Match Prediction: Cloud9 - BIG | CS2 (CS:GO)

Welcome to EGamersWorld.

We continue to look at the top CS in the lead up to the Long Sognega title tournaments. This time we move to Thunderpick World Championship 2023, which features a play-offs stage with world-class top teams.

Today, 8 teams will do battle in the main stage of Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where the top prize is a hefty $250,000 cash prize. Among the participants of the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 play-offs is Cloud9 with BIG.

We'll talk about the C9 vs BIG matchup in the first round of the main stage. The winner of the Bo3 series will move on to the next round against the winner of the MOUZ/FaZe star pairing. Let's try to figure out who will be stronger in this The International heresy match and get the important and necessary victory, and who will have to say goodbye to the prospects of lifting the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 trophy over their heads.

Let's go.

Cloud9 Form

We open the match breakdown with an analysis of Cloud9's match form. They will play in this match as favourites with odds to win at around 1.7.

C9 had a very good half-year. "Cloud9 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, BoombI4, 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 were unable to 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's failures didn't end there. After getting into the net of the last chance of EPL Season 18, Cloud9 lost 1-2 to Liquid in a rather lacklustre manner, thus failing to qualify for the play-offs of the prestigious tournament. At the end of EPL S18, C9 finished in the top 20, which, to put it mildly, is weak for a top-tier team, which C9 was called by literally everyone who could not help themselves.

However, before the IEM Sydney IEM Long Convergence, C9 managed to rehabilitate themselves a bit for their mediocre performance at the last TOP tournaments. C9 won the BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023, earning them a slot at the BLAST Autumn Finals.

Before competing at Thunderpick World Championship 2023, Cloud9 made an appearance at IEM Sydney 2023. It wasn't great there, as C9 failed to make it past the group stage, crashing out after losing to Complexity.

Thunderpick World Championship 2023 will be C9's first tournament with BoombI4 as captain.

Cloud9 Mappool

C9's best map is Vertigo. It has 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).

BIG uniforms

Let's continue the match analysis by analysing BIG's match form. In this match, the German club will play as an outsider with odds to win around 2.

BIG have participated in a lot of championships, but there were not many decent results. They started the season with a top-9 finish at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023, and continued with a top-16 finish at IEM Extreme Masters Katowice 2023.

There was also an appearance at ESL Pro League Season 17 with a top-20 there. The failures partially managed to cap off the Top-4 at the Elis Invitational Winter 2023, where the team reached the Top-4.

In the middle of the year, the Germans failed to qualify for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, finishing top-11 at RMR Europe and then top-3 at qualification. In the second half of the year they started playing CCT Series championships, where it is worth noting CCT Online Finals #1, with TOP-4, CCT West Europe Series $4 with TOP-2.

Back to the S-Tier tournaments with BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with Top-9, and then Top-24 at IEM Cologne 2023.

• BIG lineup: tabseN, Krimbo, mantuu, prosus, s1n.

Prior to the ESL Pro League Season 18 Long Round, the team played at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 with a top-2 finish. There was also a top-8 at CCT East Europe Series #7 and a win at CCT Europe Series #7.

At ESL Pro League Season 18 they debuted with a match against Monte. The Ukrainian club fought honourably, but in the end they were defeated by Ledgeil with the score 1-2, putting BIG in the semi-finals of Group B at ESL Pro League Season 18.

In the previous match, BIG made perhaps the biggest sensation of the tournament. The Germans defeated Heroic, sending them to the bottom of the group.

Next, BIG played another big European club - ENCE. The Finns failed to win (1-2), but BIG made it to the play-offs, straight into the second round. That's where their ESL Pro League Season 18 journey came to an end.

BIG Ledge and Eternal Fire in the second round of play-offs with the score 0-2. Thus, the Germans took the EPL S18 top-12.

In the match before that, BIG played against 9INE. The Germans defeated their visions quite easily, closing the match with a score of 2-0.

Afterwards, BIG outplayed ENCE and advanced to the finals of BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023. However, BIG were not enough for the final as C9 won 2-0.

Prior to the Roobet Cup 2023, BIG played two CCT tournaments. It was CCT North Europe Series #8 and CCT East Europe Series #3. They finished in the top 16 at the latter, but won the North European tournament, beating Spirit 2-0 in the grand final.

The first match at Roobet Cup 2023 BIG played against Apeks. They won with a score of 2-0. BIG reached the play-offs by beating 9INE in Group C of the championship. Before the Thunderpick World Championship 2023 BIG played at the Roobet Cup 2023. There they qualified for the play-offs, but lost in the first round and left the championship.

BIG Mappool

BIG has 3 of the best maps in their arsenal. They are Overpass, Vertigo and Anubis with 5 matches and 3 wins on each.

The most played map is Ancient. BIG have played 14 matches there and have a 57% win rate.

The most unlucky map is Inferno with two wins and two losses. The worst map is Mirage (9 matches, 33% wins).

History of head-to-head meetings

The teams have already played each other at the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2023. Back then, C9 won cleanly.

Predicted result of BIG vs C9 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023

I'm not really sure why the odds are so even in this match. In my opinion, Cloud9 will be much stronger than BIG in this match and will outplay their counterparts due to their individual skill level.

Bottom line: Cloud9 wins.