NIP vs. fnatic Preview & Prediction- Free 3/09 CS: GO

The ESL Pro League Season 15 begins this Wednesday when NIP and fnatic cross paths at the group stage. This is the most awaited event and it features 24 best teams invited to participate and earn an ESL Pro League title. The prize pool adds up to $823,000. The Group Stage is composed of four groups of six teams playing in a round-robin format with the best-of-three series.

NIP Team Stats and Latest Results

NIP is ranked 8th in the world ranking and has been among the top 30 teams for 94 weeks. The Swedish team recently finished 7-8th at the IEM Katowice 2022 and were awarded $24,000. The team also came 7-8th at the BLAST Premier World Final 2021, 7-9th at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022, and 5-8th at the IEM Katowice 2022 Play-In. Over the last 3 months, the team has attained a win rate of 44.4% and won 4 out of their last 8 games.

Map win statistics in the last 3 months shows a decent win rate on Ancient (66.7%), Vertigo (60.0%), and Overpass (57.1%). On the other hand, they failed to impress on Mirage (40.0%), Nuke (37.5%), Inferno (20.0%), and Dust2 (0.0%). The team has a line-up that consists of REZ (1.07 player rating), Plopski (1.04), hampus (1.03), phzy (0.90), and es3tag (0.94).

fnatic Team Stats and Latest Results

fnatic is currently ranked 16th in the world ranking and has been among the top 30 teams for 25 weeks. The European team won 4 out of their last 8 matches and has a win rate of 43.8%. Considering their performance in past events, they finished 5-8th at the Pinnacle Winter Series 1, 5-8th at the IEM Katowice 2022 Play-In, and 2nd at the recently concluded PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Europe RMR Open Qualifier 4. fnatic Team also finished 7-8th at the Funspark ULTI 2021 Finals and were awarded $5,000.

Map performance over the last 3 months shows a decent win rate on Inferno (66.7%). On the other hand, the team failed to impress on Nuke (50.0%), Overpass (42.9%), Mirage (33.3%), Ancient (33.3%), and Vertigo (0.0%). Their roster consists of ALEX (0.98), mezii (1.12), KRIMZ (1.07), Peppzor (1.06), and regali (1.08).

NIP vs. fnatic H2H Record

Head-to-head stats show 19 meetings between the opponents. So far, fnatic has won in 13 encounters while NIP has won 6 times. Their last meeting was at the group stage of 2021 Intel Extreme Masters Season XVI Fall Europe and NIP won 1:0.

NIP vs. fnatic Betting Preview

NIP is the favorite to win this matchup because they have a better position in the world ranking, have a slight advantage on the win rate and have better performance on the maps. At the moment, NIP leads on Mirage, Overpass, Vertigo, and Ancient while fnatic has an advantage on Inferno and Nuke. Therefore, we are predicting a win for the Ninjas in Pyjamas.

The Pick: NIP to win.