Bad News Eagles and ENCE will meet in the first round of the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. I think that in their current form, sAw's men will have no chance to take on their opponent, who is anything but average.
Moreover, Bad News Eagles failed to live up to their apparent status as favourites at the last ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023, managing to lose twice to Movistar Riders.
As for the Europeans, they performed abruptly on the Challengers Stage, with some big names going through. So here I would lean on the ENCE team to win.
Bad News Eagles uniform
The 20th ranked team in the world managed to fail at ESL Challenger League Season 44 Europe and BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic 2023, where it seems they didn't even try.
However, at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR A, the Kosovar squad picked themselves up to win every meeting and make their way into the 'legends' after a Long Sogpeg defeat to 1WIN.
Bad News Eagles also recently competed at ESL Challenger Melbourne 2023, where they managed to finish in second place. However, the team's two losses to Spain's Movistar Riders are a bit of a letdown.
The latest Bad News Eagles results:
- A 16-10 win over VERTEX.
- Defeat to Movistar Riders 11-16.
- 2-1 win over Rare Atom.
- Beat Grayhound Gaming 2-1.
- Defeat by Movistar Riders 0-2.
Bad News Eagles top scorers:
- Mirage - 67% wins.
- Inferno - 62% wins.
- Overpass - 56% wins.
- Vertigo - 56% wins.
- Ancient - 56% wins.
It is worth remembering that the Kosovo team has been banning the Nuke map for a long time.
ENCE form
The ninth team of the world ranking ambiguously performed in the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Europe RMR B, where they managed to lose Long Cogpeg BO1, but the good of it closed three meetings in a row.
Immediately after that, the European team took part in Brazy Party 2023, where even noted one victory over GamerLegion, but at the same time lost to SAW and Astralis, not getting into the play-offs.
Nevertheless, ENCE played well at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Challengers Stage, where they passed OG, Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan without much trouble.
ENCE's latest results:
- A 2-1 win over GamerLegion.
- 0-2 defeat of Astralis.
- 16-6 victory over OG.
- Beat Ninjas in Pyjamas 16-9.
- 2-1 victory over FaZe Clan.
Top ENCE scores:
- Ancient - 80% wins.
- Nuke - 80% wins.
- Mirage - 60% wins.
- Vertigo - 56% wins.
In turn, the European squad has consistently failed to beat Inferno.
Bad News Eagles - ENCE meeting statistics
In the current season the teams have played one meeting - in the closed qualification for IEM Rio 2023 the victory went to ENCE (2-0).
Bad News Eagles vs ENCE
Based on the head-to-head stats, the Bad News Eagles have yet to take a card from ENCE. And in terms of play in recent weeks, the European team seems to be ahead.
In my mind the main disadvantage of Bad News Eagles is instability and inability to jump over the head. As the championship in Melbourne showed, the Kosovars are a bit out of shape.
So in this case I would recommend betting on ENCE to win.
