Welcome to EGamersWorld.
BLAST Bounty Season 1 matches are heating up. Yesterday we witnessed the first game day, where virtually all matches ended predictably.
Today, on the 15th of January, we will see the matches of the second game day. One of the confrontations is the match BIG - sAw.
We are trying to figure out who of the pair BIG - sAw will be stronger.
Let's go.
Form sAw
Let's open the sAw vs BIG match with an analysis of sAw's form. In this match they play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.7.
They started the year with qualifications for ESL Pro League Season 17: European Conference. There they shared the top 1. Then there were two Top 4s at CCT South Europe Series #2 and OMEN WGR Challenge 2023.
There were also appearances at major championships, such as ESL Pro League Season 17. However, it was not possible to get a high result, only TOP-28, but the experience of the game.
Later sAw took the top 8 at CCT North Europe Series #4, top 4 at ESL Challenger League Season 44: Europe. In April 2023, sAw played at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, but failed to rise above the TOP-16. But they managed to do it later, at local tournaments.
This was the case at Masters League Portugal Season 11: Online, where sAw won the trophy by beating For the Win in the final. This was the case at ESL Masters Espana Season 13: Onilne Stage, ESL Masters Espana Season 13, CCT West Europe #4.
- Composition sAw: MUTiRiS, rmn, story, Ag1l, shr.
Before taking part in CCT Online Finals #5 sAw played a lot of championships and, to be fair, they were good almost everywhere. They took top 2 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2, CCT North Europe Series #6, Aveiro Techdays Cup 2023, Master League Portugal Season 12: Online Stage.
We also played in big tournaments, such as Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where unfortunately for us we couldn't rise above TOP-12. At the end of November we won Master League Portugal Season 12 and XL Games Clash 2023.
CCT Online Finals #5 sAw Long Sogpeg were very confident. They easily ran over Team Space in the first round of the top set, winning 2-0. What happened next was more difficult.
In the second round of CCT Online Finals #5 sAw met Aurora, who were stronger than the Portuguese. The match lasted 3 maps and sAw even won the first one, but it didn't go any further and as a result Aurora reached the semi-finals winning their series 1-2.
In the match for the third round of play-offs CCT Online #5 sAw met Zero Tenacity. The Portuguese had no trouble getting past their vis-a-vis, closing out the series with a score of 2-0. However, Fnatic could not be defeated and sAw finished in the top 4.
Next was Top 4 at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2024 and a similar place at ESL Challenger League Season 48: Europe. Before playing at Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, sAw won ESL Challenger Katowice 2024.
PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR A, sAw started with a loss to SINNERS, but then won Dynamo Eclot and Falcons. But they failed to beat NaVi in the match for a slot in the Major and as a result it was 2-2. However, they failed to qualify for the main tournament: in the match for the exit Ledgeili BB with a score of 0-2.
Mappool sAw
The most successful map for sAw is Nuke, where the Spaniards have 3 wins and 1 loss. Followed by Vertigo with a score of 2-1 and Ancient with a score of 3-2.
Neutral choices are Inferno and Anubis. Both maps have been played 4 times and on both maps the stats are 2-2.
The worst situation is on Overpass, where sAw won 2 matches out of 6.
Mirage are not playing
BIG form.
We continue the BIG vs sAw match with an analysis of BIG's form. They are on the second line in this match with odds to win at around 2.2.
In the 2023 season, BIG participated in a lot of championships, but there were not many decent results. They started top-9 at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2023, and went on to top-16 at IEM Extreme Masters Katowice 2023.
There was also an appearance at ESL Pro League Season 17 with a top-20 there. The failures partially managed to overlap the top-4 at Elis Invitational Winter 2023, where the team reached the top-4.
In the middle of the year, the Germans failed to qualify for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, finishing top-11 at RMR Europe and then top-3 at qualification. In the second half of the year they started playing CCT Series championships, where it is worth noting CCT Online Finals #1, with TOP-4, CCT West Europe Series $4 with TOP-2.
Back to the S-Tier tournaments with BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with Top-9, and then Top-24 at IEM Cologne 2023.
- BIG lineup: tabseN, Krimbo, JDC, kyuubii, hyped.
Before the ESL Pro League Season 18 Long Convergence, the team played at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 with a top-2 finish. There was also a top-8 at CCT East Europe Series #7 and a win at CCT Europe Series #7.
At ESL Pro League Season 18 they debuted with a match against Monte. The Ukrainian club fought honourably, but in the end they were defeated by Ledgeil with the score 1-2, putting BIG in the semi-finals of Group B at ESL Pro League Season 18.
In the previous match, BIG made perhaps the biggest sensation of the tournament. The Germans defeated Heroic, sending them to the bottom of the group.
