Virtus.Pro (-250) v HAVU (+185)

Bans: Nuke (VP), Vertigo (Havu)

Picks: Inferno (VP), Mirage (HAVU)

I am going with Virtus.Pro in this one as I believe YEKINDAR will be too much to handle for HAVU as I noticed they are prone to being steamrolled by uber-aggressive players which was shown vs Complexity as Konfig had himself a day. VP has had some uncharacteristic losses recently but all of those games were extremely close and the majority of those matchups were vs teams that were in the top 10 sans ForZe. HAVU is a good squad with some solid talent but overall I hold CIS teams in higher regard than European teams (especially Finnish ones). My top play tomorrow is of course going to be YEKINDAR and my second favorite play is of course going to be Jame. But after that feel free to interchange Buster, Qikert and SANJI depending on how much salary you have left.

BIG (-139) v Evil Geniuses (+107)

Bans: Train (BIG), Dust 2 (EG)

Picks: Mirage (BIG), Inferno (EG)

Honestly feel bad for oBo because his first match with his new teammates was a win over Astralis and since then EG has lost 6 of their last 7 with their lone win coming over Dignitas who just 2-0’ed them with relative ease (16-9, 16-4). BIG is in the same damn boat though as they’ve now lost 4 of their last 5 and 8 of their last 10 which is shocking given that this SAME EXACT roster was at #1 in the world just 8 months ago. The one thing I am relying on here is cohesion as it was quite apparent that the MICHU addition did nearly nothing for EG (at least in the short term) as they somehow managed to get worse. Also worth noting morale over in the EG camp is not looking good as players like oBo tweeted out saying simply “0-2 vs DIGNITAS, GGs” which is not a good sign. But remember both of these teams suck ass right now and this means it arguably could go either way. Like on one hand I think EG has the better individual talent but on the other hand I think BIG has much better strategy and teamwork as they’ve played together for a while now. Overall I think EG will take down BIG on Inferno as they are pretty weak there having lost 6-games in a row now and having a round differential of -32 in those 6 games vs teams like Endpoint and Renegades. Mirage should go to BIG though as they have won 3 in a row on that map vs teams like Heroic (16-7) Complexity (16-12) and FPX (16-10) and EG hasn’t won on that map in 3 months (0-2). Overall I think this one goes 3 maps and I think that final map will be Overpass which is as much of a toss up as you can get as BIG has only played it 5 times and won twice while EG has played it 4 times and won once. All in all I am leaning BIG here given the lineup being together for so many years and them having a better chance to take Inferno than EG does to take either Mirage or Dust 2 depending on which they ban out. Throw in that the pricing is really soft for BIG (K1to, Syrson, XANTARES) and it allows you to get YEKINDAR captain and you can officially sign me up.