Team Vitality vs Team Liquid: The Americans are doing badly

The first major tournament for CS:GO after PGL Major Stockholm 2021 is about to begin. BLAST Premier Fall Finals 2021 will feature five teams from the top ten of HLTV. The attention of the CIS fans will be riveted to Natus Vincere, for whom this is the first tournament after their historic victory in the majors. The tournament with a prize pool of 425 thousand dollars and a ticket to the BLAST Premier World Finals 2021 promises a lot of interesting matches and exciting highlights. We’ll just have to enjoy it.

On November 24, Team Vitality and Team Liquid will play their opening match in the BLAST Premier Fall Finals 2021. We’ll soon find out which team is stronger and will advance to the semi-finals of the top flight.

Team Vitality is about to change. No official word yet, but we’re pretty sure that the French team will welcome a couple of newcomers along with Zonic. It is impossible to say that such a reshuffle will be beneficial for the team so far. And do not forget that at this tournament, the team will play in the same line-up. At the last major, the team performed quite well—one of the few teams that gave Natus Vincere any resistance.

The French team has beaten Vertigo in their last two matches but lost both times. This time, the situation will change, and the guys will want to play something else. The choice will be between Dust2 and Mirage. On the first map in the last three months, Team Vitality has only lost to Natus Vincere, but I perfectly understand apEX, who does not want to play against Team Liquid Dust2. Still, the Americans are strong on this map historically and have a 75% win rate. There is also Nuke, but the French rarely pick it themselves. That’s why the Dust2 variant looks preferable.

Team Liquid has decided to change their line-up. There will be a few changes to the team. Jonathan EliGE Jablonowski recently announced this. In addition, he notes that the team will not train together after the majors. Of course, in the end, Jonathan smoothed the waters, but so far, it turns out that the American team will come to the tournament without any training. Given the solid roster, it’s hard to imagine that Team Liquid will beat NiP or Astralis in such a state.

As for maps, Team Liquid will decide between Inferno and Overpass. On Inferno, the team looked very nice before the majors. However, they showed a weak game, not winning a single match on this map. The Americans have Overpass with a 100% win rate, and it looks a little bit preferable, but the French’s 33% win rate on this map doesn’t reflect the strength of Team Vitality. When the team is in shape, they can beat any opponent. And Team Liquid isn’t in the same shape as in the ESL Pro League when they beat everyone in a row on this map. If the Americans were in good shape and didn’t fall apart, it would be an equal match, but now Team Liquid is falling apart. The players don’t train together and aren’t preparing for the tournament. In this state, it’s hard to assume that Team Liquid will even clinch a map.

The teams have similar problems, but the American squad is already completely buried and hardly expects to play many matches at the tournament. I think the guys from Team Liquid would rather start training with their new teammates, so a win for the French looks much more logical. The bookmakers are offering odds of 2.10 for Team Vitality to win with a handicap (-7.5) which looks like a good option. You can also take Total Under 2.5 maps for 1.70 or the French victory with a handicap (-1.5) for 2.15.