Natus Vincere vs Cloud9

Map: Mirage

Predicted winner: NAVI

Honestly I don't see a world in where Cloud9 has a shot at winning this, they might have a mystery edge with kioshima and nobody knows how they are going to play, but that could just as well swing the other way and make their teamwork much less stable.

Cloud9 is a team with some potential, but without a clear cut star that is the way we will always look at them. A team that sometimes makes us think "they just might do it", but then never doing it. A team of solid players can perform much better than expected. But still when you are facing the likes of S1mple and electronic you need much more than just solid, you need outstanding.

There is a good reason there are 26! teams ranked between NAVI and Cloud9 in the HLTV ranking. Looking at more stats does not help the C9 outlook:

At mirage Navi are 5-2 (71%) and C9 is 10-7 (59%) in the last three months.

Recent form for C9 is pretty bad, they have zero lan events, and are looking more likely to have to fight to avoid relegation than qualify for lan finals in the ESL league, a bit better in ESC but too early to call that one.

WHile NAVI looked unstoppable until they reached a Faze on fire at the Epicenter LAN, and have a solid second place in the ESL league.

I would consider a handicap bet in this match.