Prelude: The Grand Final at IEM Katowice
We give you everything you need to know, before the big Final later today.
The only thing that is certain today is, that we are not going to see any action on Nuke. From there on, it is almost impossible to predict, how the two teams will fare.
It has been a cinderella story for the whole CIS region and especially for Virtus.pro and Gambit at IEM Katowice.
For Gambit this will be the third match in a row, that they will face a CIS team. They eliminated Natus Vincere and Team Spirit from the tournament, and could both take the title of IEM Katowice and the status as the top team in the region by defeating Virtus.pro as well.
Bookmakers favor Virtus.pro before the match, which is played as a best of five. After yesterdays demolishing of Team Liquid, YEKINDAR and Jame have proved, that their versatile gameplay is hard for anyone to match. They have beaten the likes of Astralis, Furia, Team Vitality, and Team Liquid. But what about against CIS teams? Three of their last four defeats have actually been against other CIS teams (NAVI, Gambit, and forZe).
Watch highlights of the deciding map last time the two teams faced each other.
Map Veto: As mentioned at the beginning, Nuke will be banned from the get-go. But from who? Both teams have it as their permanent ban. Gambit will probably opt-in to remove either Dust2 or Inferno from the map pool, and then let Virtus.pro ban Nuke.
Odds: Gambit (2.00) - Virtus.pro (1.72)
