Outsiders vs. Imperial - Who Will Win in the First Round of the IEM Cologne Play-in

The first round of IEM Cologne will start in a few hours, and Imperial and Outsiders will meet during one of the matches. Who will win in this game?

Maps

Maps veto is a crucial stage of this BO1 series. Both teams do not play Ancient, which gives both teams a massive scope for banning maps. The most likely outcomes are Inferno and Overpass. For Outsiders Inferno, they have a 64% win rate on this map. And Overpass is the perfect option for Imperial, the Brazilians have not lost on this map for a long time, and their win rate is 69%. Which map will be mainly played depends on the order of the bans.

The form

Imperial is in terrible shape. Brazilians' losing streak is already six matches. At the same time, they lost tier-2 teams, and the only tier-1 team in this streak is Astralis. Fnx performs especially poorly, whose average rating in recent matches is 5.5.

The results of the Outsiders, despite the player's changes, look better. The Outsiders consistently beat tier-2 teams, sometimes failing, but a defeat is something extraordinary rather than statistical. Therefore, in terms of form, Outsiders look like clear favorites.

Outcome

The Outsiders look like the clear favorites in this matchup, but a map veto could complicate things for the CIS team. You can view the pre-match statistics in detail here.