Match Prediction: forZe - NaVi | CS2 (CS:GO)
ESL Pro League Season 17FORZE and NAVI will meet in the opening quarterfinals of the ESL Pro League Season 17 group stage. I don't think this derby will be an evenly matched encounter, as FORZE are struggling to find themselves in easy championships, failing important qualifiers along the way.
In their turn, Born to Win have had enough time to come to their senses and fix their problems. And it must be said that the semi-finals in Katowice are not the worst result, given the changes in the squad at the start of the season.
The only interesting point is the lack of a large number of face-offs. The last time the teams played each other was back in April last year, but then there was no sensation or fight.
So here I would look out for a logical defeat from NAVI. What's more, FORZE are now something strange, losing where they should not really lose. So let's dispense with the intrigue, and trust in logic.
FORZE form
The 29th ranked team in the world has been in Malta for a long time, but failed to make the play-offs in the CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1 after a good start in the group.
The Russian side then struggled to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR. However, FORZE followed that up with a couple of poor results, falling out of the CCT West Europe Series 1 and also hanging on by a thread to a similar outcome in the BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic 2023.
The cherry on the cake was the team's failure in indoor qualification for ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023, where the boys went over the heads of strong opponents but managed to lose to HONORIS and ECSTATIC.
FORZE's latest results:
- A 2-1 win over 1WIN.
- 1-2 defeat to HONORIS.
- 2-1 victory over Sprout.
- Beat Aurora Gaming 2-0.
- 0-2 defeat to ECSTATIC.
FORZE top cards:
- Overpass - 68% wins.
- Nuke - 64% wins.
- Inferno - 61% wins.
- Anubis - 56% wins.
- Ancient - 54% wins.
It should not be forgotten that the Russian team has traditionally given up the Vertigo card.
NAVI Form
The fifth team of the world ranking very ambiguously played in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2023, where they twice defeated G2 Esports, but recorded two victories over Ninjas in Pyjamas. However, "Born to Win" achieved the task, getting an extremely controversial victory over Complexity Gaming.
Next up, the Ukrainian squad headed to the group stage of IEM Katowice 2023, where they even got off to a flying start with two convincing victories over Cloud9 and Team Liquid. However, NAVI again suffered a setback in the group finals, due to defeat by G2 Esports.
Already in the playoffs the team managed to defeat the Outsiders, but in the semi-finals they failed to show anything against Heroic. All in all, NAVI had a subdued start, playing only on occasion.
NAVI's latest results:
- A 2-0 win over Cloud9.
- A 2-0 win over Team Liquid.
- A 0-2 loss to G2 Esports.
- 2-0 win over the Outsiders.
- 0-2 defeat by Heroic.
Best NAVI maps:
- Overpass - 80% wins.
- Ancient - 67% wins.
- Inferno - 55% wins.
Interestingly, Born to Win is also not showing on the Vertigo card.
FORZE - NAVI encounter statistics
Last season the teams met once - at PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Europe RMR A the victory went to NAVI (2-0).
FORZE vs NAVI
My guess is that we'll see Inferno and Mirage starting cards in this match, as it's hard to think of anything else. However, NAVI has a lot more experience and quite a good statistic, taking into account the recent matches of the opponent.
FORZE, on the other hand, have been disappointing in their recent matches. And if the trend continues, the boys will compete with ATK and Rare Atom for the right not to fly out first.
Therefore, in this case, I would recommend betting on a 2-0 NAVI win.
Bookmakers & Statistics
NaVi are listed as the favorites of the match in the majority of bookmakers and odds on them are equal to 1.956. forZe, in turn, are the outsiders of the match. Odds on their victory are about 3.917.
What are the successes of the teams in the last games
Last Matches | forZe | NaVi |
5 matches (wins) | 2 | 3 |
10 matches (wins) | 6 | 6 |
The statistics of personal battles between teams is also important for successful bets. The teams played 7 matches with each other before. In these battles forZe got 2 victories while NaVi managed to take 5 matches.