March 29 at 18:00 EET, Natus Vincere will face Eternal Fire in the quarterfinals of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 for Counter-Strike 2. Bo3.gg, in collaboration with Olexander "Shoker" Osheka, presents the preview, forecast, and analysis of this matchup.
In this competitive season, CS2 fans have already witnessed the confrontation between these two teams, which turned out to be very interesting. In Group A at IEM Katowice 2024, the teams treated us to a full bo3. However, after a successful Nuke map, Eternal Fire completely collapsed on Mirage and Anubis.
For the Turkish team, this will be a kind of revenge match for their defeat in Katowice. The showdown promises to be exciting and interesting even for the average viewer. Moreover, the upcoming playoffs have already been dubbed the "most competitive in the history of CS Majors".
Current Form
In their last five matches, as before in the current lineup, NAVI demonstrate a unique playing style. Often, the team confidently wins the first half of the map, but struggles to secure a deserved victory in the second. Additionally, Ivan "iM" Mihai still cannot find his game on LAN. The Romanian esports athlete performs well on only one map out of ten. Where is this leading?
Meanwhile, the members of Eternal Fire have blossomed like never before — they have even been dubbed the best Turkish lineup in CS history. And indeed, the team has fairly confidently overcome the Opening and Elimination Stages, but not everything is smooth sailing. Eternal Fire still conceded maps to opponents and also lost matches. Sometimes the team lacked variability in tactics, and sometimes it was just İsmailсan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş, whose game wasn't going well.
Map Pool
As for the map choices, NAVI prefer to ban Vertigo, while Eternal Fire opts for Ancient. NAVI will likely choose between Anubis and Mirage. The Turks will strive for Inferno, which historically has been strong for the team. With a high probability, the teams will clash on the Decider map, Nuke. In any case, both teams have plenty of time to prepare, and the map veto will be a real battle of minds.
Prediction by Shoker
Olexander "Shoker" Osheka, an analyst and commentator at the Maincast studio, has analyzed and commented on numerous Counter-Strike tournaments. Last year, exclusively for Bo3.gg, he made many predictions, 60% of which turned out to be correct!
The Turkish team's performance is really impressive, given all their dramas. They've had so many, dozens of substitutions, an eternal search for a fifth player, and a very unstable game. Poor tactical preparation, very often wrong decisions in the mid-rounds. And now we are seeing the best EFs, and by the way, they applied for this back in September, and they have already shown a great game at the last EPL. They still had to grow mentally, but they can still make a lot of mistakes, but in terms of firepower, they are one of the strongest teams in the world.
As for NAVI, their form is pretty average right now, in my opinion. The play of w0nderful and jL is very pleasing to the eye. And of course, how the duo Aleksib and B1ad3 worked together. From the very beginning, I was in the camp of people who believed in the signing of the Finn and that it would be a good decision :) I will voice a popular opinion, the team really misses iM. I'm not hating on him at all, but objectively speaking, his role should make a good difference to the team. Now it's like iM's shadow in the team, not the vigorous player who destroyed the entire previous major in solo.
I think it will be a very hard and close game on all three maps, but I still believe in NAVI's 2-1 victory. The team had enough time to prepare for the opponent, the only question is the individual form of the team on a particular day.Olexander "Shoker" Osheka
PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 takes place from March 17 to 31 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The teams are competing for a prize pool of $1.25 million. You can follow the schedule and results of the major through the link.
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