ENCE and Cloud9 successfully passed the first stage of Gamers8 2023, a tournament in Saudi Arabia with a prize pool of $1,000,000. Tomorrow, the teams will compete for a spot in the tournament's semifinals, which guarantees $80,000 in prizes.

Cloud9 - fnatic

In the ⅛ finals, Cloud9 faced a relatively easy opponent, fnatic. The European team tried to put up a fight, but since many of Cloud9's opponents tend to pick the Vertigo map against them, they were able to train it to a decent level.

The second map was Anubis, which Cloud9 has played for the fourth time with their new lineup. On this map, the genius of Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy shone through, as he showcased 119 ADR, won a 1v2 clutch, and received the match MVP award. Interestingly, the only loss on Anubis from Cloud9 came against fnatic at IEM Cologne 2023.

ENCE - Liquid

ENCE played against Liquid, who on paper seemed more dangerous than fnatic. Especially considering that Liquid bans Nuke, the main pick of the opponent, and they have a strong Ancient, where ENCE recently had massive problems against G2.

However, the "Horses" decided to pick the Vertigo map, which they lost having two map points, 17:19. Even Josh “oSee” Ohm with his 32:20 stats couldn’t help. Liquid ran out of steam on Anubis, losing 16:5 to ENCE.

ENCE – Cloud9

This year, the teams have met three times: Cloud9 won twice (IEM Katowice 2023 Play-in, ESL Pro League Season 17) and ENCE won once (BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 European RMR B). However, all these matches were played with Cloud9's old lineup and before ENCE found their best form.

Currently, the obvious favorite seems to be the European squad. ENCE has a strong map pool and a consistent stable structure. Also, Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer's experience, who has been successfully leading the team for a long time, provides a significant advantage. This becomes even more crucial when considering that Denis "electroNic" Sharipov became the captain only recently.

READ ALSO: Top five CS:GO players over 30 years

For Cloud9, it’s the opposite. The team is still in the building process and relies heavily on the individual skills of its players. Their main advantage against ENCE is the same as Liquid's - they ban the opponent's primary pick.

At the same time, ENCE will remove Inferno, which Cloud9 tries to avoid. The Russian team will likely pick Ancient. They have chosen this map three times and won each time. In response, Vertigo or Anubis is expected.

Much will depend on the sniper duel between Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov and Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia. Over the past month, the Russian has an edge in most primary metrics, but the Spaniard is more efficient in opening duels.

Another strong point of sh1ro is his clutch success rate - 11:6 against SunPayus. These clutches have saved Cloud9 multiple times in critical moments.

The match promises to be very intriguing, filled with close and unexpected moments. Adding even more spice to this encounter is the elimination game format, so teams will be giving their all on every map.