Team Liquid vs Cloud9

CS Summit 2 Day 2,

NocturaCS, back at it again with the coverage of CS Summit. We are here again much later in the evening looking at another two teams in the winners bracket. Both of them just so happen to be North American. Ah yes the age old grudge match and rivalry between then two best teams in all of North America; Cloud9 and Team Liquid. Both of these rosters have had a lot of changes and iterations and for a majority of the time, I would argue Team Liquid was the number one team in North America for a very long standing. Let's break down each team and predict how this civil war will end.

Cloud9 :

Cloud9 won their best of three series yesterday against Heroic is a whopping fashion. Taking two quick maps and not allowing Heroic to even win 16 rounds over the course of two maps. Stunning performance by the Major Champions and another perfect run on Mirage, their best map. Showing what I think, is the best team in the world on Mirage. They also took Inferno even quicker than they took Mirage and it really shows the diversity of Cloud9's map pool and where they can excel in a best of three setting.

Cloud9's maps are as followed; Mirage is 18-4, Inferno is 11-3, Train is 7-4, Overpass is 4-4, Cobblestone is 4-3, Cache is 3-2, and Nuke is the perma ban.

Team Liquid :

Team Liquid won yesterday over Ninja's in Pajamas in a best of three series. This was the only series of the day to go into a third map. Both NiP and Liquid seemed to have been on or off for the first two maps, where each team just completed destroyed the other on their own map choice. It was rather entertaining to watch actually. Taking the series into map number three we finally got a nice game to watch on Overpass where Liquid finally won out. It was a struggle, but really showed us a lot of info on how Liquid is adjusting to their newest member NAF. Who by the way, had the most kills among all of Liquid.

Team Liquids's maps are as followed; Mirage is 8-9, Inferno is 4-7, Cobblestone is 4-3, Cache is 3-3, Train is 5-0, Overpass is 2-3, and finally Nuke is the perma ban.

Map Pick/Ban :

Both teams perma ban out Nuke, so it'll be up to the team who doesn't auto ban Nuke to decide the pace of these map choices. If i'm being honest, Cloud9 strike me as the team that allows their opponents to pick where their graves will be. Liquid are likely to ban Overpass and Cobblestone. Cloud9 will ban out Nuke and Cache. As neither team will want to ban out their best maps, this series will fall to a best of three on Mirage, Inferno, and Train.

Final Thoughts:

Final thoughts on the North American grudge match of the century is really rather depressing. Cloud9 I feel are the clear favorites and not only are they the favorites, Liquid is being forced to play Cloud9's best maps because Liquid also have a similar map pool. Mirage is a nearly unstoppable map for Cloud9 and Inferno is almost better than Mirage! Beating Faze in the grand final of a Major and destroying Heroic 16-4 yesterday. Cloud9 are in the best shape I've ever seen them and Liquid are still trying to work out roles with their two newest members Steel and NAF. Liquid might be better in the future but it is the Cloud9 Era for North America. Going a medium bet on Cloud9.