Matchförutsägelse: Wildcard - Virtus.pro | Counter-Strike (CS2)

Welcome to EGamersWorld.

While the Royal Arena in Copenhagen is hosting the PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, in faraway Chengdu the IEM China 2024 is getting ready for the Long Convergence. The championships will not be comparable in terms of prestige, but the importance of the Chinese Intel Extreme Masters cannot be dismissed.

In the course of IEM China 2024 will be raffled 250,000 dollars and a ticket to IEM Cologne 2024. Sixteen teams from around the world, including Vp and Wildcard Gaming, will compete for the title prizes.

The match between Vp and Wildcard Gaming will be the final match of the first round of the Group B top grid. The format of the meeting, as before, bo1.

We are trying to figure out which of the teams will be stronger in this match and will pass to the next round of the top grid of Group B, and who will fall to the lower grid of IEM China 2024.

Let's go.

VP Form

We open the match breakdown with an analysis of Vp's match form. In this match, the team will play as unqualified favourites with odds to win at around 1.2.

At the beginning of last year Vp played in three TIR-A tournaments. 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, mir.

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 on 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 Vp's favour, 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 was a loss from Eternal Fire and G2 Esports, which led to Vp's elimination from the Major tournament.

Vp's Mappool

The best map for Vp remains Ancient, where Vp won 3 maps out of 3 played. The most played map is Overpass, where Vp 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.

Wildcard Gaming form

We open the match breakdown with an analysis of the Wildcard Gaming form. In this match the Americans will have to play from the position of catching up, with the odds of winning around 4.

Wildcard is not a notable representative of the American region. Getting to IEM China 2024 is already a success for a team of their level. What to say if Wildcard got here by chance, replacing Liquid and Complexity.

Last season was Wildcard's debut on the Counter-Strike 2 scene. Coming into the discipline the club took part in various B-tier and C-tier tournaments. Among the most notable are Thunderpick World Championship 2023: NA Series #1 and Roobet Arena August 2023: North America and ESEA Pre-Season Circuit 2023: North American Final, where Wildcard took the Top 1. After that it was all-out losses and getting somewhere in the middle, at best.

• Wildcard Gaming line-up: SLIGHT, stanislaw, JBa, Sonic, motm.

In the season 2024 before the passage to IEM China 2024 they played at a lot of championships, but there were no special results at any of them. Wildcard has qualifiers for the following tournaments: PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: NA Qualifier, IEM Chengdu Qualifiers, Ace North American Masters Spring 2024, IEM Dallas 2024 NA Qualifiers, PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 American RMR. Almost everywhere was somewhere in the middle, except for Ace NA Masters Spring 2024, where the team finished in the top 2.

Wildcard Gaming Mappool

The best Wildcard map is Vertigo. There the Poles won 14 matches with only 4 losses.

Then comes Mirage (66% wins in 6 games), Anubis (58% wins in 12 maps) and Nuke (57% winrate in 7 matches).

The worst maps for Wildcard are Ancient with 36% wins in 7 matches and Inferno, where the Poles have not won a single match in 3 maps.

History of head-to-head meetings between Wildcard and Vp

Previously the teams have not played each other in head-to-head meetings.

Predicted result of Vp vs Wildcard at IEM China 2024

I don't expect anything supernatural in this match. Vp should be able to shut down the Americans without any problems.

Bottom line: Vp win.