Copenhagen Flames vs BLINK: Will the Danes get their revenge?

ESEA Premier Season 39 Europe is a $2-3 tier tournament with a combined prize pool of $50,000, featuring 18 teams from around the world competing for the top prize of a slot in the ESL Pro League Season 15 Conference and $20,000. The teams are divided into two groups of 9 teams in each. The CIS region is represented by forZe and Entropiq in Group A and Nemiga and 1win in Group B. The chances of one of these teams winning a slot are very high, and the chance of seeing another CIS final.

On December 3, Copenhagen Flames and BLINK will play their next match in the ESEA Premier Season 39 Europe. Will the Danes be able to get revenge and knock their rivals out of first place in the group?

CF was the out-and-out of the last major. Many experts were betting that the team from Denmark would drop out of the championship with a score of 0-3. But the Danes sensationally managed to reach the legendary stage with a 3-0 win over their compatriots Astralis, Heroic, and BIG. It was simply an unthinkable event that no one could believe. Until recently, the team had been playing with a draw 2.3 teams beat tier-1 teams and, at the same time, without a single defeat, qualified for the legendary stage. In the first legends stage match, the Danes lost to G2 and easily beat EG with FaZe. Next, CF again played with Heroic, where this time, it was the cadiaN’a team that proved to be stronger. In the last match in the major, Copenhagen Flames lost to NiP with a score of 1-2, and as a result, the Danes took 9-11 place in the PGL Major Stockholm 2021. After such a result, the team should have 100% played at the tier-1 level. But after the last major, the results of CF have noticeably worsened. If you look at who the team has lost to lately, it’s mostly the tier-2,3 teams. Among them is the next rival of the Danes - BLINK. It is difficult to say why the team results after a well-played major. It has to do with the online games, as many tier-1 teams dramatically began to lose to weaker teams after moving from offline to online. But it’s not certain yet, and you have to look at the team’s subsequent results.

The strongest CF maps are overpass with 82% wins and ancient/mirage with 70% wins. There are also two weak maps - dust2 with 0% wins, which the Danes ban the first, and inferno with 33% wins. In the last match, CF showed a decent game on inferno, but in the end, the Albanians won. The Danes are likely to pick overpass again, as, in the last match, they showed a great game at their pick.

BLINK is an Albanian team founded in April 2020. For almost a year, the team has been at the tier-3,4 level and only recently managed to break into the top thirty teams, taking the 28th position and securing a place at the tier-3 level. The team has great prospects to reach the tier-2 level and play consistently. But for that, they need time and an invite for big tournaments and events because the team plays mainly on the tier-3 events, which doesn’t impact the game on the same tier-1 Championships. At the moment, the Albanian team is in first place in their group at ESEA Premier Season 39 Europe, and they have a chance to earn a slot at ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference and get $20,000.

BLINK’s strongest maps are mirage with a 76% win rate and ancient with 75% wins. There is also nuke with 0% wins, but this map is one of the first to be banned by the Albanians. There are also good inferno and dust2 with a 67% win rate. If you compare the map pool of the two teams, it’s clear that BLINK is better by a few percent.

The teams in the second match will play the following maps: CF will pick overpass, BLINK will pick inferno, and the deciding map will be either vertigo or ancient.

Although BLINK recently beat Copenhagen Flames, bookmakers don’t believe in a second Albanian win, and the odds are 2.20. But I believe BLINK will beat the Danes again. The bookmakers are betting on Total Over (2.5) maps for 1.83, which looks like a very favourable offer on paper. You can also take odds of 2.29 on Total Over (27.5) rounds on map 1.