On March 23, ENCE will hold a quarterfinal match against Team Vitality as part of the ESL Pro League Season 17. In an exclusive comment for Cover.gg, Fedor KvaN Zakharov assessed the current form of both teams and predicted the upcoming match.
The current teams form
Vitality played the EPL group stage with a substitute, and it should have looked weaker than with the main player, but that was not the case. On the contrary, performing with Odrik JACKZ Zhug, Dan apEX Madeskler's team seemed to get a breath of fresh air. The French stand-in performed very confidently, and for a moment, it seemed that this was what Vitality had been missing for a long time.
Peter dupreeh Rasmussen, who took a break from the CS:GO competitive scene due to the birth of a child, returns to the main roster for the tournament playoffs. Only the Danish player's communication with the coach of zonic's team and Emil Magisk Raif speaks in his favor, but not statistics. Rasmussen's game has long had questions that still need to be resolved. Is it worth waiting for a replacement soon?
Maps' selection
If ENCE chooses one of their usual locations, Vertigo or Nuke, they will have a tough time. Vitality has a reasonable win rate on these maps — 80% and 63%, respectively. In ENCE, the percentage of winning maps is better only on Nuke, which equals 67%. Mirage is the only unpleasant location for Vitality. The apEX team's win rate on this map is only 46%, compared to ENCE's 78%.
Thus, ENCE is worth picking Mirage and Vitality - Vertigo. We leave Inferno or Nuke to the decider, and a fascinating confrontation awaits us.
Prediction from KvaN
ENCE was in the right place at the right time. A successful group bracket, plus mistakes from G2 in the Round of 12 matches, brought them to the 1/4 of the tournament. I would say that they are now "strong middle performers" who can punish the favorite for sloppy play.
Vitality, in turn, showed very "light" CS in the group. The team played 4+1 with positive morale, and now the main thing for them is maintaining a positive mindset after Dupreeh's return. In terms of the level of performers, Vitality is doing well, and the fact that they got ENCE in the 1/4 instead of G2 should be a good warm-up for the team before the semifinal/final. Therefore, I give this match 70 to 30 in favor of Vitality.Fedor KvaN Zakharov
EPL S17 takes place from February 22 to March 26 in Malta. The teams are fighting for the prize fund of $850,000. The schedule and results of the championship can be tracked here.
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