Only one match stands between two rising CSGO squads and the top eight at ESL Pro League Season 14.
The first round of the Pro League playoffs ends with a bout between two teams on the rise. Two big upsets over BIG and FaZe Clan earned Fnatic an unexpected spot in the playoffs. Team Liquid bounced back from Cologne by dominating Group D with only one tight loss to Gambit. Any single-elimination Counter-Strike: Global Offensive bracket with this much talent and $750,000 is guaranteed to be entertaining.
Head to Winners.bet for the best odds on the ESL Pro League Season 14 playoffs,
Fnatic spent most of 2021 stewing away in the soup of the European tier-two scene. Yet despite the lack of momentum, something has definitely clicked of late within the Swedish-English alliance. The squad began its run with an unavoidable loss to Na’Vi before barely edging out BIG in double overtime on map three. A conclusive 2-0 over FaZe Clan serves as a potential springboard for a deep ESL Pro League Season 14 playoff run.Â
Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin’s 1.17 entry kill rating maintains his reputation as a consistent point man. The squad’s newest rifler William “mezii” Merriman is cautious but precise, matching .62 average deaths with 46.2% headshots. It’s difficult to discern the true impact of Jamie “keita” Hall joining as coach, but Fnatic’s current performance bodes well for his job security. But even after those big wins, the Europeans are still the underdogs. A $50 bet on Fnatic to beat Liquid earns $125 on Winners.bet.
After quickly crashing and burning at IEM Cologne, expectations were low for the American stars. A 9-3 map record in the preliminaries made it clear that Liquid came to play. Flex rifler Keith “NAF” Markovic has gone above and beyond at ESL Pro League Season 14, earning a 1.32 KD ratio with 40.9% headshots. He’s backed by a ferocious Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski who boasts averages of 83.4 damage and .73 kills. The squad is playing like IEM Cologne was nothing but a bad dream.Â
Team Liquid’s phenomenal group stage performance could lead to the new roster’s biggest win yet on European soil. In fact, the bookies seem to believe that Liquid will win on both map picks for a 2-0. Liquid is moderately favored to win at 1.47 odds to beat Fnatic. Considering Liquid has already defeated both Ninjas in Pyjamas and FURIA, that’s a considerable payout for an American victory.Â
The odds are stilted in Team Liquid’s favor for a reason. The Americans have a slightly wider map pool and are a little more adventurous than Fnatic. Liquid took Gambit into overtime on Vertigo while Fnatic completely avoids the map. Assuming EliGE bans Nuke and Alex “ALEX” McMeekin removes Vertigo, the series should be a mix of Inferno, Mirage, and Overpass. Team Liquid sports better records across all three maps and can threaten to bring Fnatic out of its comfort zone.
Both of these teams rely on their star fraggers to put up a consistent 20 kills per game. Liquid’s rifling core of NAF and EliGE beat out Brollan and mezii. Fnatic still has a chance, but a major disadvantage in the map-picking phase could snowball into an early exit from ESL Pro League Season 14. Fans can potentially turn $100 into $225 with a bet for Liquid to win 2-0 on Winners.bet.
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