Astralis vs. Furia - Who Will Dominate the Group B at IEM Cologne?

The game of Astralis remains unstable enough to qualify for the top 3 best teams of IEM Cologne 2022. In the Play-In stage, the Danes lost to 00NATION with an unpleasant score of 6:16 but later rehabilitated in the lower bracket by defeating Complexity and BIG. In past tournaments, there were losses to Heroic and Cloud9, and FaZe and G2 also failed to take over their opponents.

FURIA is also not doing very well. If there were unexpected victories over Cloud9 or G2 in previous tournaments, then at the last ESL Challenger Valencia, the Brazilians experienced difficulties with 9z, Sprout, and 00NATION and failed to defeat them. It's an important marker, right?

However, over the past three months, Astralis and FURIA have had two matches, both of which the Danes lost. At that time, FURIA was in good shape, beating other top teams, but now the Brazilians are not the sole leader even in the home region.

In terms of maps, Astralis, in the previous series with the South American team, left their best map, Nuke, as a dayside, trying their hand at Ancient and Overpass. However, given the minimum winning streak on the mentioned Overpass, it makes sense to bet on it this time, given that FURIA does not like to play on this map.

Astralis is not in shape to claim victory at IEM Cologne 2022, but the Danes, who are experiencing a decline in FURIA, should be able to win this time. Detailed statistics of both teams are available here.

IEM Cologne 2022 takes place on July 5-17 in Cologne, Germany. Teams compete for a $1 million prize pool. You can follow the schedule and results of the competition here.