CLOUD9 vs COUNTER LOGIC GAMING LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS
Counter Logic Gaming produced their best run through the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) regular season since 2019. But now they must face off against the reigning LCS champions, Cloud9, who enter the first round of LCS 2023 Spring Playoffs as heavy favourites to advance.
Cloud9 collected another LCS regular season trophy on Saturday when they defeated FlyQuest in a hard-fought tiebreaker, solidifying themselves as the strongest North American League of Legends team ahead of the playoffs. Cloud9 could’ve easily not been able to contest the top spot in the league, but the combination of FlyQuest slowing down in the final weeks and Cloud9 finding a new identity with rookie midlaner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo played a significant role in C9 reclaiming their throne.
Counter Logic Gaming were never in the conversation of the next LCS champions; however, they did extremely well for themselves, ending the season in fourth place after losing the tiebreaker match against 100 Thieves. Although an incredible accomplishment for the oldest League of Legends team, losing against 100T puts a bit of a dent in CLG’s run to the finish line.
On a more positive note, the final week of the regular season saw CLG beating Golden Guardians, Team Liquid, and Cloud9, who CLG crushed with 31-8 in kills and close to a 10k gold lead.
Still, we’re talking about a best-of-one game which is much easier to win than a best-of-three. So even though Cloud9 looked hopeless on Thursday, it was apparent they had an off-day, so we wouldn’t expect a repeat performance on Friday.
Cloud9 are significantly better than CLG, and we expect that to show in the playoffs. Counter Logic Gaming are no pushovers and will offer some resistance, but if Cloud9 play their game, it’s hard to imagine CLG winning more than one map.
Cloud9 -1.5 maps
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NORTH VS FORZE CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS
NORTH VS FORZE DREAMHACK OPEN ANAHEIM 2020 BETTING PREVIEW
North and forZe will clash on the battlefield this Friday in the opening match of Group A at DreamHack Open Anaheim.
ForZe will enter the second DreamHack Open event of the year looking to repeat their success from December, when they hoisted the DreamHack Winter 2019 title. However, the field awaiting them in Anaheim is significantly stronger, and a strong start is vital if Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov and company are serious about pocketing the top prize of US $50,000 and a ticket for DreamHack Masters J?nk?ping.
ForZe have produced a mixed bag of results since the turn of the year. They put up a commanding run at the DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020 European Qualifier, defeating the likes of Winstrike (2-1), CR4ZY (2-0) and Heroic (2-0) to pocket a ticket for the Anaheim event. ForZe also appeared in the United Masters League Season 2 playoffs, where they defeated Hard Legion Esports (2-0) in the quarter-finals but fell short against the eventual champions, Copenhagen Flames (1-2), in the semi-finals.
At the start of February, the Russian quintet also tested their luck at European open qualifiers for the inaugural season of the newly formed FLASHPOINT CS:GO league. They failed to make it far, however, as they lost the opening match against Team Unique (7-16).
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North will hope for an upturn in fortunes in Anaheim following their underwhelming display at DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020. North started strong in Germany with a 16-4 win over Sprout but hit a wall against MAD Lions (10-16) and were then humiliated by Heroic, who reverse-swept them with a 16-2 on the third and final map.
Prior to their shaky display in Leipzig, North appeared at IEM Katowice World Championship European Open Qualifier #2, where they came close to securing a ticket for the closed qualifiers but fell flat in the finals. Although Markus “Kjaerbye” Kj?rbye and his squad enjoyed commanding wins over FiVe (16-8), Nemiga (16-12) and Gambit Youngsters (16-8), MAD Lions (8-16, 4-16) proved to be big a hurdle to overcome.
North have made a couple of changes to their roster since the Katowice qualifiers. In-game leader Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen returned in mid-January to replace Jakob “JUGi” Hansen, while Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson took over as head coach from Torbj?rn “mithR” Nyborg earlier this month.
NORTH VS FORZE DREAMHACK OPEN ANAHEIM 2020 BETTING PREDICTIONS
This will be a best-of-one (Bo1) fixture, meaning it can go either way; however, most esports bookmakers seem to agree North have a slightly better chance of claiming the spoils.
North arguably have more individual quality in their squad, but their new core has played less than five maps together in the last month. For that reason, it is hard to say whether this team has had enough time to gel.
ForZe’s squad is averaging a 1.096 rating over the past three months. North sit at 1.058 over the same period, so the form lines are quite similar.
Looking at the map pools, North hold a better win rate on Dust II (100%-50%) and Nuke (75%-50%). ForZe have the advantage on Mirage (78%-67%) and Train (86%-0%), while they have played 13 games to North’s one on Inferno and are on a five-map winning streak.
Despite their high ambitions for the 2020 season, North’s recent results suggest they have a long way to go to crack into the top bracket of CS:GO teams. They might find their footing in a couple of months, but forZe are much more appealing as the outsiders for Friday’s clash.