Team Liquid vs NRG

Team Liquid ranked #6 from North America is playing against NRG ranked #20 from the United States in the StarSeries i-League Season 5 that has 16 teams competing for a prize pool of $300,000. The tournament is held at Kiev, Ukraine.

This is a best of 3 Swiss round 1.

Liquid map performance: Cache is at 64,0% win rate, Cobblestone 64,0%, Inferno 62,1%, Mirage 57,9%, Overpass 57,3%, Train 57,3%, Dust2 51,1%, and Nuke 36,1% win rate. Their most played maps are Mirage x159, Cobblestone x139, Cache x114, Train x110, Inferno x103, Dust2 x92, Overpass x82 and Nuke x36.

NRG map highlights: Dust2 63,9% win rate, Inferno 62,5%, Mirage 61,7%, Nuke 55,0%, Overpass 51,9%, Train 51,7%, Cache 43,8%, and Cobblestone 40,0% win rate. Distribution of played maps is Mirage x94, Cobblestone x70, Cache x64, Inferno x64, Train x60, Overpass x54, Dust2 x36 and Nuke x20.

Team Liquid has played 19 maps in May and won 12, that is 12 games and nine wins. In April they played 21 maps and won 13, transferred in games that is 17 games and 11 wins.

NRG has played 12 maps in May and won only five. That is six games and two wins. In April they had played 29 maps and won 20. If we transfer that into games that is 23 games and they won 16 of them.

Pistol performance goes to NRG who have 54,3%, a tiny bit over Liquid who have 53,0%.

STATS FOR LAST 20 MATCHES:

Team Liquid has won 12 and lost eight with a win ratio of 60% and average opponent rank of #50,6

NRG has won 13 and lost seven with a win ratio of 65% and average opponent rank of #40,4

OK, so the odds heavily favor team Liquid, and it is for a good reason. They placed second in the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals where they lost against Astralis. They play very well, and the obtaining TACO and NAF have shown to be a perfect choice. As we can see from their last few games they only lost to Astralis 3-1 and again to Astralis 2-0 in group stages. On the other side, NRG has seen some progress, but they still lack confidence and skilled players. They played kill 4 kill against mousesports but again lost some crucial rounds. They play good against teams that are -10+10 places next to them, but when it comes to big tournaments like this one, they don't have the chance, because these tournaments are more about prestige and showing off who is the boss than just fighting for the prize pool. But the exciting thing is that in head to head duels, team Liquid has nine wins, and NRG has 11, wow. These two teams are from the same continent so they play together quite a lot and they know each other's skills and weaknesses. But in the end, team Liquid is far more superior with TACO and NAF, and i can't see NRG taking the win here, not after the awesome performance at ESL tournament just a few weeks ago.

My bet here will be a +1,5 handicap on Team Liquid. I know the odds are small, but i will place a significant wager, and the tournament is just starting, so why the rush, there will be a lot of good and quality matches to bet on, so bet smart, not greedy. For those who want to risk a bit more, go with -1,5 handicap on Liquid, the odds are around 2,15.

Good luck to all who bet, and may the odds be ever in your favor!