Europe Minor – IEM KATOWICE 2019 Picks & Predictions
FaZe – Cloud9
Both of these teams played in the iBUYPOWER Masters 2019. Neither of them had a good time there as they were both stopped in their tracks. However, FaZe had blitzes of brilliance, and if Nikola “Niko” Kovač was not playing for them, there is no way they were going to win a single map in that event. On the other hand, no one was expecting anything from Cloud9 on iBUYPOWER Masters, but they were not so bad.
Form
As we mentioned above, both of these teams had a poor showing on their recent LAN event. Given the fact that iBUYPOWER Masters was played not so long ago, it will give us a great insight into the form of these two teams.
Let’s start with FaZe. They were edged out by Ghost. Even though they lost this match, it could have easily gone other way around. Furthermore, they stomped Luminosity, but that was to be expected, as Luminosity’s core players desperately want to leave the organization. Lastly, they had another go at Ghost, and they failed once again. This time around Ghost defeat them in a dominating fashion.
Unlike FaZe, Cloud9 won their opener against fnatic. However, they had to face Astralis next, and there is no need for me to write anything about that match. They were destroyed. Lastly, they played fnatic again. A lot of bettors were expecting the same results as in their previous clash, but fnatic was able to edge out the game with 16-14 scoreline. To be honest, I do not think Cloud9 would have won the first match against fnatic if they did not reset them 3 times.
Map Pool
These two teams have pretty similar map pools. But of course, there are some differences as well. Neither of these teams enjoys playing Dust 2, and we will probably see this map permabanned by one of these teams. Furthermore, Cloud9 does not play Nuke at all, and this is going to be their permaban.
Now onto the good maps. Even though they have mixed results on some of these maps, both teams are comfortable on Mirage, Cache, and Overpass. Also, FaZe definitely has an edge on Inferno, and we might actually see them pick it.
MAP VETO PREDICTION
FaZe remove Dust 2
Cloud9 remove Nuke
FaZe pick Mirage
Cloud9 pick Overpass
FaZe remove Train
Cloud9 remove Inferno
Cache is left as a decider
