Virtus.pro vs. BIG, Preview, & Prediction - Free 7/08 CS: GO

The IEM Cologne 2021 tournament starts at the group stage this Thursday. Virtus.pro and BIG will clash at the upper bracket (opening round) where the winner will progress to the upper semis and the loser is dropped to the lower bracket.

Virtus.pro Team Stats and Latest Results

Virtus.pro is ranked 6th on the global ranking and has been among the top 30 teams for 168 weeks. They were invited to the IEM Cologne 2021 tournament based on their performance at the Road to Cologne EU. Considering other tourneys, they finished second at the IEM Katowice 2021 in February and received $180,000. They also participated at the EPIC League CIS 2021 in June and finished second with a reward of $7,000 plus 1500 RMR points. These stats show that Virtus.pro is one of the best in the tournament and we expect a good performance either at the upper bracket or lower bracket. Out of their last 8 matches, they have won 3 and lost 5 matches. They have a win rate of 50.0%.

Map win rate in the last 3 months shows that the team has been impressive on Ancient (100.0%), Train (75.0%), and Inferno (61.5%). On the other hand, they failed to impress on Overpass (45.5%), Dust2 (40.0%), Mirage (30.0%), and Vertigo (20.0%). They have maintained 1 lineup since August 2020 that consists of SANJI (0.95 rating), buster (1.07), Qikert (1.06), Jame (1.16), and YEKINDAR (1.15).

BIG Team Stats and Latest Results

BIG is ranked 10th on the global ranking and has been among the top 30 teams for 126 weeks. They progressed to the IEM Cologne 2021 tournament after finishing 1-4th at the IEM Cologne 2021 Play-In. They won the FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final and Gamers Without Borders 2021. On the other side, they failed to progress to the Semi-finals of the Elisa Invitational Summer 2021 after losing to SKADE (2-1). Considering the last 8 matches, they have won 6 matches and lost 2. They have a win rate of 63.4%.

Map win statistics in the last 3 months show that the German team has been impressive on Dust2 (74.1%), Vertigo (72.2%), Overpass (71.4%), and Inferno (57.1%). They got an average win rate on Train (50.0%) but failed to impress on Mirage (42.1%), Nuke (40.0%), and Ancient (0.0%). The team lineup consists of tabseN (1.15), tiziaN (0.98), syrsoN (1.14), XANTARES (1.13), and k1to (0.99).

Virtus.pro vs. BIG H2H Record

There are 7 head-to-head meetings between the two sides and BIG has won 6 matches. Their last meeting was at the Flashpoint 2 tournament in 2020 where BIG won 2-1.

Virtus.pro vs. BIG Betting Preview

Despite their impressive performance in different tourneys, Virtus.pro looks deplorable because they have lost 5 matches out of their last 6. At the same time, they only lead in 1 map while BIG has a better execution on 5 cards. They lead on Dust2, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, and Vertigo. For that reason, we predict BIG to win but Virtus.pro will snatch one map.

The Pick: BIG to win/ Over 2.5 maps