Match Prediction: Cloud9 - GamerLegion | Counter-Strike (CS2)

Hello again. Nice to see you at EGamersWorld.

We are still watching the twists and turns at IEM Cologne 2023. The group stage continues at the biggest tournament of the summer.

Four teams have already made it to the play-offs, and the fate of two more slots is in doubt. One of them is claimed by a pair of Cloud9 - GamerLegion.

The teams will have a face-to-face meeting in Group A, the final of the lower grid. The format of the meeting, as before, is Bo3.

We are trying to figure out which team will be more resilient after two rounds of the lower grid and will make their way to the play-offs, and who will have to say goodbye to the event one step away from the coveted slot in the play-offs.

Let's go.

Cloud9 Form.

We start the match analysis with an analysis of Cloud9's form. In this match, the "American" club will play the first number one.

Bookmakers are definitely on the side of C9. The odds for their victory are at 1.25.

Such a figure speaks about the total backwardness of the outsider and the advantage of the favourite. It is not surprising, because after the weak Long Cogne at IEM Cologne 2023, C9 rediscovered the team.

The 10th ranked team in the world had a very good half-year. "Cloudy" celebrated their passage to the grand finals of ESL Pro League Season 17 and victory at 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.

C9 were felt to be one of the favourites for the tournament due to their revamped line-up. Before the IEM Cologne 2023 Long Conference, Perfecto and Electronic joined the team. The experienced duo was clearly meant to strengthen stun C9, but IEM Cologne 2023 doesn't show that yet.

In their first match at the German tournament, C9 faced fnatic, who advanced to the group stage from Play-In. "Orange" proved to be stronger and shut down the stronger opponent with a score of 2-1.

In the first match, C9 fought 9INE for their lives. Exactly fought, because the match ended on three maps, and on decider Anubis C9 sweated on dops and closed the match only with the score 19-17.

The second match was easier, though not without nerves. Monte failed to beat C9 and the Americans won 2-0, with Anubis winning 16-14 and Ancient 16-12.

Cloud9 Mappool

The best map of C9 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).

Not playing Nuke.

GamerLegion Form

We continue the match analysis with the analysis of GamerLegion's form. In this match they play as the second number.

Bookmakers do not believe in the success of Paris Major 2023 finalists. The odds on the club's victory are estimated at around 4.

We should not be surprised by this state of affairs. After the miracle of Paris, GamerLegion have slipped a little bit, but as we can see, they still have "powder in the bottle".

GamerLegion is the 6th team of the world ranking, but they won't be there for a long time. For the most part, this is the merit of one tournament.

GamerLegion didn't show much promise in 2023. They played well at local events like Thunderpick Bitcoin Series #2 where they won, CCT West Europe Series #1 where they finished in the top 2, RES Western European Masters: Spring 2023 with another top 2.

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 of the tournament - 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 with Overpass (19-15).

The International was even more interesting against fnatic. On the first map Vertigo GL lost 5-16, but on Inferno GamerLegion played 16-12, and on Ancient they closed the dopes with 19-17.

GamerLegion Mappool

The best map GL is Overpass. The team has 6 wins and 2 losses there.

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.

Head-to-head history

The last time the teams played each other was at the IEM Rio 2022 Challengers. Then C9 won 2-0, but with a different line-up.

Predicted result of the match Cloud9 - GamerLegion

Considering how Cloud9 have scored during this tournament, I don't see any obstacles for Cloud9 to win this match. GamerLegion have certainly gained over the course of the group stage of IEM Cologne 2023, GL still won't make it to the play-offs.

The outcome of the match: 2-0 win for Cloud9.