EU Minor Day 2 Recap and Day 3 Betting Predictions
Day two is over, and we know who’s moving on to the finals. It’s not quite who I might have expected, but it’s close enough. Here are some thoughts on each team that played today, and then my picks. And remember, if you’re betting, we recommend using any of these sites:
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Today
Mousesports
This was a rough event for Mousesports. They weren’t tournament ready and it showed. Their run was characterized by sloppy play, a lack of teamwork, confusing CT setups, and an inability to hit shots that they should be hitting every time.
Oskar had one of his worst events since, believe it or not, the FACEIT Major last year. This underperformance was not an isolated issue though. The team suffered from inconsistent performances from everyone on the roster, usually with one or two guys playing well per map. ChrisJ almost dragged them to a victory over Valiance in their best-of-one, ropz was the only positive player on Cache in their best-of-three, but they couldn’t string anything together.
Hopefully this team doesn’t make any roster moves. I still like this team a lot, in the way they play and in their composition, and I hope that they persevere through what is probably their worst performance at a tournament as a unit.
North
Valde is really good at Counter-Strike. Their win over Windigo comes down to his performance, and a rare lights out game from aizy to help secure Inferno. They played better than Windigo did on the last map, by a fair margin, and took the final spot in the playoffs with relative ease.
Unfortunately, this is as far as they’re going to go. I don’t see North winning a best-of-three against Vitality, at all. There’s just no way.
Windigo
Another team that impressed. It’s unfortunate that they fell apart on the third map against North, but in some ways that’s to be expected when a team this young makes it to a game that important.
Poizon is good, as is SHiPZ. It’s hard to tell if this is the ceiling for this team. With a few more events under their belt, they might be able to start getting wins over top 15 teams. I’d imagine they would need to add a veteran, and another star. I can’t imagine there’s any reality where NRG let go of CeRq, but if they did, Bulgarian superteam anyone?
Valiance
I am very, very impressed with this team. I had no expectations for them at all coming into this event, and they managed to hold their own against Vitality and handle a (weak) mousesports handily.
There is some serious talent on this team. huNter had a big game against Mousesports to open the tournament, and an incredible highlight play against Vitality, but he was not the focal point of this team. EspiranTo and nexa stood out the most to me, their impact and aim blew me away.
I think this team has a very real shot of making it to the Major. I would go so far as to say they’re definitely going to make it to the 3rd Place Play-In, as I’d take them over North for sure.
Ex-Space Soldiers
I wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being the last event for this core. They went out last with barely a whimper and failed to show any signs of life at all.
I don’t blame them for their poor performance at this event. Take the best player off any team at the Major, and their performance is sure to suffer. There is definitely still talent on this team, and I hope that they get picked apart and rostered on international teams following this event.
OpTic
Not much to say really. They need to offer Karrigan a lot of money. This is a pretty serious org, I imagine they have the resources to build a serious competitor in CS. Not to mention the depth of Danish talent in the scene right now. A second, really good Danish team could exist, if all the talent was brought to the right place. So why not OpTic?
Tomorrow
These should both be solid games. I especially like the ENCE-Valiance matchup.
Vitality (-222) vs. North (+161)
This game shouldn’t be close, as long as everyone on Vitality plays as good as they should. Honestly, ZywOo alone could probably handle North, not to mention apex and a newly revitalized (hopefully) RpK. I’d strongly recommend a bet on Vitality here. I’d also recommend watching the game, as anytime ZywOo is on screen it’s a joy.
ENCE (-222) vs. Valiance (+165)
This matchup should be a lot of fun. Both teams are going to be hungry and should come in well prepared. I like ENCE here, I just don’t think I can bet against Aerial, Allu, and sergej, even after the showing Valiance had against Mouz.
Recency bias is an easy thing to get caught up in, so let me just remind you that allu went 46-19 yesterday in a best-of-three against Windigo. Not only did he put up those numbers, he did them on just 47 rounds. That’s averaging almost a kill per round over the course of two maps.
I expect ENCE to look great, given a couple days rest and plenty of tape to review for this best-of-three. Bet on ENCE is what I would advise.
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