On October 9, at 16:30 EEST, the ESL Challenger Jonköping match will start: European Closed Qualifier CS2 2023 between Aurora and Apeks. The teams will compete for the only European slot at the ESL Challenger Jonköping 2023, which will be held on November 24-26 in Sweden. The prize pool of the tournament is $100,000.

Individual form

Both teams have recently undergone roster changes: Aurora lost their coach Viacheslav "innersh1ne" Britvin, while Apeks transferred Martin "STYKO" Styk to the reserve. At the upcoming tournaments, the experienced Slovakian will be replaced by 20-year-old Ådne "sense" Fredriksen. Also, both teams have already played their first official matches in Counter-Strike 2: Aurora defeated 500, IKLA, and Sangal; Apeks defeated The Prodigies.

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Apeks' best player over the past three months is Tim "nawwk" Jonasson, who has a score of 6.4, 0.70 kills per round, 0.56 deaths, and 69 average damage. Another important player on the team is Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad, who plays a crucial role in the aggression at the start of the rounds. The Norwegian has 0.14 first kills per round, 0.146 first deaths, and 0.11 exchanges.

The best player in Aurora is Alexander "KENSI" Gurkin. The Russian has a rating of 6.2, 0.68 kills per round, 0.66 deaths, and 78 average damage. Ivan "SELLTER" Miroshnikov is slipping and has a rating of only 5.6.

Map pool

The teams do not play Vertigo (Aurora) and Nuke (Apeks). The main peak of Aurora is Nuke, but in its absence, the team usually chooses Ancient. In response, Apeks would have to pick Mirage, although in their first match on Counter-Strike 2, they chose Ancient, where they won a confident victory with a score of 13:7.

Prediction

Given that the match will take place on the new version of the game, we can expect any outcome, even the most unexpected. Nevertheless, Apeks still seem to be the favorite, as they consistently play at a higher level than their opponent. For Aurora, the largest tournament was BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR B, while Apeks played in the semifinals of the major.

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It seems that the European team has a wider and more stable map pool. And in general, the team's players are in better shape than Aurora. All these factors indicate that Apeks should have won. Nevertheless, the winner of this match will play next against the best of the Movistar Riders — Grindas pair.

Header image: ESL Copyright | Adam Lakomy