On September 10 at 17:30 EEST, Team Liquid will face ENCE in the group stage of ESL Pro League Season 20 for Counter-Strike 2. The confrontation will be in a best-of-3 format. We have analyzed the statistics of both teams and made a prediction for the outcome of the upcoming match.

Current Form

Team Liquid has been showing decent performance at S-tier events over the past month. Their average rating at such tournaments is 6.2, indicating good form. The team participated in IEM Cologne 2024, where they finished in 7th-8th place, not reaching the playoffs, but showed a respectable result, defeating several strong opponents. They also successfully qualified for IEM Rio 2024, confirming their consistently high level.

In their last five matches, Liquid won three, defeating FLUFFY AIMERS twice and Legacy once. However, they also lost to Legacy in another match and were defeated by FaZe Clan. These results show that the team is in good form, but they still need to work on their consistency against strong opponents.

ENCE, on the other hand, is going through a tough period. The team has not participated in major tournaments over the past month, and their attempts to qualify for important championships, including the European RMR for the Shanghai Major, have failed. This failure has been another indicator of the team’s problems.

ENCE has lost 4 out of their last 5 matches, falling to teams like KOI, UNiTY, Monte, and even Young Ninjas. Their only victory came in a match against Enterprise, but it didn’t bring much confidence for the team's future. At the moment, the team lacks a clear playstyle and systematic approach, raising serious questions about their competitiveness.

Map Pool

Team Liquid tends to ban Vertigo, which they have done 31 times in the last six months. Their map choices are varied: no single map stands out, except for Dust2, which they’ve chosen only 7 times. Otherwise, Liquid balances between Ancient, Anubis, and other maps where they have fairly high win rates.

Liquid’s strongest maps are Ancient (94% win rate), Dust2 (86%), and Anubis (69%). Therefore, we can expect the team to leave one of these maps in their selection. Most likely, Liquid will ban Vertigo and choose between Ancient and Anubis.

ENCE consistently bans Inferno (32 times). Their preferred map is Ancient, which they’ve picked 20 times, but their win rate on this map is only 30%. Nonetheless, ENCE performs well on Vertigo (63% win rate) and Nuke (50% win rate), so the choice might fall on one of these maps. Most likely, the team will ban Inferno and choose between Vertigo and Nuke. The deciding map, if necessary, could be Mirage.

Head-to-Head

The last meeting between Team Liquid and ENCE took place back in May, and both teams played with different rosters. In that game, Liquid emerged victorious. Since then, both teams have undergone significant changes, so past results may only partially reflect the future outcome, but the psychological pressure advantage could be on Liquid’s side.

Prediction from Bo3.gg

Based on the current form of the teams and their recent results, Liquid appears to be the clear favorite. They consistently perform well at major tournaments and show strong individual and team statistics. Meanwhile, ENCE is going through a rough patch, with their recent tournament results and lack of a clear strategy raising concerns. A higher win rate on key maps, better tournament preparation, and confidence from previous victories over opponents make Team Liquid the obvious contender for victory in this match.

PREDICTION: 2:0 in favor of Liquid

ESL Pro League Season 20 takes place from September 3 to 22 in Malta. Teams are competing for a prize pool of $750,000. You can follow the schedule and results of the championship via the link.