FISSURE Playground 2 Playoff Preview. Is the Belgrade Champion Already Known?
The Swiss system group stage has concluded, and we managed to correctly predict 6 out of 8 teams that would make it to the playoffs. Liquid and paiN turned out to be slightly luckier and managed to grab the last spots on the train heading to Belgrade Arena. FaZe kindly gave up their place to a future and former teammate – Twistzz, while TYLOO will no longer be able to defend their reigning champion title. Who will become the new CS2 king in Belgrade – let’s figure this out in this article.
G2 vs The MongolZ. Champions of Previous Tier-1 Tournaments
Both teams left their last championships with trophies in hand, but after this match, one will have to taste the unpleasant aftertaste of elimination again, as there are no second chances in the playoffs. Let’s figure out who will have to experience the bitterness of defeat.
Each team stumbled once during the group stage, but nevertheless passed to the next stage quite confidently. Regarding game form, they approach this match in completely different conditions: the Mongolians are gaining momentum and getting back on track after a two-week break, while the Samurai have been playing non-stop for over a month. Therefore, everything depends on The MongolZ – whether they managed to return to game form or are still getting into rhythm. Not considering current circumstances, they certainly look much more interesting, especially after their EWC victory, but they haven’t yet shown us that championship-level play.
The MongolZ’s main weakness is Inferno, which they lost to 3DMAX and FaZe at this tournament, and have only a 25% win rate over the last 3 months. Yes, in both matches the score was quite close, but neither team even made it to playoffs, which is a significant indicator. Meanwhile, G2 currently has this as their strongest map, which they should definitely take as their pick. Neither team has a single player with a negative rating, and in terms of firepower, you can safely put an equal sign between them. Honestly, before analyzing the match, The MongolZ were clear favorites in our understanding, but now this match looks like a pure 50-50 for us.
Aurora vs Liquid. Last Dance for Twistzz?
Another story where a player transfer was announced right during an event where both sides of the deal are participating. Moreover, the tournament bracket even brought them together in the decisive match for playoff qualification, where Liquid proved stronger than FaZe. Such games always go beyond logic and the real state of affairs, so we’ll continue to stick with our group stage prediction and say that Liquid made it to the next stage almost by accident.
Against Aurora, they have no chances – neither from a map pool perspective, individual form, or especially team coordination. Let’s remember that Aurora are EWC silver medalists and the team must take advantage of the chance to lift a significant trophy where there’s no Vitality, MOUZ, or Team Spirit. Yes, the competition is still very high, but Liquid is clearly not the team that can stop them in the quarterfinals. We’re confident that the organization’s owner will try to organize maximum support for his players, which will also provide certain motivation not only in this match but in the following ones. Our prediction – 80-20 in favor of Aurora.
FURIA vs Astralis. Is Everything So Obvious?
Currently, FURIA definitely belongs to the pool of teams that are most interesting to follow. Their interesting mix of CIS and Latin American players manifests itself so brilliantly and vividly that colleagues from MIBR didn’t hesitate to repeat this experiment. However, the guys still can’t get their playoff game together, where they regularly get eliminated early after brilliant group stages. It feels like they feed too much off the crowd’s energy, losing concentration and making mistakes in defaults.
The strict Danes might well catch them on this and play with a cool head. But are Astralis ready to show such Counter-Strike right now? Magisk, as we said earlier, doesn’t look like a reinforcement and often guards the bottom of the scoreboard, as he had no time to integrate into the team. On their way to playoffs, they managed to beat VP, Legacy, and GamerLegion, who turned out to be some of the tournament’s weakest teams. The loss to paiN is another warning sign, so here, no matter how we try to create suspense, nothing works. FURIA are favorites with a 65% probability of advancing.
Falcons vs paiN. First Arena for kyousuke!
No doubt that Falcons will be the main crowd favorites, as this is somewhat of a home tournament for NiKo, and the main young stars kyousuke and m0NESY are no less popular in this region. Four Falcons players are in the top-6 of FISSURE Playground 2 statistics, which speaks to the excellent individual form of the entire team. In the group stage, they didn’t lose a single map and even managed a comeback from 4-10 on Ancient and closed out problematic Inferno 13-4 against Legacy. Of course, the level of opponents in the previous stage doesn’t remove all questions – they faced VP, Legacy, and FaZe, but their performance on the server looked overly confident.
It’s very encouraging that Maxim is handling the pressure and despite almost every game starting for him with 0-5 stats, he’s still the tournament’s number one player at the moment. Now he just needs to pass the crowd test, but with such teammates, he hardly has anything to worry about.
Returning to paiN, they’ll take their best map – Inferno, and we wouldn’t be surprised if the match starts 0-1 because of this. Therefore, we wouldn’t consider confident 2-0s, but would simply lean toward Falcons’ overall victory. NiKo and company can respond with guaranteed Ancient or Nuke, and on the decider, they’ll handle themselves without problems on aim-heavy Mirage or Dust 2. 70-30 in favor of Falcons.
Who Has the Highest Championship Chances?
Honestly, despite fairly obvious quarterfinals, the semifinals will be extremely competitive. Whoever Aurora faces (G2 or The MongolZ) – this match will automatically get 50-50, while in the bottom half of the bracket, Falcons certainly look stronger than the rest. FURIA can definitely put up a fight, but if Astralis triumphs – the Hawks won’t leave a trace of them even on hypothetical Inferno.
Based on team positions in the playoff bracket and our predictions, the following chances emerged:
- Falcons — 28.88%
- Aurora — 20.18%
- G2 — 13.05%
- The MongolZ — 13.05%
- FURIA — 12.15%
- Astralis — 5.92%
- Liquid — 4.22%
- paiN — 2.54%
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Author: Alex
Alex is an author and esports observer with more than seven years of experience. He specializes in analyzing new releases in the world of computer games, gaming services, and in-game economies. Alex shares practical experience and an expert perspective on the development of gaming, helping readers understand complex mechanics and stay up to date with the latest news.
