BBL Esports vs Team Liquid Prediction: Easy win for Team Liquid

On Friday, May 20, the first match in the second week of VCT Stage 2: EMEA Challengers will take place. This showdown will pit BBL Esports against Team Liquid.

VCT Stage 2: EMEA Challengers is the second major regional tournament on the Valorant Champions Tour. The top 12 teams from three regions will battle it out for three slots in the second Masters' event and a combined prize pool of €200,000. This tournament takes place from May 13 to June 27. The group stage will run from May 13 to June 12.

Last season of the Valorant Champions Tour, we often heard that BBL Esports was going to the EMEA stage and were ready to fight there, but the reality was very different. In the first EMEA stage, where they were competing for a place in the Masters Reykjavik, the Turkish team met a group of dead, which they could not overcome, thus leaving them in 7-8th place. And on the way to Masters Berlin, they failed to qualify for Turkey, finishing third and eighth in the two qualifiers. After that, the team was unknown for a long time until they signed many unknown players, led by pAura, who previously played for SuperMassive Blaze.

This team started to show results. In the first qualification, BBL stopped in third place, but they made it to the EMEA stage from the second chance. Next in the EMEA tournament, the Turks managed to put up a fight. However, out of 5 matches, they managed to win only SuperMassive Blaze (they got the last place in the tournament and didn't manage to get through Promotion to the next EMEA tournament) and Acend (they got the last but one place, after which they changed their lineup), leaving them one step away from making the playoffs. As the Turks didn't need to play a qualification to get to the next EMEA tournament, they started preparing for this tournament right away. BBL did not have any substitutions either. The first match will be against Natus Vincere, who took fourth place in their group and did not qualify for the next stage. This match looked very close until the teams moved to the third map. There, the Turks opened up to the full, taking this encounter with a score of 2-1. This week BBL Esports will face Team Liquid. This match will be very difficult for the Turkish team, but one map the guys can at least pick up.

Last season was a great season for Team Liquid on the Valorant Champions Tour. They finished 4th at Masters Reykjavik but suffered a disappointing loss to Gambit Esports, just one step away from qualifying for Masters Berlin. Team Liquid had enough VCT points to qualify for the EMEA Last Chance, where they managed to win a slot at the Valorant Champions, finishing 3-4th there.

Team Liquid started the new season as a straightforward ticket to EMEA Challengers, so we didn't know much about their form. In their opening match, they faced Gambit Esports. Apart from beating them can not be called. On the first map, Gambit themselves began to give their game instead of a complete defeat, and on the second map, Team Liquid was able to earn an advantage only because of the stronger side. After switching sides, Gambit wiped them out again. It could be taken as an excuse if it was just looking out for the teams, but if that's how they set up to play, they will quickly fly past the playoffs. The match against Natus Vincere confirmed this. Team Liquid was under intense pressure in all three maps to lose map after map in a second but found the strength and pressed on instead of playing in overtime. In the match against LDN UTD, they had already seen their work on mistakes. Thus, the 2-0 victory added to the treasury in this tournament. Against FunPlus Phoenix, it didn't work out, and BIG was only bothered on the first map. As a result, Team Liquid was defeated only by Gambit Esports and FunPlus Phoenix, and 2-0. The match against G2 Esports happened the same way as with Natus Vincere. The team was perfectly prepared for their opponent, taking the first map 13:8 and leading the second, 8:4, but gave it away flat, and on the third, they didn't give G2 a chance to win. After that, Team Liquid lost the last game in the group, which meant nothing, and advanced to the playoffs. In the playoff stage itself, their first opponent was Guild Esports, whom Scream and company beat 2-0, but then a 2-0 loss to G2 Esports that dropped Team Liquid from the race for a slot at VCT Masters: Reykjavík. So the boys had already started to prepare for the next stage of EMEA. However, the news came out that FunPlus Phoenix could not go to the Masters. Instead of them went Team Liquid, as they took 4th place. Having made it to Masters Reykjavík, the European team easily made it through the group stage, beating XERIA Esports and KRU Esports. Having made it to the playoff stage, Team Liquid fell into a trap. The Brazilians from LOUD beat the European side 2-1 on the maps, and in the bottom bracket, the Japanese from ZETA DIVISION sent Team Liquid straight home. After failing to produce the superb result expected of Team Liquid, the boys began their preparations for the next stage of EMEA. The group is one of the easy ones for them, with only M3 Champions posing a problem. In the first match Team Liquid played against BIG, with whom they had already met in the last stage of EMEA. With a 2-0 score on the maps, Team Liquid easily took the first meeting for themselves. This week, the guys will have to face BBL Esports, who, like BIG, should not give them much trouble.

In this match, I see an easy victory from Team Liquid, so I take their win on Map for 1.50 and their win on Map 2 for 1.49.

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