Match Prediction: Apeks - GamerLegion | CS2 (CS:GO)
Gamers8 2023Welcome back to EGamersWorld.
We continue preparations for the Long Run of this summer's biggest commercial CSGO tournament. Gamers8 will feature 16 teams, including the top five HLTV clubs.
They will compete for a prize pool of $1,000,000. There will be plenty of motivation among the participants, there is no doubt about that.
Among the invited teams there are the main openers of the last BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 - Apeks and GamerLegion. They will play each other in the first round of Gamers8.
The format of the match is bo3. The winner goes to the next round of Gamers8, where he will play against the winner of the Heroic/Falcons match, and the loser will be eliminated from the tournament.
Let's try to predict which team will be stronger in this Bo3, and who will have to say goodbye to the prospect of taking the $400,000 top prize.
Let's go.
Form Apeks
We open the match with an analysis of Apeks' form. They are predicted to be the favourites in this encounter.
Bookmakers believe in the success of Apeks. The odds for their victory are at around 1.65.
In my opinion, the figure does not quite correspond to reality. It's all about the experience of the Apeks and their recent restarts in the lineup.
The 2023 season has been a very productive one for the Apeks, but the team's effectiveness remains in question. Over a dozen tournaments have been played, but the high-profile results can be listed on the fingers of one hand.
They started the season with a top-16 finish at CCT South Europe Season 2. Next was the nightmarish Elisa Invitational Winter 2023 with a top-20 and then a top-4 CCT West Euroe Series #1.
In the middle of the year, Apeks took Top 2 at CCT West Europe Series #2 and Top 8 at BB Playlist. Urbanistic and Brazy Party. However, it was much more important to make it to the TOP-6 at European RMR A and to get to BLAST.tv Paris Major.
Paris Major itself became Apeks' moment of glory. Being a clear Underpassdog, Apeks managed to surprise the audience and make it to the top 4, where they were defeated by the future champions from Vitality.
Before the Long Convergence Gamers8, the team took part in IEM Cologne 2023, where they finished in the Top 20, CCT Online Finals #2, with Top 12 and Top 16 at ThunderPick World Championship 2023: European Series #1. The results are frankly so-so, but the opponent's aren't much better.
- Gamers8 lineup: nawwk, jkaem, STYKO, kyxsan, CacaNito.
After the extremely successful BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Apeks changed their line-up. The 13th team of the world was completed by Macedonian CacaNito, who replaced in the roster headliner jL, who moved to NaVi.
Apeks map pool
Apeks has an extensive map pool. The most frequent map is Inferno (12 maps, 83% wins).
Mirage (63% wins with 11 matches), Anubis (62% wins, 8 matches), Ancient (46% wins, 13 matches).
Among the worst are Overpass and Vertigo. They have 37% winrate with 13 cards each.
Nuke is not played.
GamerLegion Form.
Let's continue the analysis of GL vs Apeks match with a review of GamerLegion uniforms. In this match BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 finalists play as the second number.
Bookmakers for some reason do not really believe in GL. The chance of their victory is estimated at odds around 2.
The figure is kind of normal, but still seems incomprehensible. GL teams are not top-1 level, but they look chipper than Apeks for sure.
GamerLegion didn't show much hope in 2023. They played well at local events like Thunderpick Bitcoin Series #2 where they won, CCT West Europe Series #1 where they finished top 2, RES Western European Masters: Spring 2023 where they finished top 2 again.
There was also TOP-1 at Elisa Invitational Winter 2023, but the main achievement happened in May this year. It was then that GamerLegion defied logic and made it to the grand final of BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, where they defeated the hosts Vitality.
- GamerLegion lineup: acoR, neaLaN, Keoz, isak, volt .
After a great injury in Paris, GamerLegion lost two of their headliners - siuhy and iM. Newcomers neaLaN and volt are not yet reaching the level of Top 2 Major a, and their KDs are eloquent: 0.64 for the former and 0.78 for the latter.
The first match at IEM Cologne 2023 was against Monte. The Ukrainian club was head to head and shut down their vis-a-vis with a score of 2-0 (16-8 Mirage, 16-11 Overpass).
GamerLegion managed to switch on at the last moment. In the match against TheMongolZ, on the first map GL Ledge were 8-16 up on Mirage, but cameback Inferno (16-8), and closed the series on the dopes Overpass (19-15).
The International was even more interesting against fnatic. On the first map Vertigo GL lost with the score 5-16, but on Inferno GamerLegion played 16-12, and on Ancient they closed the dopes with the score 19-17.
As a result, IEM Cologne 2023 ended with GL in 8th place. They were knocked out by Cloud9, but the result is a good one considering the lineup change.
GamerLegion's mappool
GL's best map is Overpass. The team there has 6 wins and 2 losses.
There was also Ancient with 2 wins and 1 loss. Still have Mirage in the pool (57% wins in 7 matches).
On Inferno they are 2-2. Nuke has 1 try and a loss.
Not playing on Anubis and Vertigo.
History of head-to-head meetings GamerLegion - Apeks
GL and Apeks have played each other 3 times during the tournament. The score of head-to-head meetings is in favour of GL.
Predicted result of the match GamerLegion - Apeks
In this match there is every chance to see an even game, which is what the odds are hinting at. But if we choose the winner, I see GamerLegion as the winner.
Apeks has more experience, but they look worse than GL on the big stage. IEM Cologne 2023 is proof of that.
Bottom line: GamerLegion wins.
Bookmakers & Statistics
All bookmakers have agreed that GamerLegion is the favorite. This can be noticed because odds on them are 1.874. This number in the favor of Apeks amounts 2.46. Respectively, the last ones are the underdogs of the upcoming match.
What the team performance statistics say
Last Matches | Apeks | GamerLegion |
5 matches (wins) | 1 | 2 |
10 matches (wins) | 5 | 7 |
It will also be necessary to mention the history of face-to-face meetings between the opponents.
The teams played 14 matches with each other before.
In these battles Apeks got 8 victories while GamerLegion managed to take 6 matches.