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The playoff stage for CS:GO IEM Cologne 2023 is on the horizon as six teams have made it to the final phase of the Cathedral of Counter-Strike. These sides will be playing in front of a big crowd at LANXESS arena, offering some supremely exciting games. The first fixture to kick off this stage will feature Team Vitality and Cloud9.
Both squads underwent roster changes during the off-season and have showcased great prowess. However, one team's journey in the CS:GO tournament will come to an end on August 4, 2023.
Team Vitality vs Cloud9: Who will win this CS:GO IEM Cologne 2023 Playoffs matchup?
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Predictions
Team Vitality boast one of the strongest rosters in CS:GO at the moment. The latest Major winners made a surprising change during the season break by benching veteran dupreeh and adding flameZ. Despite the small sample size, the move has worked well so far for Vitality.
ZywOo continues to be extraordinary, with Spinx maintaining his class as an excellent rifler and lurker. The rifling core of Magisk and flameZ have also been imperious so far. Even in-game leader apEX has stepped up quite often. However, cohesion and teamwork are missing from the current iteration, which is to be expected after recruiting a new player.
Cloud9 have been one of the most prominent teams ever since the off-season. The team parted ways with tenured in-game leader Nafany and also benched Buster. Moreover, Natus Vincere's long-standing rifle duo of electroNic and Perfecto arrived to create the CIS "superteam."
However, the team faced a major setback before the start of CS:GO IEM Cologne 2023 as star rifler, Ax1Le, could not make it for the group stages. However, the team made it to playoffs through incredible tenacity and superstar performances from AWPer sh1ro. Notably, Ax1Le will return for the CS:GO IEM Cologne 2023 playoffs stage, bolstering Cloud9's hopes for glory.
Coming into this matchup, Cloud9 are expected to be the slight favorites due to the return of Ax1Le. However, Team Vitality are quite strong, and the game has great chances to go either side. The latter side's tendency to permanently ban Ancient can also help them, as the jungle-themed CS:GO map is one of Cloud9's best.
Head-to-head
Team Vitality and Cloud9 have met seven times in the past, with the former leading the head-to-head with a 4-3 record. However, the current core lineups of both rosters will be facing each other for the first time.
Recent results
Team Vitality's most recent fixture saw them suffer a 1-2 loss against G2 Esports Conversely, Cloud9's latest result was a close 2-1 victory against GamerLegion.
Expected rosters
Team Vitality
- Dan "apEX" Madesclaire (IGL)
- Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut
- Emil "Magisk" Reif
- Shahar "flameZ" Shushan
- Lotan "Spinx" Giladi
- Danny "zonic" Sørensen (Head Coach)
Cloud9
- Denis "electroNic" Sharipov (IGL)
- Dimitry "sh1ro" Sokolov
- Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov
- Abai "HObbit" Khassenov
- Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy
- Konstantin "groove" Pikiner (Head Coach)
When and where to watch
Fans worldwide can watch the CS:GO IEM Cologne 2023 Playoffs matchup featuring Team Vitality and Cloud9 live on the official ESL Twitch Channel on August 4, 2023, at 6:30 am PDT / 3:30 pm CEST / 7 pm IST.
