CS:GO fan and Luckbox community member Giga Chad shares his IEM Beijing 2019 predictions for the opening round of matches
The IEM Beijing schedule is set, the groups are drawn and there's some top-quality teams involved as CS:GO action heads to China. But where's the smart money at? Here's the IEM Beijing 2019 predictions for the first round of matches.
Agree? Disagree? Come and chat with Giga and other esports fans in the Luckbox community Discord server.
ENCE vs 100 Thieves
The first matchup we will be looking at will be ENCE vs the new 100 Thieves roster (formerly Renegades). Ever since the Katowice Major, ENCE have been on a slow but sure downfall. From the Katowice Major to now, ENCE slipped from second on the HLTV leaderboard, to 14th.
There were many factors for this, but the most impactful has been the addition of SunNy and the removal of Aleksib. Since ENCE's LAN debut with SunNy, they have endured lacklustre results, including 9-12th finish at Dreamhack Malmo 2019. Since then, ENCE have a month's break to work out and practise with their newest member.
On the other hand, 100 Thieves (Renegades) have been on fire since the Katowice Major, in which they finished as Legends.
Shortly after, they once again proved themselves in the champions stage of the StarLadder Major held in Berlin, where they held their ground against the likes of Faze and G2 Esports, finally earning a semifinals spot before getting knocked out by Avangar.
Given that ENCE had lackluster results at their recent events, 100 Thieves should be able beat ENCE, provided the month break for ENCE doesn't charge them up.
IEM Beijing 2019 prediction: 100 Thieves to beat ENCE - make your prediction now
Astralis vs ViCi
Picture: Copyright ESL / Stephanie Lieske
ViCi should have little to no chance to beating Astralis, provided Astralis don't choke like they did in Blast Pro Copenhagen. ViCi have recently finished in 9-12th place in the ESL Pro League Asia-Pacific, so I don’t see any way ViCi can bounce back in such short time.
IEM Beijing 2019 prediction: Astralis to beat ViCi - make your prediction now
FaZe vs Evil Geniuses
This is an interesting one. Faze, with the addition of broky and coldzera, received their first trophy as a team at Blast Pro Copenhagen, beating the likes of Astralis and Na'Vi, among the favorites coming into the tournament. Whether or not its a fluke like Blast Pro Miami, we’ll find out soon. However, their first game at Beijing will be against Evil Geniuses (formerly NRG).
With the addition of Stanislaw as a IGL, they are number one as of right now. Their recent win on Starseries i8 was enough to push them through Team Liquid and Astralis in the rankings, and if they are able to keep pushing their momentum, I see little chance that Faze will be able to beat Evil Geniuses.
IEM Beijing 2019 prediction: Evil Geniuses to beat FaZe - make your prediction now
Tyloo vs Vitality
Recently, Vitality have been putting up weak-to-intermediate performances. For a team of their calibre, they have no excuse of not beating a tier-three team such as Tyloo.
Picture: Copyright ESL / Helena Kristiansson
However, in the recent StarSeries & i-League Season 8 tournament, they lost to all the teams they played against, except for iG and North but Tyloo haven't been much better off either. At Dreamhack Malmo, they were practically kicked out by Fnatic and Vitality. If history repeats itself, Vitality would once again stand victorious above Tyloo.
IEM Beijing 2019 prediction: Vitality to beat Tyloo - make your prediction now
