FaZe Clan Is the Only Worthy Opponent For Natus Vincere — ESL Pro League Season 16 Preview

On August 31, ESL Pro League Season 16 starts in Malta. Twenty-four teams will fight for the champion title, but even from such a list of participants, it is difficult to find a severe opponent for Natus Vincere. Therefore, we figure out who will be able to impose a fight on the "born to win" in the material of Cover.gg.

Derby With FaZe Clan

The confrontation between NAVI and FaZe has already turned into a real derby. Teams constantly compete for the status of "the best". After the Ukrainian club replaced Kirill Boombl4 Mikhailov with Viktor sdy Orudzhev, the teams managed to play two matches. In the quarterfinals of BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022, Natus Vincere left FaZe Clan no chance - 16:6 on Dust2 and 16:1 on Inferno. Detailed match statistics can be found here.

The final of IEM Cologne 2022 is an entirely different story. The playoff format was bo5, and the teams played all five maps. Tight struggle and constant comebacks performed by one or the other team. At the decisive moment, NAVI simply lacked composure, and FaZe was able to relax and play their CS. The confrontation ended with a score of 3:2 in favour of the team from Europe — 16:13 on Inferno, 13:16 on Overpass, 16:19 on Ancient, 16:9 on Mirage and 16:14 on Nuke. You can check the meeting statistics here.

Despite the high potential, the current game form of FaZe Clan is not the best. At BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022, which ended a few days ago, Finn karrigan Andersen's team lost to Heroic in Group C and OG at the Play-In stage. FaZe has little time to improve his CS. However, in the current roster, she will always be a severe threat not only for the "born to win" but for all championship participants.

Cloud9

The last Cloud9 tournament was IEM Cologne 2022. At the competition, the team of Vladislav nafany Gorshkov could not leave the group, losing first to the unstable Astralis and then to Team Liquid with a stand-in. Therefore, predicting how C9 will come to the tournament after the break is difficult. Kind of a dark horse.

But, if Cloud9 managed to carry out high-quality work on mistakes and leave failures in the past, this is a formidable opponent for any team in the upcoming championship. It is also worth noting that C9 did not change the composition, which is a huge advantage over teams that have been reshuffled and have not had time to play correctly.

G2 Esports

G2 Esports is a team of unrealistic expectations. Top places are constantly predicted for them, but G2 continues to disappoint and change the composition. The last reshuffle caused mixed feelings in the community. Many people look at the jks transfer positively, but at the same time, they do not fully understand the signing of HooXi.

Although we only saw jks in Katowice, I do not doubt that he will show the level of play for G2 that is required of him in a few weeks. The main question is whether HooXi can. For him [the position of captain in G2] is the biggest challenge he has ever faced. It's a great opportunity [to show off], but psychologically it's going to be very different from [his experience in] Copenhagen Flames.

Mathieu Maniac Kikerez

As BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 showed, HooXi can drop out of the game, and the team will have to play with almost four players. Despite beating BIG in the Play-In quarterfinals, three kills on Dust2 raise questions. Then, in the semi-finals of the Play-In stage, the Dane fell out on the third, decisive map against Team Vitality. 2 kills on Inferno. Such statistics about the new captain of G2 brought down a flurry of criticism on social networks.

In turn, G2 Esports players support the newly-made captain in every possible way. This behaviour of the team's representatives gives the fans hope that the team's game will return to normal very soon. Two regular contenders for the title are good, but three or even four are even better. I hope G2 and Cloud9 will be able to demonstrate top CS and impose a fight on the hegemons in the form of Natus Vincere and FaZe Clan.

ESL Pro League Season 16 will take place from August 31 to October 2 in Malta. The teams will compete for a prize pool of $835,000. You can follow the schedule and results of the competition here.