Liquid vs 9 Panda Prediction: who will turn out to be stronger?

Prediction for the match between Liquid and 9 Pandas which will take place on January 14. Who will turn out to be stronger? Check the team conditions! Several betting options are available.

Liquid

The acquisition of Guy NertZ Ilyutz became one of the main transfers of the winter in CS2. Two years ago, the Israeli became the best rookie of the season according to HLTV and made the final top 20. A sloppy transfer to HEROIC and a change in role to a more aggressive one hindered his progress a bit, but even now his Rating 2.1 is still at 1.20+. NertZ is definitely not one of the best in the world, but he has shown that he is not afraid to experiment and not make things worse in the process. At each of the tournaments where HEROIC has climbed unexpectedly high, Ilyutz has topped the team's list of rifflers.

This is exactly the kind of expectation Liquid once had for YEKINDAR, and the Latvian has failed statistically and mentally. For the sake of guaranteed success for Liquid, it even makes sense to reconsider the card pool in favor of the newcomer, so as not to test the strength of NertZ's skill once again.

9 Pandas

We can't say the same positive things about 9 Pandas, although both acquisitions of Vladislav Alv Vorokhobov and Vladislav Krad Kravchenko look interesting. They are far from being big names like NertZ or even Timur FL4MUS Marev in Virtus.pro, but each of them contributes to the team. For example, Krad, at 26 years old, will be a great source of experience for the young Pandas squad, which just lacked such a mentor after the departure of Denis Kostin.

Alv is a bet on a young skilful player, who had time to prove himself at local Russian tournaments. For Vladislav this transfer will be the first opportunity to gain a foothold at the top level, and we will see the result of this move within the next few months. It is noteworthy that Alv has topped the statistical rating of 9 Pandas players by dry numbers (without looking at the level of opponents). Now the team has two ways: to become stronger thanks to the new excellent shooter, or to fail, if Vladislav can't reach a more competitive level.

Expert Betting Tips

As much as we'd like to support the Russian team in the upcoming match, the facts speak for themselves: one spot transfer in a top-10 team in the world vs. a non-obvious reshuffle in a not-so-best Russian team. Given the difference in class, the series risks ending so quickly that the opponents won't have time to play even 50 rounds - that's the outcome we'll place our main bet on. The exact score is also unlikely to be in doubt, unless Liquid falls into the map veto trap and fails on an unprepared map.