NAVI vs. NIP - Who Will Advance to the IEM Cologne 2022 Playoffs?
The first match of Natus Vincere at IEM Cologne 2022 was not easy, but still, a victory is a victory. The next opponent of the "yellow-blacks" is NIP.
NAVI and NIP played three times before the start of IEM Cologne in 2022 - two of these matches took place at BLAST Premier Spring Finals: at first, the Ukrainian club lost but then took revenge. Otherwise, NAVI has good statistics with 12 wins over the last 15 matches, while NIP had problems with the Middle East team NASR and lost on the crown Overpass in the series against Cloud9.
Unfortunately for NAVI, NIP, like MOUZ, does not play Dust 2, one of the most successful maps of the Ukrainian club. Therefore, we can expect Mirage from NAVI, Overpass from NIP with the following Inferno, or Ancient. We considered that Overpass is a favorite map for the Swedes, while NAVI rarely plays it, which is why there are questions about it. Nevertheless, we think NIP's chance to take their pick is relatively high, especially against B1ad3's talk that the team did not practice much after BLAST.
Based on the preceding, we can assume that the scenario of the match NAVI - MOUZ will be repeated, but this time all three maps can be with a close score with 28 rounds on each.
IEM Cologne 2022 takes place on July 5-17 in Cologne, Germany. The teams compete for a $1 million prize pool. You can follow the schedule and results of the competition here.
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