Luminosity vs Rogue

Starsereis i-League Season 5 North America Qualifier ,

Taking a step back from high prize pool LAN's such as last weeks Dreamhack Masters Marseille 2018. Instead in this tip we will be covering the Starseries i-League Season 5 North American Qualifier that will be taking place online in North America. In today's match up we will be looking at teams Luminosity and Rogue. Both of these North American organizations have their strengths and weaknesses about them and we will be discussing them to find out which team is the more likely of the two to take home a victory.

Rogue :

Comprised of mostly North American players, team Rogue boasts a somewhat of a mixed roster as they do contain one European player. After a few months of unsuccessful encounters with the other North American teams, Rogue has grown into a team that has just qualified for the next Dreamhack event in North America; Dreamhack Austin. In order to qualify for this event they had to win a few best of three series agasint some other upper tier 3 North American teams. I feel Rogue is starting to hit their stride and members like Hiko and Sick are becoming more confident in their team and are looking to get a victory under their belts today.

Rogue's maps are as followed ; Mirage is 11-7, Inferno is 9-7, Overpass is 9-7, Train is 11-4, Cache is 3-4, Cobblestone is 3-3, and Nuke is 3-1

Luminosity :

Luminosity just yesterday picked up a new player and traded away their best player Chelo. The replacment that they picked up is former Team Liquid member Steel. Steel was replaced from the Team Liquid roster because TACO was replaced on SK Gaming by Stewie2k from Cloud9. It is a whole domino effect of trades but I believe everyone has now found their new homes and are ready to compete. Steel is no stranger to the Luminosity organization but the team mates are new to him, which might cause problems at the beginning. As of right now I don't think Luminosity is as strong as they were with Chelo.

Luminosity's maps are as followed ; Train is 7-5, Cache is 3-6, Cobblestone is 7-2, Inferno is 2-5, Overpass is 3-2, Mirage is 0-3, and Nuke is 0-3

Map Pick/Ban :

This is a best of three and will involve each team banning two maps, picking one map each and the last map left over will be the decider map if the series goes to three maps. Rogue will start by banning maps Cobblestone and Train. Luminosity will respond with bans of Inferno and Mirage. Rogue will pick Overpass, Luminosity will pick Cache, and Nuke will be the decider.

Final Thoughts:

In this specific match up with the map pools being as they are I give an advantage to Rogue. It almost doesn't matter what Rogue bans out or what Luminosity bans out, the maps will always favor Rogue. This along with Luminosity not having much practice time with their newest member Steel, I'm going to play the odds on this one and go for a low-medium bet on Rogue.