EnvyUs VS Virtus.Pro

Risk: High suggested bet: low bet

2nd batch of EPL matches, and another high level matchup, this time featuring EnVyUs and Virtus.Pro. Theres not too much say about the Frenchmen, who remain to be one of the best teams in the world. They'll enter this week after a decent showing at ESL Barcelona, where they were mainly paired up the elite of the event. There losses to Astralis and 2/3 against Fnatic saw Envy eliminated in the tournament. Overall, in the short-term, the French side have looked in good form and continued to beat most every team out there, with the Swedes being the only exclusion to defeat NV consecutively. Plus we're talking about Cobblestone, a map they've frequently achieved good results.

 

Virtus.Pro on the hand, are currently experiencing serious problems, and come into this match on quite a rough losing streak. Except for a single map, we've yet to see the Poles take home the victory. And these struggles are occurring with mid-high tier teams. Whatever internal issues they're dealing with, are surely gonna need addressed soon, before we see the Org intervene.

 

As for this contest, Cbble may not be the worst map for the Polish, but its one they've faced issues in handling even lower ranked teams. So we highly doubt this map and matchup will be what they need to turn things around.

 

As expected, Betting Odds are mostly trashed in favor in the French, which is correct when considering everything mentioned above. Normally, we'd entertain an ICB in this situation, however, the margins of some of their losses are more concerning than the losses themselves. And we've really not seen anything to be encouraged by from them this year. So although they may sport the firepower to provide an upset, we doubt that come today with the Frenchmen in such strong form. So on our end, we're oriented towards skipping this match. But if you really want to bet, our pick EnvyUs.

Penta VS London Conspiracy

Risk: High suggested bet: Low

Just another CounterPit contest, and this time we're featuring Penta against the old London Conspiracy roster, now known as PANTERS. The Norwegians yesterday managed to hit a Tie versus E-frag, surely a decent result since the Bulgarians are always tricky to face. But honestly PANTERS are missing a victory since a quite long while, and aside several Ties they seem unable to close their BO2/3 games. And this is quite an issue.

 

On the other hand, Penta woke up a bit after changing Davidp with ZehN, but after a promising victory over FSid3, yesterday they fell again to ground against SK, in a pretty terrible game where the Germans failed to grab more than 10 rounds in two maps.

 

As we stated above, we're talking about two pretty inconsistent rosters, so once again there are high chances to watch just a Tie. However, if we've to pick a side we find ex-London Conspiracy a bit more solid compared to Penta, so we're oriented in going Low on them.

Virtus.Pro VS Envyus

Risk: High suggested bet: Low

The second half of this matchup and second game in a row for EnvyUs and VirtusPro, except this time we're moving over to Mirage. As discussed in the first game, Virtus.Pro are experiencing very troubling times, as they've accumulated a rather extensive losing streak going back prior to the holiday break. Even the last quarter of '15 revealed kinks in their armor. And honestly, they havent really been the threat we knew since late-summer, early fall. However, this trip Mirage offers slightly more promise than the entry map, since its a map theyve historically achieved good things on, including favorable outcomes when facing the Frenchmen.

 

Meanwhile, EnVyUs never focused too much on Mirage in the past. However their visits on it seemed to be occurring with higher frequency, along with the accumulation of decent results on it. This includes wins over Fnatic, Dignitas, Astralis, and SK. So the map advantage in favor of Polish-side is surely less tilted than the number would reflect. Particularly when considering the consistency NV has performed over the short term.

 

Once more the Betting Odds are trending in favor of the French-side. On our end, we inclined to agree, mainly due to the current state of the VP. Although they've had a little time to practice, while NV was traveling to Spain. So we certainly feel the Poles chances for a win are improved on this map. But we still find more confidence in NV for a Low Bet, unless the percentages reach the 80/20 ICB threshold, in which case we'd risk it on the higher reward for an ICB on VP.

Mouseports VS NIP

Risk: High suggested bet: Low

Third series of EPL matches, and now we're featuring a pretty great contest between Mousesports and NiP. The Swedes are currently on a pretty light schedule, and during this first part of the year they played just a very limited amount of matches, so guessing how they'll play this evening is surely quite hard. However, last week against Dignitas they managed to put up a surprisingly good show, so this is surely encouraging.

 

on the other hand, Mousesports are hitting this match already well warmed up by their previous EPL matchup against Gamers2, and overall they are sporting a quite strong momentum, so we wouldn't be surprised to watch them setting up a proper fight.

 

Talking about the current game, on de_cache Mouz managed to deliver a couple of great performances during APM Finals, but worth noting that they didn't face T1 opponents on it, so things will be different today. About NiP, they never looked extremely convincingly on this map, and this year they played it just two times, with quite poor results, so they're a bit of a question mark.

 

Betting odds are currently overly skewed in favor of NiP, so at our end we're prone in attempting a Low- pick on Mousesports, since we believe we'll watch a quite tight match.

E-frag VS SK

Risk: High suggested bet: Low

Moving back over to CounterPit for another high-mid tiered matchup, and a pretty interesting one. E-frag has been one been one of the busier teams in the early stages of the year, competing in quite a range mixed tiered contests. During this time they've continued to cement themselves as a solid T2 team, but they're still a little ways off from making a push towards the top tier. The Bulgarians enter today after a pretty strong start to the week yesterday, where they swept ex-PixelFire 2-0, and a tie with London Conspiracy after a very tight OT loss to prevent the second consecutive sweep. Granted, we're not talking about extremely highend contests, but these are the games that lend to their reliability and consistency.

 

SK on the other hand, have stepped up their game another notch, and have been quite a revelation in recent weeks. This most notably includes their 2 map sweep of Natus Vincere in week 2 of EPL. Overall, the Danish teams have been quite impressive this year, along with Dignitas, SK is surely making a strong case for their push to join the top Tier.

 

As for this mid-tiered contest, we should good show to watch, although the Danes are mostly playing a level of E-Frag, so we're currently seeing the Betting Odds rolling favor on SK. On our we're inclined to agree, particularly after the convincing scores the Danish-side put up yesterday. So we're oriented towards a skip on this case, since we highly doubt the Bulgarians can manage to take two maps in a row from the Danes. With the worst case scenario of a seeing a Tie, our side to pick remains SK.

NIP VS Mousesports

Risk: High suggested bet: Low

Second EPL match in a row for NiP, 4th in a row for Mousesports and basically the last EU match of this evening. We already discussed the form of these rosters in the previous game, so now we'll just add that here on de_overpass things will be a real mess to guess. Both teams aren't playing this map since November 2015 and aside a single match that Mouz played during APM Finals, these lineups basically never really focused on this map, favoring Cobblestone over it.

 

Honestly this is a kind of game where aim and experience can make a real difference, and unless Mouz are hiding an ace in their sleeve we find NiP advantaged over the Germans. However we're still talking about a really risky match, so we suggest to avoid high values, additionally betting odds aren't really amazing too, so you should evaluate a plain skip. But well, we know that skipping a great game like this one is basically cutting away the fun... so at our end we're prone in going Low on NiP, with the hope to watch them focused enough.