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The Counter-Strike 2 summer festivities called IEM Cologne 2024 are heating up. We continue to follow the action at LANXESS Arena, where the play-offs of the prestigious championship are heating up.
Let's talk about what's happening in the IEM Cologne 2024 play-offs. More specifically, about the unexpected pairing of Vitality and sAw, who will play for a spot in the grand finals.
Let's find out who will be stronger in this match and make it to the Grand Final of IEM Cologne 2024, and who will be one step away from the Grand Final.
Let's go.
Vitality's form
We open our analysis of the Vitality vs sAw match with a look at Vitality's form. In this match, the French play the first number one with a clear advantage: the odds for their victory are at around 1.2.
The first half of the 2023 season has been a real celebration for Vitality. It started with a win at the Blast Premier Spring Groups and a top-6 finish 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, mezii, Spinx, flameZ.
In their debut match at IEM Cologne 2023, Vitality only confirmed their status as one of the main favourites of 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 fight back and almost succeeded on the second map, but ZywOo and company were undeterred: 16-11 Mirage and 19-17 Inferno. However, this was the end of Vitality's stay at the tournament: they met ENCE in the semi-finals and lost with 1-2 score and dropped out of the championship.
The top 4 at IEM Cologne did not embarrass Vitality at all, on the contrary - it fuelled them. Before the end of the year they pocketed 3 more wins at title tournaments: they took revenge on ENCE in the Gamers8 Grand Final and beat FaZe twice at BLAST tournaments (Fall Final 2023 and World Final 2023).
Before playing at PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024: European RMR B played BLAST Premier: Spring Groups, where they passed the group stage without any problems and at IEM Katowice 2024, where they failed very unexpectedly, finishing top-12.
At the PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024: European RMR B Vitality stomped GamerLegion and Heroic without any problems, giving up a total of 5 rounds in two maps. And then it was worse - a loss by C9, but a win over ENCE allowed Vitality to reach the Major.
Vitality attended the first Major tournament of the season - PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, where they managed to reach Top 4, but Ledge and FaZe Clan. Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they again started very cheerfully and easily made it to the grand finals, but there they were swept by MOUZ.
At the IEM Dallas 2024 Long Season, they started with a very difficult win over Monte, and then closed G2 Esports dry. But in the match for seeding in the play-offs quite unexpectedly Ledge and 9z Team with a score 0-2. The play-offs IEM Dallas 2024 started much more confidently, closing Heroic with 2-0. Then a confident win over Spirit, but a loss to G2 Esports in the grand finals.
Before appearing at Esports World Cup 2024, Vitality attended Blast Premier: Spring Final, where they reached the Top 4. At EWC 2024, Vitaltiy Long Sogpeg started off with a solid win over M80, which allowed them to go straight into the play-offs. However, Vitality were then very unexpectedly eliminated in the first round of play-offs, Ledgeiv Vp.
IEM Cologne 2024 Vitality started with a match against FURIA, where they easily won 2-0. In the play-offs match they played against FaZe, where they won 2-1. In the play-offs seeding match they played against MOUZ, where they were stronger, winning the series 2-0.
Vitality Mappool
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.
Form sAw
We continue our review of the sAw vs Vitality match with an analysis of sAw's form. The Portuguese club will play the main opener of this tournament, the Portuguese club will play as the number two with odds to win at around 4.
They started the year with qualifications for ESL Pro League Season 17: European Conference. There, they shared the top 1. Then there were two Top 4s at CCT South Europe Series #2 and OMEN WGR Challenge 2023.
There were also appearances at major championships, such as ESL Pro League Season 17. However, it was not possible to get a high result, only TOP-28, but the experience of the game.
Later sAw took the top 8 at CCT North Europe Series #4, top 4 at ESL Challenger League Season 44: Europe. In April 2023, sAw played at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, but failed to rise above the TOP-16. But they managed to do it later, at local tournaments.
This was the case at Masters League Portugal Season 11: Online, where sAw won the trophy by beating For the Win in the final. This was the case at ESL Masters Espana Season 13: Onilne Stage, ESL Masters Espana Season 13, CCT West Europe #4.
- Composition sAw: MUTiRiS, rmn, ewjerkz, story, arrozdoce.
Before taking part in CCT Online Finals #5 sAw played a lot of championships and, to be fair, they were good almost everywhere. They took top 2 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2, CCT North Europe Series #6, Aveiro Techdays Cup 2023, Master League Portugal Season 12: Online Stage.
We also played in big tournaments, such as Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where unfortunately for us we couldn't rise above TOP-12. At the end of November we won Master League Portugal Season 12 and XL Games Clash 2023.
CCT Online Finals #5 sAw Long Sogpeg were very confident. They easily ran over Team Space in the first round of the top set, winning 2-0. What came next was more difficult.
In the second round of CCT Online Finals #5 sAw met Aurora, who were stronger than the Portuguese. The match lasted 3 maps and sAw even won the first one, but it didn't go any further and as a result Aurora reached the semi-finals winning their series 1-2.
In the match for the third round of play-offs CCT Online #5 sAw met Zero Tenacity. The Portuguese had no problems passing their vis-a-vis, closing the series with a score of 2-0. Next was the same confident victory over Red Canids, but after that - a flight to the top 6 of the tournament after a loss from 9Pandas.
Before playing at PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR sAw played at YaLLa Compass Fall 2023, where they finished in the top 12. Already in 2024 they qualified for PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Europe RMR, finishing in the Top 4 of PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 European Qualifier Top 4, and also attended the local event RTP Arena Cup 2024, where they easily finished in the Top 1.
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 sAw started as one of the favourites for the Opening Stage and at first it seemed so: they went through the first two rounds with wins, but then a disorienting defeat by C9 and a seemingly funeral defeat against paiN with a score of 0-2. In the end, sAw Ledgeili FURIA went 0-2, ignominiously leaving the first World Championship in Counter-Strike 2 history.
ESL Pro League Season 19 started with an upsetting defeat to 3DMAX after two lengthy maps with extra rounds on each. Then - 0-2 against Virtus.pro and falling to the bottom of the grid. Finally sAw managed to get their heads together and win the most important match against Imperial. However, that was the end of it all: a loss to VP and a final top-20 finish.
Later sAw played several championships, such as at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024, where they finished in the top 8 and at CCT Season 2 European Series #6 with a final top 4.
At the Intel Extreme Masters: Cologne 2024 the sAw team can be called the tournament opener. The Portuguese club got through their group by beating G2 2-0 and MongolZ 2-1, but in the play-offs Ledge and NaVi 1-2 in the seeding match. In their first ever play-offs championship of this rank, they debuted with a match against FaZe, where they managed to pull out a 2-1 willful victory.
Mappool sAw
The most successful map for sAw is Nuke, where the Spaniards have 3 wins with 1 loss. Followed by Vertigo with a score of 2-1 and Ancient with a score of 3-2.
Neutral choices are Inferno and Anubis. Both maps have been played 4 times and on both maps the stats are 2-2.
The worst situation is on Overpass, where sAw have won 2 matches out of 6.
History of head-to-head meetings sAw - Vitality
This will be the debut match of the clubs.
Predicted result of Vitality vs sAw at IEM Cologne 2024
Portuguese club sAw have already jumped above their heads by beating FaZe in their previous match. They have already exceeded all sorts of goals and therefore, I don't think they will be able to outplay Vitality.
Bottom line: Vitality wins.
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