Match Prediction: ENCE - Vitality | Counter-Strike (CS2)

Welcome to EGamersWorld.

Big CSGO at LANXESS arena is approaching its terminal stage. The semi-finals are getting ready for the final stage.

There are 4 teams left in the fight for one of the most prestigious professional CSGO cups. In addition to the championship title, the quartet will also play for the main cash prize of $400,000, and in addition to that - a ticket to IEM Katowice in 2024.

Vitality and ENCE will be the first to play for a spot in the grand final. The match will be played in the bok3 format.

Both teams are clearly not ready to back down one step before the grand finals, which hints at a quality Counter-Strike match. Let's see if it will be. At the same time, let's try to predict which of the teams will be more worthy to advance to the grand final and will wait for their opponent in the cup match tomorrow.

Let's go.

Vitality Form

We open the match analysis with an analysis of Vitality's form. In this match, the Bees are playing as favourites.

Bookmakers believe in the success of the French and their further passage to the grand final. The odds for this outcome are at around 1.4.

It is not difficult to understand this state of affairs. Despite the errors in the group stage of IEM Cologne 2023, after the departure from the tournament Heroic and FaZe Vitality remain the strongest team of the remaining. At least that's what the hltv rankings say.

The first half of the 2023 season was a real celebration for Vitality. It started with a win at the spring Blast Premier groups and Top 6 at the top IEM Katowice 2023 and ESL Pro League Season 4. Next was Top 3 at European RMR B and triumph at the most domestic Major e - BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. After winning the Paris Major e Vitality took the top 2 at the spring finals of BLAST, Ledge and Heroic in the grand finals.

The last tournament before IEM Katowice was BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023. There Vitality showed a worse result than expected, with the top 6 in the end.

• Vitality lineup: apEX, ZywOo, Magisk, Spinx, flameZ .

After the triumphant Paris Major a Vitality said goodbye to Dupreeh, and flameZ took his place. The "newcomer" Vitality has already had time to adapt and looks good: the young Israeli has KDA 1.09 and this is the third result of the team. He, by the way, started his ascent on the big stage with OG.

In their debut match at IEM Cologne 2023, Vitality only confirmed their status as one of the main favourites in Group B. OG tried, but were defeated 16-6 by Mirage and 16-13 by Anubis.

After defeating OG, Vitality took on MOUZ, who were dealt an even bigger blow by the Bees, 16-4 and 16-5.

In the match for seeding in the play-offs Vitality met another top club - G2 Esports. A nerve-wracking game where Vitality pulled out a 19-17 win on Inferno in the extra time, but then lost 10-16 to Vertigo and 8-16 to Mirage.

Starting the play-offs from the first round stumbled Cloud9. "Cloud9 tried to put up a fight and almost succeeded on the second map, but ZywOo and company were undeterred, 16-11 Mirage and 19-17 Inferno.

Mappool Vitality.

The best Vitality map is Nuke. There are 4 matches and 4 wins.

Anubis (7 matches, 85% wins), Mirage (4 matches, 75% wins) are very good. In general, Vitality doesn't have any bad cards that they play. Vertigo - 71% wins in 7 matches, Inferno and Overpass - 3 wins in 5 matches.

Ancient is not played.

ENCE Form.

Let's continue the match review with the analysis of ENCE form. In this match the Finnish club will play as an outsider.

Bookmakers are not ready to give ENCE the number one spot, despite their top seeding in the play-offs. The odds for an ENCE win are at 2.7.

Quite a logical figure for such late stages of the IEM Cologne 2023 ranking championships. And I agree that ENCE are not yet up to the level of Vitality, even though they have been playing very good Counter-Strike lately.

During the season the team took the top 3 at CCT Central Europe Malta Vibes, top 4 at ESL Pro League Season 17, and also got to the top 8 European RMR B - qualifying event for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. ENCE also played at the Major, but it was TOP-14, which is hardly a worthy result.

IEM Dallas 2023 turned out to be much more pleasant. ENCE looked quite cheerful throughout the event, which allowed them to defeat MOUZ in the grand finals with a score of 2-0. Just before IEM Cologne 2023, ESL Challenger Katowice was played, where they had to defeat Vp in the grand final 1-2.

• ENCE roster: Snappi, NertZ, Maden, dycha, SunPayus .

ENCE have been playing in a stable roster for almost half a year. SunPayus and NertZ headline the roster with a KDA of 1.12.

Thanks to their victory at IEM Dallas 2023 ENCE started Cologne from the group stage. The first opponent was the Poles from 9INE, who gave the Finns serious problems, but lost with a score of 1-2 and a series of dops on the decisive map.

The next match was a match against Fnatic. ENCE won both maps, leaving Fnatic no special chances.

In the match for the Grand Final ENCE played against Heroic. Being an outsider, the Finns took a very good approach to the match and closed the top 1 team in the world with a score of 2-1 in a tough Bo3.

ENCE Mapple

ENCE has two 100 per cent maps. They are Nuke with 9 wins in 9 matches and Anubis with 5 matches and 0 losses.

Still playing Ancient (66% wins in 3 matches). Still playing Mirage (9 matches, 4 wins). Vertigo with 2 wins and 3 losses and Overpass (2 wins in 7 matches).

Inferno are not playing.

History of head-to-head meetings between ENCE and Vitality

The last time Vitality and ENCE played each other was at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. In that fight Vitality won with a score of 16-13.

Predicted result of the match ENCE vs Vitality

As stated above, both teams are looking very chippy through the tournament. ENCE remain a serious contender for all top clubs and after IEM Cologne 2023 they will definitely stay at the top of the world rankings. Will it be enough to beat Vitality? I'm not sure.

The French are seriously fired up, and a single blunder in the group stage doesn't make much difference. I admit that ENCE will take the map from Vitality, but I wouldn't hope for their victory.

Bottom line: Vitality win/+1.5 on ENCE.