Starladder Major Group Stage Pick Em

Tomorrow, the group Stage of the Major will begin. We have 8 teams from the previous major and 8 teams that qualified themselves over the last week in the Major Main qualifier attending. In the qualifier, we achieved 7/9 correct picks and we look forward to getting the needed 5 correct picks for the Major group stage.

As in the previous stage, we need to get 5 correct predictions. To maximize our chances, we will pick the safest 7 teams to advance and a dark horse to go 3-0. Here is what we at +EV have decided on. I will explain the reasoning below.

Liquid, Astralis and NAVI are pretty straight forward picks. They should have an easy time in the groups. Upsets against them are possible, but even if they start slow down, they have the ability to grind it out to end the group stage with a 3-1 or 3-2 score worst case scenario. Liquid are the current number one team in the world and both NAVI and Astralis had a lot of time to prepare for the major by not attending many events before the player break.

Even though Vitality struggled to qualify, just barely making it with a 3-2 score, I believe that they can turn it around at the Major. They still have arguably one of the top 2 players in CS:GO right now that can single handedly take games over by himself.

Mousesports have been on an upward trajectory ever since picking up this roster and don't seem to stop. They may have the one shaky game they shouldn’t lose or which they should win in a more convincing fashion, but the sheer amount of skill on this roster by having 3 youngsters under the tactical lead of Karrigan can win them games alone.

NRG also impressed at the Main qualifier with their roster under their new IGL Stanislaw only dropping their first game in overtime vs Dreameaters that impressed many people including us at +EV. The rest of their games have been clean wins. G2 can be very streaky but they have shown improvement over the last couple of months.

As explained above and in our previous pick'em post , we chose a dark horse for the 3-0 prediction as we only need 5 correct picks. We have chosen Ence to go 3-0.

They are undergoing a roster move that will take place after the major, as they swap their IGL Aleksib in favour of the star fragger Sunny, who has been sitting on the bench for a while now. This might negatively influence the team, but we think with Avangar as their first opponent they can take the opening game and from there we will see. They will either collapse under the influence of the upcoming roster move or they will overperform and show us their old selves.

As for the 0-3 pick, we chose Dreameaters. They have impressed many people at the qualifier, but they are currently the lowest seed at the major and will always face the highest seeded team in their games, starting off with Astralis.