BIG vs GamerLegion: The Germans must show the level

The historic victory of Natus Vincere at the PGL Major Stockholm 2021 is still fresh in the minds of the fans, but the new tournaments are ready to please CS fans with exciting matches and fiery highlights. The first tournament after the Majors will be DreamHack Open November, which selected a good lineup of participants, and the CIS region will represent two teams at once. The tournament will be held from November 10 to 14, eight teams will be competing for a $100,000 prize pool.

The opener of the tournament will be a clash between BIG and GamerLegion. The Germans will be looking to get back on track after their loss in the majors. We will know very soon if the underdog will be able to oppose such a motivated opponent.

BIG failed in the CS:GO majors. The team failed to overcome the Challengers Stage, which can be classified as a minor sensation. After all, the Germans were not so long ago among the top 5 in the HLTV ranking, and they have a lot of experience in major tournaments. Nevertheless, now BIG look like a pale shadow of itself six months ago. At the moment, the team is severely undermined in terms of shooting. Even the leaders of the team have modest individual ratings of 1.05 and 1.09. And the rest of the teammates are playing with negative scores. It’s difficult to hope for good results with such statistics, which is perfectly illustrated by the Germans’ serious drop in the HLTV rankings. The team needs changes, and it needs good shooters in the first place. Virtus.pro proved on their example how it is possible to get a good shooter without training together and reach the playoffs of the majors. It’s largely thanks to good shooting.

As for the upcoming match, BIG will not be able to play their strongest map (Dust2), as their opponent does not play it at all. With the rest of the map, things are not looking good. Of the five remaining maps, only one of them has a win rate higher than 40%. On paper, such statistics look just awful, but still, it’s worth understanding that Nuke BIG looks good and the low win rate appeared due to the level of opponents. I am sure that at Nuke peak the Germans will have a tangible advantage because it is the worst map GamerLegion, on which it has only a 33% win rate, which was earned in games with tier-2 teams.

GamerLegion made it to the DreamHack Open November through closed qualifiers. The team overcame very powerful tier-2 lineups, but it all looks more like a coincidence and a great motivation of the Swedes. The same Sinners lost without a chance at another GamerLegion tournament. The team played the last matches unsuccessfully and suffered two defeats in a row.

Most often, GamerLegion picks Vertigo, but against the Germans, this map does not look like the best option. At least because BIG has the best win rate, they do not play it often, but victories over MOUZ or Heroic show that the team feels confident. Most likely, GamerLegion will prefer to play Mirage, on which the guys have recently had excellent results and victories over the same Fnatic, forZe. But I don’t think GamerLegion will beat the Germans even on Mirage, especially if BIG kicks in k1to at B. 2-0 in favor of the German team looks like the most likely outcome here. Still, if we assume that GamerLegion can take its pick, then on the third decisive, the card will remain Inferno or Vertigo, which will completely suit the Germans. Vertigo is their best win rate map, while the opponent has only 38% wins on Inferno.

BIG will want to recover after a failure at the Major, so the German team shouldn’t have any problems with motivation. In terms of maps, they are satisfied with everything, and the level of BIG is noticeably superior to its current rival. I don’t think there will be any sensation in this match. Bookmakers offer odds of 2.00 to BIG’s handicap (-9.5), which looks like a good option. You can also take the correct score of 2-0 for 1.95.