Predictions for the Esports World Cup 2024 Playoffs: All Favorites Still in the Game!
Yesterday, on July 17th, the first matches after a significant break took place, showing us the form teams are in as they compete for $1,000,000. Despite the participation of 15 teams, the tournament format is quite short, where half of the participants will be eliminated after just two days of play. The first stage has already concluded, revealing all the participants for the main event. Let’s analyze the resulting playoff bracket.
G2 vs Team Spirit. m0NESY vs donk
The first quarterfinal will take place this evening, right after the Last Chance stage, which we will discuss later. The match is particularly interesting due to the clash of two of the best players of the first half of 2024. Young talents m0NESY and donk have never faced each other in official matches, and every CS enthusiast will be eager to see this confrontation.
From the perspective of individual competition, the G2 sniper undoubtedly has more experience and can stop Team Spirit’s main weapon. However, CS is a team game, and in this aspect, Team Spirit seems stronger. Firstly, G2 has undergone significant roster changes, raising doubts about their ability to train a large number of maps. It is precisely this map pool that makes the Dragons the main leaders: statistically, G2’s best map, Inferno, is always banned by hally’s team. Team Spirit boasts the best win rate on any map, with Mirage being the only weak spot, and this is one of the few opportunities Snax and company must seize.
Regarding the first matches of both teams, both won their matches 2-0 without any problems. G2 faced The Mongolz, who finished last season well but came back from the break clearly not in the best shape. G2 themselves made quite a few mistakes but managed to win the game with their class. It’s hard to draw a complete conclusion about the newcomers after just one game, and the match against Team Spirit will be a real test for them. The “honeymoon” factor might help m0NESY’s team win this confrontation, but we will stick to common sense and consider Team Spirit the main favorites.
MOUZ vs Team from Last Chance Stage
One of the best and most stable teams of 2024 needed three maps to reach the quarterfinals. Their opponents were not the most famous, but rather strong players coached by the controversial Hunden. However, MOUZ recovered on the second and third maps and secured their slot. Honestly, we are confident that no team from the Last Chance stage will pose a problem for MOUZ, and we can already congratulate the young players on reaching the semifinals.
So let’s focus on the eight teams from the lower bracket and try to guess the last quarterfinalist. It is worth noting that all matches will be played in a BO1 format, which significantly increases the chances of randomness, and it’s unlikely anyone can identify the leader with 100% certainty. Most likely, it will be a team from the lower part of the bracket – The Mongolz or Complexity. Individually, they have stronger players, and it’s unlikely anyone can compete with them in this aspect except themselves. Sashi could surprise and compete with Furia/Fly Quest in the upper part, which would be an excellent result for them in their first tournament of this level. The most logical outcome would be a Fly Quest – Complexity final with the American team winning thanks to ELiGE’s play.
NAVI vs FaZe. Who Reset Better During the Break?
This quarterfinal is extremely close and not the best for predictions. Traditionally, making forecasts for NAVI matches is a thankless task, but we will still risk giving preference to Blade’s team.
FaZe performed very poorly against the not-so-strong Fly Quest and did not instill confidence with their performance. As usual, everything falls on karrigan’s shoulders and his individual play, as the Danish veteran consistently shows weak shooting. It seems that the star roster truly decided to take a break from CS and picked up their devices shortly before the event in Riyadh. On the other hand, NAVI worked hard to patch up their holes after a contrasting season, where they had decent results despite uninspired play. The match against Furia showed that the team indeed worked during the break and managed to improve their not-so-successful Nuke.
Matches between these teams are always very close, and we are likely to see all three maps. As mentioned earlier, NAVI has a slight edge, and from the first match, they looked more confident in themselves and their CS, while FaZe is still playing on their old legacy. It is well-known that this is the perfect scenario for Blade, who can set up his pieces on the chessboard in a winning combination. Perhaps FaZe will come up with an unexpected move like picking Vertigo against Team Spirit at the Copenhagen Major and turn Blade’s chessboard into a chaotic battlefield. Such a skilled team is capable of this, so NAVI’s advantage is only 55%.
Vitality vs Virtus.pro. Another Test for Both Rosters
Another equally matched duel where it’s hard to make a clear choice in favor of one team. These teams met a month ago at the BLAST Spring Finals, where Virtus.pro won on three maps. After that, VP began preparing for the new season with a new coach and promised to radically change their approach to the game. It was hard to see those changes in the match against Complexity, but their victory was quite easy, which hasn’t been seen for a long time. All of the lineup’s recent matches have been quite close, and they were won by clinching 1-2 crucial rounds.
As for Vitality, their dependence on ZywOo probably hasn’t gone anywhere, and the match against M80 was another individual performance by the Frenchman. As we know, the confidence of the three-time best player in the world diminishes in crucial matches, and whether he can maintain his momentum is a determining factor. It is worth noting that this team is the current holder of this trophy, and defending a champion title is always much harder. We don’t know if this pressure affects apEX’s team, but we will keep this factor in mind.
So who will be the winner of this quarterfinal? With a 60% probability, Vitality will win this match thanks to their sniper and more cohesive team. VP still has a lot of work to do in finding their new style, but it would be hard to call their potential victory a sensation. After all, they have high-level players aiming for top spots at any tournament. We’ll take another controversial prediction regarding the number of maps. Despite the closeness of the match-up, we are unlikely to see all three maps, as the teams are not in the most stable condition, and winning the first map will give the necessary confidence.