Next, BIG played another big European club - ENCE. The Finns failed to win (1-2), but BIG made it to the play-offs, straight into the second round. That's where their ESL Pro League Season 18 journey came to an end.
BIG Ledge and Eternal Fire in the second round of play-offs with the score 0-2. Thus, the Germans took the EPL S18 top-12.
In the match before that, BIG played against 9INE. The Germans defeated their visions quite easily, closing the match with a score of 2-0.
Afterwards, BIG outplayed ENCE and advanced to the finals of BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023. However, BIG were not enough for the final as C9 won 2-0.
Prior to the Roobet Cup 2023, BIG played two CCT tournaments. It was CCT North Europe Series #8 and CCT East Europe Series #3. They finished in the top 16 at the latter, but won the North European tournament, beating Spirit 2-0 in the grand final.
The Roobet Cup 2023 ended quite well for BIG. The team finished in the top 8, and repeated that result at Thunderpick World Championship 2023. They also played at CCT Online FInals #4, where they finished in the top 3.
In the first match at CCT Online Finals #5 BIG played Zero Tenacity. "The Germans proved to be stronger, easily defeating ZT. In the next game BIG faced Guild Eagles and were stronger, and very confidently - 2-0. Next BIG's opponent was 9 Pandas and once again the Germans did not feel the enemy. A confident 2-0 against the Pandas led them to the final of the top set. There they easily slammed Aurora and later repeated it in the grand final of the tournament.
BIG started the tournament with a rather lacklustre loss against Vp, but followed it up with a colourful and hard fought win against Heroic. Even more colourful was the victory over Cloud9 in the lower finals match, where BIG shut out the "titular" Americans 2-0. However, it was not possible to come out of their group victorious and Vp repeated their debut success. Next, BIG fought Astralis in the match for the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2024, but they failed there as well.
They played at IEM Katowice 2024, where they finished only in the top 20. Before playing at ESL Pro League Season 19, the team visited BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown, where they finished top-8, Skyesports Masters 2023, where they reached top-4 and Thunderpick World Championship 2024 with top-4.
At the ESL Pro League Season 19 BIG got into the group D and qualified there by passing the "middle grid". However, they didn't manage to play long at ESL Pro League Season 19: TOP-16. Before the BLAST Premier, the team played a number of "smaller" tournaments, including IEM Dallas 2024 (TOP-8), YaLLa Compass 2024 (TOP-12) and CCT Season 2 European Series #5 (TOP-8). They also attended BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they finished in the Top 9-12.
BIG played at IEM Cologne 2024, where they lost in a blowout. There they took TOP-17-20, which is not an acceptable result if you want it to be. Later they visited BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2024, where they took TOP-8.
ESL Pro League S20 started with a loss to Imperial (1-2). Later they defeated Rooster (2-0) and Fnatic (2-0). However, they failed to advance far, as they lost to The MongolZ and finished in the top 16.
They also played at YaLLa Compass Summer 2024, where they finished top-8, as well as at CCT Season 2 European Series #12 and finished top-16. Partially breaking the losing streak was ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2024, where BIG reached the TOP-2.
At Thunderpick World Championship 2024 BIG became the winners of Group D. However, this didn't help them to achieve good results and at the end of Thunderpick World Championship 2024 the team finished in the top 8. Next up was an appearance at the much more localised YaLLa Compass Fall 2024 and a similar top-8 finish.
PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, BIG started with a win over Sashi Esports. Next up were wins over Heroic and BIG, allowing the German club to enter the Major at 3-0.
At the Opening Stage of Shanghai Major 2024 Long Sogpeg started with a win over Passion Ua. Then they defeated FlyQuest, defeated Vp, but then defeated FURIA and got to 2-2. We managed to reach the Elimination Stage thanks to the victory over Complexity.
The Elimination Stage itself did not go well for BIG: defeats to Heroic and G2 led them to the basket 0-2. The final of PW Shanghai Major 2024 was also ignominious for BIG: 1-2 against paiN and elimination to the Top 16.
BIG's Mappool
BIG has 3 of the best maps in their arsenal. They are Overpass, Vertigo and Anubis with 5 matches and 3 wins on each.
The most played map is Ancient. BIG have played 14 matches there and have a 57% win rate.
The most unlucky map is Inferno with two wins and two losses. The worst map is Mirage (9 matches, 33% wins).
History of head-to-head meetings sAw - BIG
In the season 2024 the teams played each other twice and each team won a match.
Predicted result of BIG vs sAw at BLAST Bounty Season 1
In this match I expect a roughly even game, which is hinted at by the quotes before the Long Sogpeg of the match. I think there will be a full-fledged Bo3, and every team can win.
Bottom line: total +2.5.