For this BO1 the French squad EnVyUs will be competing against the all-star Brazilian line-up of SK Gaming. As these teams haven’t been able to play against each other much this year, both sides will want to be securing the points they need to win in Group A.
IEM Oakland 2017 – Group Stage 16.11.2017, 18:00 CET
SK Gaming Form
SK Gaming are the most dominant Brazilian team to ever play Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Currently ranked 2nd in the world Fallen and his crew look to replicate the massive levels of success that they have been used to getting in the past. With 4 players on this roster having 2 Major Championships under their belt, the wealth of experience and tactical nuance that SK have to offer is incredible. This makes them an incredibly formidable opponent. Recently SK took home 1st place at the EPICENTER tournament in St. Petersburg whilst playing with Boltz as a stand-in. Outside of exiting in the group stages of the Eleague premier, SK have had a solid run of form recently. Finishing 3-4th at ESL one New York, winning ESL One Cologne and securing a victory at the ECS Season 3 LAN Finals. SK Gaming will be looking for nothing other than a victory at this tournament so that they can re-establish their reputation as the best team in the world.
Team EnVyUs Form
EnVyUs have had a troubled year in 2017. After the infamous ‘French shuffle’ saw EnVy have some of its top players be replaced by their less efficient counterparts from G2, EnVy have struggled to replicate the success they had in 2015. Currently Ranked 13th in the world the French team are led by Happy who is the only player in the roster to ever win a Major. Despite being the 2nd best French side at the tournament, EnVy managed to come 1st place in the qualifier for this tournament and subsequently secure their spot in the groups alongside some of the world’s greatest CS talents. Recently, EnVyUs have had most of their successes in lower tier tournaments by placing 2nd at the European minor and winning WESG France (G2 were not in attendance). EnVyUs will have the objective of at least entering the quarter-finals of this tournament in order to prove that they are still able to take on tier 1 teams on LAN.
Head to Head Record
EnVyUs have only actually played against SK on 5 maps this year. Whilst technically EnVy have been able to beat SK 2 out of those 5 times, one of the matches was an “Overtime Decider” (Meaning that the game started with both teams having full money, then first to 4 rounds wins). Unsurprisingly, in the only BO3 series that they played this year SK managed to win the series by taking 2 maps to EnVy’s 0. A large factor contributing to this is likely to be SIXER’s inability to perform at the same level as other top tier AWP’ers that he comes up against, Fallen included.
Betting odds
All betting odds for this match will be available at GG.bet Head over there to get great odds on this match and the rest of the matches in the tournament!
Top betting tip
Whilst it has to be said that the group stages are BO1 and EnVy have beaten SK in BO1’s before. It has to be said that in their current from EnVyUs are unlikely to be able to compete at the same level as SK and as a result SK are likely to win this match in dominant fashion.