Space Soldiers vs Natus Vincere

ESL Pro League Season 6 Europe relegation,

Today we kick off the new season of ESL Pro League in the European region as 4 teams; NaVi, Space Soldiers, GODSENT, and eXtatus all fighting for 2 open spots in the ESL Pro League Season 7! Needless to say this qualifier is of the up most importance to these teams and all of them will be competing at the highest level possible to ensure a spot. Our first game of this qualifier is between NaVi and Space Soldiers, the two favorites of this 4 team qualifier. Let's break down the teams and see who will come out on top in this Best of 3 showdown.

Natus Vincere:

Natus Vincere has been on a rough patch ever since the return of their former IGL Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko. Communication issues and overall coordination has lacked for the CIS squad. In recent form after dropping Denis "seized" Kostin to pick up FlipSide's own Denis "electronic" Sharipov, their has been some improvement. Electronic with the combination of Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, NaVi has turned into an all out PUG esc team with lots of fragging power and somewhat little teamwork.

In recent form NaVi has picked up on their win rate and even won DreamHack Open Winter 2017. From most played to least play in terms of maps, we start with "Overpass" which has a record of 5-5, "Nuke" is next at 3-4, "Train" at 4-3, "Inferno" at 2-3, "Cobblestone" at 3-2, and finally "Mirage" at 1-1. "Cache" is a perma ban for NaVi.

Space Soldiers:

Space Soldiers are a team that have been slowly making their way into bigger and bigger leagues and becoming well known in the CS scene. Their lead fragger Ismailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş, is always on the top of the rating leaderboards and currently sits with a rating of 1.35! This team has monster potential and though they have had a mixed roster, constantly switching out 2 of the members of the team. Space Soldiers still find stability and come out on top. Currently Space Soldiers are playing a LAN event and it will be hard to predict how they will fair in an online match whilst competing at another event.

Space Soldiers have played much more in recent times than NaVi, maps from most to least played for Space Soldiers come to "Cache" boasting a huge 15-2 record, followed up by "Mirage" at 10-5, "Cobblestone" at 6-6, "Train" at 7-4, "Overpass" at 6-3, "Inferno" at 7-2, and finally "Nuke" at 0-1.

Map Pick/Ban:

Unfortunately for Space Soldiers, their number one most played and won map is a perma ban for Navi, so "Cache" will be out. Space Soldiers will likely ban out "Nuke", as though NaVi don't have a great record, the confidence level of Space Soldiers is definitely not on that map. Picks will be "Overpass" and "Inferno" with the decider being chosen at random.

Final Thoughts:

I feel as if both of these teams have a real solid chance of winning this matchup. I know for a fact that both of these squads will end up earning to 2 open spots for ESL Pro League Season 7, but who will win this match is a tough one to predict. Space Soldiers is looking solid in their current LAN event, but will all the games be tiresome? And will Navi be well rested ready to fire right out the gate? or has the holiday break taken a toll? I will be putting my confidence in Navi this time around, Space Soldiers playing at LAN and also not being in their home country on their own time schedule, I feel will cause them to make mistakes against the fast play style of the Ukrainians. Hope everyone has a good outcome on their bets!