Cyber.Bet Cup Day 3 brings more exciting games and a whole new group. Wednesday should provide the best games yet. The European Nordavind (#52) has an opportunity at a rematch against the Frenchmen Heretics (#43), and on the other hand, we have tournament favourites Syman Gaming (#33) facing the European SMASH (#68).
Nordavind vs Heretics
These two teams have a lot of experience in online Counter-Strike. The cores of these rosters have played in many cups, qualifiers and leagues. Not to mention, they have played each other more than once. Their most recent match occurred last Sunday. Here Nordavind managed to win the 1st map and had a stellar 7-2 lead on Mirage. Heretics managed to bounce back on the second half with 5 more rounds and even clinch the victory 16-12. Finally, Heretics managed scraped the floor with Nordavind on Vertigo winning the last map 16-6.
This bo3 should have a similar veto approach to their previous match. Even though both teams have Train as an early ban, chances are they will float it until the very last map. Heretics could go for Inferno again, as it’s a common first pick at 51% and is their most played map. On the other hand, Dust2 is also a valid option as they’ve played it three times and won against Gambit Youngsters, Heroic and even OG. Nordavind is likely to pick Mirage as they have played it the most, 12 times in total. After the embarrassment on Vertigo, we could land on Inferno or even Nuke as a decider.
Heading into this match, Heretic has a better recent form winning 3 out of the 5 matches they have played. It doesn’t help for Nordavind that they are currently playing with Haris “H4RR3” Hadžić who is standing in for Ruben “RUBINO” Villarroel. These two teams are destined to have a close game.
Syman Gaming vs SMASH
For a whole month now Syman Gaming has been absent from competitive play. Yesterday they had a chance at playing BIG on Vertigo but lost the map 16-10. However, their opponents SMASH have been warming up to competitive play. Unfortunately, their recent match history does not look good. They had a chance to improve and work on this line-up since March. However, recent match history shows us they lost a bo3 to Gambit Youngsters and got destroyed by BIG very recently.
Let’s take a look at the most plausible maps in this bo3. For starters, Nuke should be instantly removed by Syman. This is a good map for SMASH and one they pick rather often. With this map out of the way, SMASH could consider banning Mirage, a map they ban 63% of the time in the initial veto. As far as picks go, things get very murky. Syman’s 5-man core is still fresh. They can try Inferno on which they have a 5-map win streak. SMASH does have difficulties from here on out, as neither map is where they have a substantial edge over Syman. Overpass is an option, but here it’s only a 20% win rate in the past 3 months. If it does get to a third, things look even worse for the European mix.
Syman Gaming’s latest roster doesn’t look strong on paper. However, their recent form looks better. SMASH has been losing a lot to lower calibre teams, and the trend seems to persist. With no de facto star player too, it’s hard to say who should step-up to bring the victory home.
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*Odds are subject to change.
