The Playoffs for ESL Pro League Season 17 continues with a clash between Natus Vincere and 00 Nation
With the first couple of Playoffs matches completed, we now turn our attention to Ukrainian powerhouse Natus Vincere taking on Brazilian underdogs 00 Nation. Na’ Vi had a hard time at the start of this event, but they managed to bounce back right on time to stay in strong contention and currently look like a stronger, solid version of their earlier weaker selves. 00 Nation began disastrously, but stepped things up to just about make it to the Playoffs. If you’re looking to bet on CSGO or just want to know more about the teams, this preview is for you.
Natus Vincere
Na’ Vi may be a far cry from the powerhouses they were even just a year ago, but they’re always a dangerous team regardless of their circumstances. After their shock defeat to fellow Russian side forZe, they managed to come back strongly and took out the likes of Astralis and Team Spirit along with the explosive newcomers on the scene, Rare Atom. The CIS team looked more and more dangerous with each passing game, and are currently the favorites to win this particular matchup.
Players
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
- HLTV Rating: 1.24
- Impact Rating: 1.35
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 74.0%
- Average Damage Round: 85.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.85
Denis “electroNic” Sharipov
- HLTV Rating: 1.09
- Impact Rating: 1.19
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.7%
- Average Damage Round: 82.6
- Kills Per Round: 0.74
Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy
- HLTV Rating: 1.03
- Impact Rating: 0.87
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.1%
- Average Damage Round: 69.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.62
Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi
- HLTV Rating: 1.11
- Impact Rating: 1.10
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.0%
- Average Damage Round: 75.5
- Kills Per Round: 0.70
Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi
- HLTV Rating: 1.00
- Impact Rating: 0.97
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.1%
- Average Damage Round: 71.1
- Kills Per Round: 0.63
Player to Watch
Even though most people will be pointing their fingers at s1mple as the obvious choice for this, we’re going for the off-beat choice of Perfecto.
00 Nation
The Brazilian roster has shown incredible resolve, coming back into the tournament after a horror start that saw them slide down to the Lower Bracket Quarterfinals. They subsequently edged out Rooster, Grayhound and even the once-mighty Ninjas in Pyjamas to finally make it to the Playoffs of a big international event. They might be one of the lowest-ranked teams at the Playoffs, but they’re here and they’re present on their own merit.
Players
Marcelo “coldzera” David
- HLTV Rating: 1.14
- Impact Rating: 1.08
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.2%
- Average Damage Round: 78.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.76
Bruno “latto” Rebelatto
- HLTV Rating: 1.10
- Impact Rating: 1.04
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.7%
- Average Damage Round: 76.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.69
Eduardo “dumau” Wolkmer
- HLTV Rating: 1.16
- Impact Rating: 1.14
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.7%
- Average Damage Round: 80.7
- Kills Per Round: 0.74
Lucas “nqz” Soares
- HLTV Rating: 1.14
- Impact Rating: 1.09
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.1%
- Average Damage Round: 72.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.73
Leonardo “n9xtz” Santos
- HLTV Rating: 0.96
- Impact Rating: 0.94
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 67.8%
- Average Damage Round: 68.4
- Kills Per Round: 0.60
Player to Watch
We’ll go a little old school and pick coldzera as the player to watch for the South American side.
ESL Pro League Season 17 Playoffs: Natus Vincere vs 00 Nation Predictions
As much as we’d like to see a competitive game, it will most likely be a washout. We’re calling 2-0 for Na’ Vi.
Maps
00 Nation’s pick will likely be Mirage, while Na’ Vi get away with their usual Nuke. As for the decider, we’ve got Inferno.
Score
Map 1: Na’ Vi to win with 00 Nation <10.
Map 2: Na’ Vi to win with 00 Nation <9.
Top Fragger
Since we already picked him to be the player to watch for the winning team, we might as well double down and go with Perfecto.
Match Links
ESL’s Twitch and YouTube channels will both broadcast the match, with coverage set to begin at 14:00 ET/13:00 CST/11:00 PT.
Be sure to come back to us for more previews, predictions, insight and analyses.
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