Team Vitality vs Valiance

Europe Minor - IEM Katowice 2019

In this tip, we will be taking a close look at a best of three match-up between teams Viltailty and Valiance in the lower bracket finals of the Europe Minor - IEM Katowice 2019. Vitality is favored in this matchup with the current odds at time of writing being a 1.56; however, they are not the team I foresee winning this series as I feel strongly towards the underdogs of Valiance. Let's dive into detail and back up why I feel this way.

Valiance:

Valiance is a team that has flown under my radar time and time again. Not sure as to how they have done this, since the last time I took a deep look into their starting line-up 'Espiranto' and 'Nexa' were not there. This dynamic duo hailing from Imperial were both signed back in November along with 'ottond' from Havu. This new team composition has helped them become an established tier 3 European team with the hopes of winning this minor and breaking into the upper tiers of competitive Counter-Strike. In their most recent events, Valiance has laid waste to all opposition winning three straight events with a grand final record of 6-1. Dropping only one map against Vitality in the LOOT.BET Cup #3 that took place nearly a month ago. When this event took place Vitality was running their original line-up with 'Happy' and has replaced him since then, I will go into more detail about this when discussing Vitality as a whole.

Vitality:

Their has been a lot of hype surrounding this team, and for good measure too. Most notably for the newest addition to the French pro scene: Zywoo. The French Counter-Strike scene has been plague by numerous amounts of roster changes and drama, leading every different combination of French player to play with one another. Teams LDLC, G2, and EnvyUs have been swapping players at least once every few months since I began watching Counter-Strike back in 2015. However, a newcomer has made his way into the private club that seemed to be the French scene and that is Zywoo. Posting absolutely massive numbers and putting the rest of the French scene to shame, this is a player of which a team should build the team around, and it seems to have already begun. Since their establishment as a team back on October 8th, 2018 within 3 months a roster change would be made dropping 'Happy' and adding 'ALEX' and as of the 16th of January Vitality added another analyst to the team to help prepare for games. Vitality are already beginning to fall into the trap that has left the French scene playing catch-up for the last 2 years.

Maps:

As a best of three series each team will ban out 2 maps and the remaining three will be the ones played. Vitality opts out of Train and will want to ban out Nuke as it is one of Valiance's best maps. Similarly, Valiance will opt out of Overpass and ban Inferno. Leaving maps Mirage, Cache, and Dust 2. Although, with one best of three series between these two teams going the way of Vitality, Valiance will opt to ban Dust 2 rather than Inferno as a way to combat the 4-16 loss they took during that past series.

Final Statement:

Overall these two teams are going to have a long fought series, and it will be exciting to watch. When it comes to who will win though, I feel Valiance wants it more. Yes they have already lost a best of three series to Vitality this event, but the series was close other than the last map, which if Valiance ban out Dust 2, I feel they should be able to take the series in it's entirety.