Cloud9 vs Team Liquid

ESL Pro League Season 7 North America ,

Ooo Boy, in today's match of the ESL Pro League Season 7 North America, we have the two best teams in all of the region playing a few matches on a couple of very highly played maps and I am excited to watch! In this match up we have currently ranked #1 in North America Cloud9, facing of against #2 North American ranked Team Liquid. This match is going to be online so their may be some lag as LAN is the preferred area of play for any higher tier game, but non the less we get to watch a great game of Counter Strike be played. Without further intro, let's break down these teams.

Cloud9 :

After their Major win in Boston not too long ago, the North Americans have struggled to find that inner power that they possessed in that final series against Faze clan. Losing out to Team Liquid in the finals of the next LAN event: CS_Summit 2. Though they did lose to Team Liquid, this is not to say that they can't still compete against them. Cloud9 have a tendency to be on or off depending on the occasion, mostly showing up on LAN. In this particular game the player to watch for Cloud9 will be Timothy 'autimatic' Ta, who currently boasts a 1.20 rating in his most recent form, and has been stepping up as the clutch master for Cloud9.

Cloud9's maps are as followed ; Inferno is 11-7, Mirage is 12-5, Train is 7-4, Cache is 5-4, Overpass is 5-4, Cobblestone is 1-2, and Nuke is the perma ban.

Team Liquid :

Upon their late but great arrival of Keith 'NAF' Markovic, Team Liquid have had nothing but huge strides taken in their games. Winning out CS_Summit 2 over Cloud9 and placing 3-4th in the latest LAN of IEM Katowice. Naf and Steel both have been great additions to the team and even though Steel has some work to do to really be incorporated with the squad he has the character and the drive to step up. This, factored into the new Alienware Train Facility that Team Liquid will be playing in as their new practice area. I feel having this new setup will give them the confidence they need to take on anyone.

Team Liquid's maps are as followed ; Mirage is 12-11, Inferno is 9-7, Train is 9-3, Cobblestone is 6-2, Overpass is 5-3, Cache is 1-2, and Nuke is 1-1.

Map Pick/Ban :

This game is a best of two series that will be played separate. The first map will be Mirage, and the second map: the game of which I am currently predicting, will be Inferno. Their is no clear dominant map favor for either team as Inferno is a well versed map in most teams map pools and especially in these two rosters pools. With a combination of 34 games played on just this map over the past three months.

Final Thoughts:

My final thoughts on this match up are though I do think that Cloud9 will win map one on Mirage, Team Liquid and the combination of their 2 newest members, plus the new surroundings of their Training Facility. I feel Team Liquid will take this second game on Inferno and go 1-1 in the series today. Medium bet on Team Liquid.