Cloud9 vs Team Heroic

CS Summit 2 ,

Looks as though my first prediction of this event went well with North taking a swift 2-0 over Vega Squadron, I'm going to skip the next game between Liquid and Ninjas in Pajamas, because I feel that could go either way. I am very interested to watch how NAF will perform with his new team though. But onto the prediction between Cloud9 and Heroic.

Cloud9 :

After winning the Boston Major Cloud9 seem to have retained the form that helped them win. Being super consistent across their entire maps pool and taking easy wins in the online tournament of WESG North America Regional Finals. Only losing out in the finals to the newly secured roster of SK Gaming. Cloud9 to me are the runners up of this event, as i feel very strongly about SK Gaming taking this event home. Because of this, I do expect Cloud9 to at least make it to the finals, and in order to do this, they will have to overcome heroic.

Cloud9's maps are as followed; Mirage is 17-5, Inferno is 10-3, Train is 8-4, Cobblestone is 5-3, Overpass is 4-4, Cache is 4-2, and Nuke is the perma ban.

Heroic :

Heroic is a team that has had mixed results over the past couple months. On one side of the spectrum they're taking down some of the top names in the industry and posting huge results, and on the other side, they get completely stomped into dust. Heroic can be inconsistent, but are finding stability as time goes on. Their number one player and prospect is by far JuGi, a 20 year old Danish player. Posting a massive 1.25 overall rating and being one of the only consistent players that always tops the leader board. I wouldn't be surprised if he performs well at this event and is picked up by a larger Danish organization in the future.

Heroic's maps are as followed; Mirage is 6-4, Nuke is 7-3, Train is 8-2, Inferno is 6-3, Overpass is 5-2, Cobblestone is 2-2, and Cache is the perma ban.

Map Pick/Ban :

This is a best of three series and we are blessed today by having each team have a different perma ban, Nuke and Cache are both out from the get go. This hurts Heroic more than Cloud9 because Nuke is a top three map for Heroic and Cache is an uncommonly played map for Cloud9. Mirage will likely be the deciding map since neither team will want to ban out the best map in their pools. Inferno may be a possible pick up. But, across these two teams, besides Cache and Nuke, both teams have a very similar record. I could very well see the top three remaining maps from both teams be played, So we are likely going to see Mirage, Inferno, and Train.

Final Thoughts:

My final thoughts on this match up, are that Heroic and Cloud9 seem to have basically the same map pool after the perma bans come through. This being said, it will come down to skill and practice in order to win this game. Cloud9 obviously has had a lot more practice on their maps and against opponents of greater caliber. With that in mind, I believe Cloud9 will win this best of three series against Heroic. Medium bet, as the odds aren't in your favor, and you don't want the possibility of an upset ruining your bank