FaZe VS BIG: Who Will Advance To the ESL Pro League Playoffs?

The final day of group B of the ESL Pro League starts today, two relegated teams have already been determined, and the last one will be determined in one of today's matches. This confrontation will be the meeting between BIG and FaZe. The teams will determine the playoff participant in a face-to-face meeting. Who will be stronger?

Maps

Even with the naked eye, it can be seen that the map veto is entirely for FaZe Clan. First, teams will ban Vertigo and Ancient, and then FaZe can choose any map, maybe except Dust2, which is quite strong for BIG. In the rest of the maps, FaZe has great chances to destroy BIG. Inferno seems to be the most convenient option for choosing because the Germans have recently added it to their map pool and are not yet sure about it, which will be a worthy advantage for FaZe. BIG will probably pick Dust2 as it is their most popular map. Mirage, Overpass and Nuke will remain on the destroyer, all of these cards are convenient for the European mix, but for safety, it is worth removing Mirage, which the Germans often play. Out of a pair of Overpass and Nuke BIG, they are more likely to choose the latter due to their inexperience on Overpass. Thus, the most likely map veto is Inferno-Dust2-Nuke. The best outcome for BIG, in this case, will be a victory on Dust2 and a 1-2 score in favour of FaZe, and the main problem is that the Germans have nothing to surprise their opponents with, so the veto map will remain with karrigan anyway.

The Shape

Questions about the shape of FaZe began to appear after the second match of the European team at the ESL Pro League. In the confrontation with MIBR, they gave up one map, which is unthinkable for a clear favourite. After that, karrigan and company also lost a map to Virtus.pro and fell apart against G2 without winning a map. This is far from the game that FaZe showed before the break, which is disappointing. However, BIG is even worse. Yes, if you look at the ratings of the teams, they are similar, but the results are very different. BIG has already managed to lose to G2 and Virtus.pro without a hitch and also gave the map to FTW, the absolute outsider of the group. Things are worse for BIG, and perhaps the restructuring of the composition, which is visible even at the map veto stage, is to blame. Therefore, with the current form, the Germans are unlikely to be able to compete with FaZe, even if we take into account the problems of the karrigan team.

Outcome

Despite the far from the best shape of FaZe, they still remain clear favourites in the match with BIG. The karrigan team is better in everything from map veto to individual play, allowing them to take the last slot for group B in the ESL Pro League playoffs. Detailed pre-match statistics can be viewed here.