Syman and Nemiga will lock horns in the opening match of Group B at the BLAST Premier CIS Cup, which kicks off this Tuesday.
Syman Gaming will hope for a big improvement on their recent competitive endeavours. Their best results this year are top-four finishes at the LEGENDS.BET L33T CUP, Cyber.Bet Cup and #HomeSweetHome: Week 2. Sanzhar “neaLaN” Ishkakov and co. also took a swing at ESL One: Road to Rio – CIS, where they finished sixth after losing to Winstrike (0-2) and Nemiga (0-2) in the playoffs.
Shortly after the Rio Major qualifiers, Syman appeared at Hellcase Cup #8, where they suffered an early elimination following defeats to Team LDLC (1-2) and S-Gaming (0-2). NeaLaN and his crew looked marginally better at #HomeSweetHome: Week 5, where they finished the group stage with a 2-1 record, defeated Team Secret 2-1 in the quarter-finals, then suffered a humiliating 0-2 defeat against SMASH in the semis.
Nemiga Gaming have been very active this year. They have attended 11 CS:GO esports events and are currently competing in both the ESEA Season 34: Premier Division – Europe: Regular Season and WINNERS League – Season 4: Europe Invite Division. That stacked schedule has not translated into any great success, however, as a runner-up finish at WINNERS League – Season 3: Europe Invite Division and fourth place at OGA Counter PIT Season 5 remain the team’s best results so far.
In their last five fixtures, Nemiga defeated Syman (2-0), pro100 (16-6), HellRaisers (16-8) and Bpro (16-4), but they lost to ALTERNATE aTTaX (14-16) at ESEA S34. Nemiga have been averaging a 64.5% win rate over the last three months and will enter the upcoming fixture against Syman on a three-game winning streak.
Although Nemiga are nothing more than a B-Tier team, they are starting to find their place amongst the stronger CS:GO teams in the region. The latest global rankings, which were updated on May 18, had Nemiga at 32nd in the world and seventh in the CIS – both all-time highs for the organisation.
A lot of that improvement can be credited to Igor “lollipop21k” Solodkov and Rassim “Jyo” Valijev, who have been averaging 1.16 and 1.14 ratings respectively across last three months. It would be unfair to discredit the remainder of the team, however, as Aleksander “mds” Rubets (1.03), Anton “boX” Burko (1.05) and Anton “speed4k” Titov (1.10) are all keeping positive ratings.
The most recent roster change for Nemiga came in January, when they signed speed4k from Hard Legion Esports. That is the only change to the squad since the Belarusian organisation acquired boX in March 2019.
These teams played each other last weekend, when Nemiga came away with a convincing 2-0 win. The match was one-sided on both Nuke (16-7) and Overpass (16-12), which does not inspire any optimism that Syman can turn it around here and walk away with the spoils.
It’s also worth noting that Nemiga defeated Syman not because of an individual stand-out performance, but instead with a joint effort. That fact is highlighted in the match stats, as all five members of the winning team ended the series with 1.18+ ratings.
Speed4k topped the ratings with 1.28 in that match and has maintained that standard with remarkable performances against pro100 (1.54), HellRaisers (1.25) and Bpro (1.01). Meanwhile, lollipop21k has averaged 1.57 in Nemiga’s last three matches.
When you compare that kind of form with Syman’s recent loss to SMASH, Nemiga should be priced at much shorter odds. A -1.5 handicap bet might seem risky at first, but it makes more sense when you consider that the favourites have a better win record (67%) than the underdogs (58%) on Inferno – Syman’s best map.
The first matchday of the BLAST Premier CIS Cup will see Team Spirit’s academy roster, ESPADA, lock horns with Winstrike Team for the second time in their history.
Winstrike are eyeing another deep run following their grand final appearance at ESL One: Road to Rio – CIS, where they ended up losing 2-0 to Team Spirit. Abay “Hobbit” Khasenov and co. were also involved at LOOT.BET/CS Season 6, where they reached the quarter-finals, while they currently sit 32nd in the ESEA Season 34: Advanced Division – Europe: Regular Season standings with a 2-2 record.
Winstrike enter the race for the BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown with an impressive 73.3% win rate across the last three months. They have not seen much success in recent weeks, however, winning only four games out of the last 10 played.
The last roster change for Winstrike came in October 2019, when they acquired Viktor “Lack1” Boldyrev, Aidyn “KrizzeN” Turlybekov and in-game leader Hobbit. A month later, the team parted ways with coach Ivan “Johnta” Shevtsov and replaced him with Dmitrii “hooch” Bogdanov.
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Like Winstrike, ESPADA recently finished their venture through ESL One: Road to Rio – CIS, although their journey was cut short a week prior since they failed to make it out of the group. Losses to Natus Vincere, Syman and Virtus.pro meant Dmitrii “S0tF1k” Forostianko and co. had to settle for a share of ninth-10th place with a 2-3 record.
ESPADA have since taken part in four other tournaments. MOSTBET Season 3 and WINNERS League are still running, while the Russian squad finished #HomeSweetHome: Week 4 in 13th-16th place without a single win. Spirit’s B-team also had a stint in the Red Bull Flick, where they grabbed a share of third-fourth place after losing 2-1 to venkonski in the semi-finals.
While ESPADA have won three of their last four competitive fixtures, all were in third-tier tournaments. In second-tier events and above, their record is 2-6 in their last eight outings.
ESPADA’s most recent roster changes happened just over a month ago, when they brought in Abdul “degster” Gasanov, Vladislav “FinigaN” Usov and coach Aleksei “OverDrive” Biriukov.
These teams last met at LOOT.BET/CS Season 6 in April, when Winstrike won 2-1. But that match does not tell us a lot about how their second meeting will go, as ESPADA have two new players and a new coach.
Winstrike have seen more success of late but enter this match with a slightly worse record than their opponents. It’s also worth noting that ESPADA stole one map from Complexity at #HomeSweetHome, which shows they possess enough firepower to go toe-to-toe with any team.
We are not expecting ESPADA to win here, as they lack the quality to achieve that feat, but we also don’t expect them to lose without putting up a fight. Their trump card is degster, who is averaging a very solid 1.19 rating in the AWP role across the last three months. He also put up a shockingly good 1.49 rating against Complexity on Mirage.
A lot will come down to individual performances here. If ESPADA can focus and show their worth, they should win at least one map and thus force Winstrike to win it in three.