IEM San Jose: CS:GO Masters Preview
*** UPDATE – ENVYUS HAVE WITHDRAWN AND ARE REPLACED WITH COUNTER LOGIC GAMING ***
WHO WILL WIN THE MASTERS?
With $150,000 up for grabs, competition will be fierce when the tenth season of the Intel Extreme Masters gets underway on November 21-22 at the SAP Centre in San Jose.
The betting action will be equally exciting and we look at where the best value could lie in the CS:GO eSports markets with Dafabet.
TEAM SOLOMID
Last year’s Team Dignitas, are being paid more than any of the other teams in this tournament, but do they have the skill? It certainly seems so as they have consistently come in the top half of many competitions this year, including the IEM Season X in Cologne in August when they finished second. They’ve won a very respectable 11 out of 26 games this season and have improved radically from their days as Team Dignitas, when they only won five times out of 21. Team SoloMid have come far and are justifiable favourites to go all the way in San Jose this year.
Prediction: 1st
NINJAS IN PYJAMAS
Ninjas in Pyjamas are another team with a high chance of coming in the top three. Beating SoloMid recently but also losing to Natus Vincere presents a confusing story, but they have a great chance of reaching the top at IEM this year.
Prediction: 2nd
ENVYUS
This well known team could be SoloMid’s downfall. Just as formidable and on the up and up with a two win streak currently, they seem to be one of the other main contenders alongside Ninjas in Pyjamas. Although they lost to SoloMid on 24 October, this may give them the desire for revenge that gives them the edge when the time calls for it. SoloMid will be aware that EnVyUs are one of their closest competitors and will no doubt keep an eye on them. The battle between these two teams promises to be intense and ferocious, not to mention pivotal to who wins the event.
Prediction: 3rd
VIRTUS.PRO
Yet another team which is far better than Luminosity and Cloud9 are Virtus.Pro, but it’s fair to say they are not as good as SoloMid and EnVyUs. They have lost twice and only won once against SoloMid in their most recent encounters, indicating that they can just about hold their own against them, but on average are unlikely to win. EnVyUs and Virtus.Pro are closely matched and whoever wins between them is almost certainly guaranteed a place in the top three.
Prediction: 4th
NATUS VINCERE
Navi are the first team to win three major tournaments in one year – the IEM, the Electronic Sports World Cup and the World Cyber Games. This is old news, however, as this happened back in 2010 and now they are not fairing so well. Whilst still better than Cloud9, they are only slightly better than Luminosity. This team is the average which others have to beat to do well in the tournament.
Prediction: 5th
IBUYPOWERCUP
The wildcard this year will be the winner of the iBuypowercup and so will be unknown until 15 November. Consequently, it’s difficult to work out how well they will do, but it’s most likely going to be either Team Liquid or compLexity. These teams are of a similar level to Luminosity and are unlikely to provide a challenge to Ninjas in Pyjamas and SoloMid.
Prediction: 6th
TEAM LUMINOSITY
A new team brought together in 2015, aren’t looking so great however, winning only three out of 20 games this year. Their team has members flowing in and out, and with no winning combination, they are unlikely to do well, despite possessing fairly decent ex-Keyd Stars. Make no mistake, Luminosity are an excellent team but compared to most of the other beasts, they’re likely to be no real match.
Prediction: 7th
CLOUD 9
Another outside chance is Cloud9. It is fair to say that they aren’t likely to fare better than Luminosity, as they lost 1-0 to them at the end of October. Although they have had impressive wins in the past, they do not even began to match up to the likes of SoloMid. Where Cloud9 excel is getting lucky but despite this, expect an average start to get worse until it hits rock bottom before continuing in that vein until they are ranked lowest of the eight teams.
Prediction: 8th
Dafabet will be providing odds on the San Jose IEM CS:GO tournament here.
