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Match Preview: Team Dignitas versus VP & Faze
For our two next games the team will have to square up to Virtus Pro and Faze Clan. The first of the two matches is up against the Polish giants who have recently been struggling to gain any success in online leagues and ECS Season 3 has not been an exception. The team currently sits one win above us. If there was ever a time to take down VP it would be now. This is good news for Team Dignitas. The team recently qualified for the PGL Minor so confidence must be running high in the team.
Faze Clan on the other hand has gone undefeated in the league and look poised to dethrone Astralis from the top position. This game will be undoubtedly the harder of the two but may allow the side of Faze to underestimate us and slip up. Were Team Dignitas to take one of the two maps off the European roster it would be the upset of the season. The next two games will be crucial for the team and they have to pick up a minimum of one map in order to have a chance of escaping relegation. Even one map may be too little as our last game will be up against Envyus who hold the fate of escaping relegation in their hands. A slip up from either VP or Envyus would massively increase our chances of escaping the bottom of the table.
Team Dignitas will face Virtus Pro on the 24th at 21:00 CEST and Faze on the 26th at 19:00
(The table is based on results of week 5)
Game Preview and Predictions:
Virtus Pro:
The Poles have recently struggled with their online leagues winning only one game of their last five in ECS and losing their five recent most games which included a relegation game versus Penta in ESL Pro League. The teams will be squaring off on Train (VP pick) and Inferno (Dig pick). Inferno favours Team Dignitas as VP has played this map the most in the past three months but only had 27% win rate. Train will be the tougher of the two maps as the roster is not yet too accustomed to the map and has not had enough time to practice all the maps.
Even though the game looks to be slightly in the favour of Team Dignitas, VP are not to be underestimated as they can showup at any moment and 'virtus.plow' through any team. Recently Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski has been the best player on the VP side and he will be the one to watch out for alongside of Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski. However, Team Dignitas has a stronger counter to the pair of Pasha and Snax in the newly signed Jorgen 'cromen' Robertsen and Jesper 'TENZKI' Plougmann. Both have shown a lot of skill in recent games and we do not expect this to be any different in the upcoming game versus VP.
Most players on the side of Team Dignitas have a higher HLTV rating than the players of VP. Tenzki and Joakim 'jkaem' Myrbostad leading the charge with 1.10 and 1.08 respectively, while Pasha and Snax sit on 1.00 and 0.95. When comparing the two sides Team Dignitas looks stronger, both form and skill wise. Virtus Pro are a legendary team and if they have a good day they can out aim our roster.
In conclusion, Team Dignitas should be able to pick up two maps versus VP.
Faze:
Faze Clan currently sits second with zero losses and looks to finish the season 16-0. This game will be the toughest game of the season and if our team manages to beat Faze on even one map it will be a very hard earned victory. Faze may feel confident enough to take a map they play less frequently on, in order to get some practice out, and if this happens it will increase the chances for Team Dignitas. On the other hand, Ruben 'RUBINO' Villarroen, who is calling for the team, should go for Overpass as it is statistically the weakest map for Faze and has been a solid pick for us.
Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač will be hands down the player to watch out for as he is considered to be one of the world's best players right now. Håvard 'rain' Nygaard would be the close second to watch out for, but unlike NiKo he does not create flashly plays. Instead, he consistently does everything that is asked of him. For this match up especially Jkaem has to start strong in order to gain some control over Faze and not let them get comfortable.
You can catch the games on Wednesday and Friday on Youtube at 21:00 and 19:00 (CEST).