Day 3 Picks

These match-ups are sadistic. The two that stick out are Epsilon v Dignitas and C9 v NiP.

Fnatic v NaVi-
NaVi have not looked good. Despite getting decent frag totals, Guardian has been on a slide for a long time. On paper NaVi should be one of the most solid teams in this tournament but something does not look ok with the current situation. Fnatic narrowly beat Virtus.Pro yesterday but Virtus looked like they rolled out the brain damage playbook on overpass. I think on raw talent Fnatic sneak past NaVi unless Guardian remembers who the hell he is.

Epsilon v Dignitas-
This could have easily been the grand final if these two teams were on opposite sides of the bracket. I know Dignitas has a couple maps on which their T side is weak, but the collapse against C9 today was wild. (being American I loved it of course haha)
Here's what we know so far:
Epsilon currently has 3 of the top 7 players in the tournament from a stats point of view. (kioshima, shox, sf) Dignitas comes in at 10 and 17 with Aizy and Device respectively. The notable player missing from this list is fxy0 who comes in at 15th overall which is still not bad.
Epsilon has not lost a pistol round... let that sink in.
The map veto system for tomorrow works like this:
Team 1 - veto
Team 2 - veto
Team 1 - Pick map 1
Team 2 - Pick map 2
Random - Map 3
After today's action it may be a fair guess that Epsilon will want to play Dignitas on Mirage and they may veto Nuke. In either case it looks as though there are a few maps in which Dignitas is weak and I would assume Epsilon should be able to exploit this. Keep in mind Epsilon is still on the rise and they still have off matches where things just don't click. This is will be a close match but I expect Epsilon to pull it out, particularly if fxy0 settles down and goes back to doing inhuman things.

C9 v NiP-
Oh god I can't believe this is actually happening... it's like Rocky IV except if Rocky had beaten Drago once before on US soil. Can it happen? Hell Yes, NiP have looked like just another contender. I think its official at this point, NiP are just another top flight CO:GO team. The edge is gone and they are as beatable as ever. Problem is, they will still have access to that well of superpowers that made them such an undeniable force for so long. This is an extremely hard pick, seriously I don't feel particularly confident about this but I'm picking C9. Half of the pick is dictated by C9 are trending up and NiP are trending down and the other half in some minor US Fanboy feeling but Cmon.. how great would it be to see US CS come back into the world scene? There is no better time than now to mix things up...

Virtus.Pro v LDLC-
Virtus.Pro should win this easily. If they don't Saturday will mark the day that all their shortcomings came home to roost. It will mark the beginning of the path that NiP started down long ago where you become beatable when it counts. They shouldn't lose this unless things go very sideways for them. If they do, it means they squandered the easiest path they've had to quarter finals in a while. You do have to ask though... how much did that loss to Fnatic take out of them?..

Its midnight on the east coast, I'm burned out and it's time to catch a few hours of sleep. Good luck tomorrow everyone! (including me eeesh) Sorry this post took a while to get up, cheers!