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The group stage of ESL Pro League Season 20 continues. Group D matches are gaining momentum and there is a lot of quality Counter-Strike 2 ahead.
Hopefully, the Falcons vs Vp match, which will take place in the second round of the "middle" grid, will be a quality match. As far as I'm concerned, we're in for a very spirited match between teams with a lot of big Counter-Strike experience.
Let's see how this match will end and who will make it to the next middle round, and who will have to fall into the last chance grid.
Let's go.
Falcons Form
We open the breakdown of the Falcons vs Vp match with an analysis of the Falcons form. In this match they play the number one side with odds to win at around 1.8.
For the whole of 2023, Falcons have been, as they call it, in search of themselves. They started the professional season with appearances at B-Tier tournaments: Thunderpick Bitcoin Series #2, OMEN WRG Challenge 2023 and CCT West Europe Series #1. At the first two, they celebrated a top-2 finish, and at the more prestigious CCT, a top-8 finish.
Later tried to make it to the Paris Major . Had two attempts, at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A and BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B. Both were unsuccessful: top-11 and top-6.
In the middle of the year, Falcons continued to bang their heads against the wall. Top-13 at ESL Challenge League Season 45: Europe, Top-10 at ESL Championnat National Spring 2023 and Top-24 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1.
Tried to qualify for IEM Sydney 2023, but fell off at the top-64 stage in the open qualifiers. As a Saudi Arabian club they got a slot at Gamers8 2023, where they played to the best of their ability, which is Top 16.
- Falcons roster: Snappi, Magisk, maden, SunPayus, dupreeh.
At the end of the year Falcons tried to put together a DreamTeam. So far they are doing so well, because the first tournament with the new squad they failed. That was BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, where the team finished top-12.
At IEM Katowice 2024 they got to the IEM Katowice 2024 by ESL Ranking points. There they were ranked in the top 10 before the tournament's Long Shogpeg, but for what merits - a big mystery.
IEM Katowice 2024 Falcons started with a defeat against the best team of Turkey - Eternal Fire. After losing to the Turks, Falcons were close to crashing out of the tournament in a lower bracket match against Rebels, but managed to stay afloat thanks to a 2-1 win. In fact, a similar situation happened in the match against CoL, where Falcons gave up the first map, but cameback on the second and closed the series with a third. Later they defeated NaVi, and at the end of the championship they took the top 4, Ledgeiv to the future champions from Team Spirit.
Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they completely failed, finishing in the top-28. IEM Dallas 2024 started with a loss to G2, but then confidently ran over Monte with a score of 2-0. However, the Falcons were not enough for much more and at the end of IEM Dallas 2024 they finished in TOP-9-12.
Before the performance at IEM Dallas 2024 they visited Challengers at DreamHack. They got to IEM Dallas 2024 thanks to ESL rankings.
IEM Cologne 2024 Play-In Long We started with a match against Eternal Fire, where Ledge won 1-2. Next was a match against ALTERNATE aTTaX in the lower grid and a clean win for Falcons. They got into the group stage after beating BIG 2-1, and in the first match of the group stage they fought MOUZ, but lost 1-2. They stayed afloat with a 2-1 win over Vp. However, they couldn't go far, because after the meeting with FaZe, Falcons finished their performance at IEM Cologne 2024 on top 9-12.
At ESL Pro League Season 20, they started their performance with a match against FURIA (1-2), and then beat ATOX (2-0) without any problems.
Falcons Mappool
The best mapped Falcons is Nuke (1 game, 1 win). Next is Ancient (1 win, 1 loss).
Among the unfavourable maps for Falcons are Vertigo and Anubis. They have 3 matches and 1 win on the former, while Anubis has 1 loss.
Vp Form
We continue the Vp vs Falcons match with an analysis of Vp's form. In this match they are playing as number 2 with odds of winning around 2.
Vp played in three TIR-A tournaments at the beginning of last year. These were BB Playlist. Urbanistic, BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, and also BB Playlist. Freeddom. At the two "home" championships from BB Vp were in the top 8, but at the European RMR everything was even less happy - top 14.
Then Vp made a breakthrough by winning at ESL Challenger Katowice 2023. The victory there allowed them to qualify for ESL Pro League Season 18.
Among the victories, CCT Online Finals #2 is also worth mentioning. They beat Team Spirit in the grand finals and earned $100,000, which is pretty good.
- Vp lineup: Jame, FL1T, fame, n0rb3r7, electronic.
