Format: BO3.
The long break in the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has finally come to an end. During this break, everyone missed CS:GO, and very soon, all the shooter fans will plunge into the highest level of CS again. The first tournament of the new season will be ESL Pro League Season 14, in which 24 teams will compete for 750,000 thousand in prize money. The tournament brings together the best of the best, with teams divided into four groups of six, but only three will make it through. So there’s no margin for error. Team Vitality and ENCE will meet in the second leg of the first game day. Can the French finally make it back to the world top and start the tournament with a win, or will the underdog ENCE surprise you in the first game?
Team Vitality: It’s now or never
Team Vitality didn’t play their best in 2021. They were among the first to leave in tournaments and couldn’t find their game most of the time. Nevertheless, before the break, the French team performed well at IEM Summer and took 3-4th place. However, after that, the squad settled for a 9-12th place at IEM Cologne, and everyone started to forget that Team Vitality used to be the strongest team in the world and ZywOo, the best player on the planet. Since moving to LAN, ZywOo has had one of the worst results. His rating has dropped by 0.17, putting him far away from competing with s1mple for the title of the best player.
Nevertheless, he still can fight for the title, but he needs to get involved now. Can he do it? Of course, he can!
As for maps, the French are likely to take Overpass as their choice. It is one of the worst opponent maps. Team Vitality themselves have won their last three matches on this map, plus they have wins over Gambit, Natus Vincere, FURIA, relatively strong opponents. ENCE have problems even with tier-2 teams in Europe and are unlikely to cope with the French on the same map. I don’t think the ENCE can gain more than 4-5 rounds for the T-side.
ENCE: A good tier-2 squad
After the dismissal of their star-studded roster, ENCE decided to recruit some quality tier-2 players. The roster is now living up to expectations. Although they are not the undisputed leader, the team feels confident in the shooting guard stage and sometimes can compete with the shooting guard teams, although this is very rare. Before the break, the team was in good form, and managed to win the Funspark ULTI 2021. They had a pretty good performance at the Pinnacle Cup, but the opponents were not of such a high level in each of these tournaments.
As for the upcoming match, ENCE tend to pick Ancient if they are afraid to play Nuke, but in this match, the French will definitely remove that map, and ENCE will most likely pick Nuke, especially since they won their last face-off on that map. True, I don’t believe in ENCE winning on Nuke. The French know how to play this map well, and being in good shape, they can cope with a much more serious opponent on Nuke. There’s still a minimal chance of ENCE’s Mirage peak, but it’s even less believable than Nuke. ENCE managed to beat the French 2-0 in their last clash, but Team Vitality were in a slump then, and that should change now.
Expert Betting Tips
Team Vitality have to make the most of this break. I think the guys realize that if they don’t show results now, the team will start to make decisions, and everyone can get hurt except ZywOo, so they have to start putting in the effort from the start and show what they can do.
The odds on Team Vitality to win with a handicap (-6.5) are 2.00, which doesn’t look too bad. You can also take Total Under 2.5 maps for 1.83 or the French 2-0 win for 2.40.
Other predictions
