to offer: we saw how they played in the match against Vp, so we expect something similar here.
The first half of the year was pretty good for Liquid. There was top-4 at two top championships: IEM Katowice 2023 with top-4 and BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown 2023.
But there were some glaring failures as well. For example, BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023 and ESL Pro League Season 17, where they took TOP-12 and TOP-16 respectively.
At American RMR, Liquid finished top-3, which allowed them to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major. Liquid finished the Paris Major on the 8th line after being eliminated by Apeks.
After the Major, Liquid played at IEM Dallas 2023 and BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023. Both tournaments are below average: top-12 and top-9 respectively.
The last tournament before Gamers8 was IEM Cologne 2023, where Liquid showed a disgusting CSGO. So much so that they failed to make it past the Play-In stage.
- Liquid lineup: NAF, oSee, YEKINDAR, Patsi, Rainwaker .
The failure at IEM Cologne can be attributed to Liquid's recent Reshuffle, but it's no excuse.
Prior to the ESL Pro League Season 18 ESL Pro League Long Convergence, Team Liquid visited Gamers8. The $1,000,000 title tournament ended before it even started: NAF and company lost to ENCE in the first round and left the championship in 9-16th place.
In their debut match at ESL Pro League Season 18, Liquid faced Virtus.pro. The match was close and ended 2-1 in favour of the Eastern European club, although Liquid were close to winning on Anubis (losing 14-16).
In the first round match of the lower grid Liquid met with Chinese Lynn Vision. The match ended expectedly, with Liquid closing out the series 2-0 on class.
Cloud9 Mappool
The best map of C9 is Vertigo. There are 2 wins in 3 matches.
Next is Inferno. On Inferno Cloud9 played 5 times, of which they won 3 matches.
Minus winrate on 4 maps at once: Ancient (42% wins in 7 matches), Overpass (33% wins in 3 matches), Anubis (3 matches, 33% wins), Mirage (2 matches, 0 wins).
History of head-to-head meetings
The last time the teams crossed each other was in 2022. In fact, we have two other clubs in front of us, and therefore we will not analyse the result of a year ago.
Predicted result of the match Cloud9 vs Liquid at ESL Pro League Season 18
Once again C9, being the favourite not just in the group, but in the tournament, fail in a passable match. Once again, putting them as an unqualified winner I am wrong.
In this match I expect a decent game from them, but I don't believe in a clean win. The "super" team looks very sluggish a few months after the signing of Major champions Perfectro and Electronic. I think even the current Liquid are capable of picking up a win on one of the maps.
Bottom line: +1.5 on Liquid.
Bookmakers & Statistics
Team Liquid are listed as the favorites of the match in the majority of bookmakers and odds on them are equal to 1.898. Cloud9, in turn, are the outsiders of the match. Odds on their victory are about 3.955.
How did the participants perform in the last matches
Last Matches | Cloud9 | Team Liquid |
5 matches (wins) | 4 | 2 |
10 matches (wins) | 6 | 4 |
Gamblers will definitely be interested in the statistics of personal meetings between the teams. The teams played 38 matches with each other before. In these matches Cloud9 won 16 times, Team Liquid active consisits of 22 wins.