Before ESL Pro League Season 18 Vp visited Gamers8, where they didn't get further than the top 8, and Dunav Party LAN, where in the grand finals they got revenge for their defeat at CCT by Spirit.
In the first match of EPL Season 18, Vp's opponent was Team Liquid. The match, as expected, ended in a full-fledged, combative Bo3 with Vp winning 2-1.
Next up, VP played G2 Esports and legitimately Ledgeili, though they fought back and took the map. The defeat sent Vp to the lower grid, where they first beat Eternal Fire and then outplayed Liquid again, thus reaching the EPL play-offs.
Vp did not manage to play in the main stage. Vp lost their first match against 9z Team, which was a rather unexpected result. At the end of the EPL S18 Vp finished in the top 16.
Things are going well at the Roobet Cup. Vp won the first match against their compatriots from Spirit with a score of 2-1. Next up was a battle with Movistar Riders to qualify for the Roobet Cup 2023 play-offs, which ended 2-0 in favour of Vp, a solid 2-0.
The Roobet Cup 2023 itself was the pulse of Vp's triumph. They beat Monte 2-1 in the grand final, earning their first major win in a long time. Later there was Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where Vp also reached the final, but failed to beat FaZe and as a result - 0-2.
Before playing at BB Dacha Vp played at ESL Challenger Winter. There they reached the top 4, losing in the semi-finals to the future champions from Monte. BB Dacha itself was a very successful event for Vp: there they reached the finals and lost to Spirit 2-3 in a close series.
Just before the BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, where Vp were partnered with BLAST, they played the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2023, where they won the championship, beating Apeks 2-0 in the Grand Final.
On their way to the Group D finals, Virtus.pro defeated BIG and Cloud9. The former 2-0, the latter 2-1. In the grand final of their group at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, Vp beat BIG again and again with a score of 2-0, thus earning themselves a place at the spring finals. Next up was IEM Katowice 2024, where Vp failed, finishing in the top 20.
Vp made it to PGL CS 2 Major Copenhagen, finishing in the top 2 at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR A. In addition, they made it to IEM Dallas 2024.
Directly at the World Championship Long Competed from the Elimination stage. First lost to Imperia, but then beat paiN and Heroic, which brought them to 2-1. Next, they lost to Eternal Fire and G2 Esports, which led to Vp's elimination from the Major tournament.
IEM China 2024 Vp are doing quite well. In the top set of Group B, they took turns beating American teams Wildcard (13-1) and then FlyQuest (2-1). In the play-offs seeding match, Vp lost to the best team in the tournament, Astralis, 2-0.
In the main stage of IEM China 2024, Vp played against G2 Esports and lost, thus finishing in the top 6 of the tournament.
After the top 6 at IEM China 2024 Vp attended three more tournaments, two of which were very prestigious. So they played ESL Pro League Season 19 at TOP-8 and IEM Dallas 2024 at TOP-12, and in between they made it to the Top-6 at BB Dacha.
In Group B at BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2024 Vp played to a top-3 finish, which got them into the playoffs. Next, they made it to the top 4, but there Ledgeili NaVi.
EWC Vp started with a match against Complexity Gaming, where they won 2-0. Making it to the play-offs the team faced Vitality and came out stronger, winning 2-1. Next up was a match against G2, a loss and top 4 in the end.
Vp played at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they failed miserably: top 16. Later, they "consolidated their success" at IEM Cologne 2024, making it to the Top 16. They also played at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they finished in the top 4.
ESL Pro League Season 20 Vp started off with a solid 2-0 win over Red Canids before also losing to Liquid 0-2.
Mapple Vp.
The best map for Vp remains Ancient, where Vp won 3 maps out of 3 played. The most frequently played map is Overpass - where Vp have played 11 maps and won 9 of them.
In the pool there is a good Anubis (3-1 on maps), Mirage (6 wins in 9 matches) and Inferno (7 wins in 11 games).
The worst choice for vp is Vertigo. It has 44% wins with 9 matches.
History of head-to-head meetings between Vp and Falcons
In the season 2024 they played each other 5 times and the score is 3-2 in favour of Falcons.
Predicted result of Falcons - Vp at ESL Pro League Season 20
In this match we should expect an even game, which is hinted at by the bookmakers' odds and it's hard to argue with them. These are roughly equal ranked teams, and therefore I expect a full-fledged Bo3.
Bottom line: total +2.5.
