Welcome to EGamersWorld.
We continue to keep an eye on what's happening at BLAST Bounty Season 1. Preparations for the Long Game Day 1 are in full swing and we don't have many matches left to watch.
Among the remaining fights is the Team Liquid vs 9 Pandas Esports match. In this match, 9 Pandas has chosen Liquid as their opponent.
Let's try to figure out who of the pair Liquid - 9 Pandas will be stronger and go through and earn the victory, whether 9 Pandas will be able to justify their peak or whether Liquid will confirm the nominal advantage.
Let's go.
Team Liquid's form
We open the Liquid vs 9 Pandas match with an analysis of Liquid's match form. In this match, Liquid play the first number one with odds to win at around 1.3.
The American club had a pretty productive 2023 season. Played in a lot of tournaments, but high results were a rarity.
They started the year with a top-4 finish at IEM Katowice 2023, where they reached the top 4. Next was the equally good BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown with a similar top-4, and then BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: American RMR followed by a top-3 and a trip to the main tournament of the year.
Unfortunately for Liquid, that's where their results ended. At BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, the team made it to the top 8 and that was their biggest achievement of the year.
After making it to the legends stage at the only Major tournament of the season, Liquid played at a lot of big events. These included IEM Dallas 2023 with a top-12 ranking, BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with a top-9 ranking, and IEM Master Cologne with a top-12 ranking.
At the end of the season they played at Gamers8 2023, finishing in the top 16 and ESL Pro League Season 18, finishing in the top 20. Closed the year with a second place finish at BLAST Premier: Fall American Showdown 2023.
- Team Liquid roster: NAF, YEKINDAR, jks, ultimate, NertZ.
A string of failures at major championships has caused major roster changes. Such that Liquid in 2024 can be called "Dream Team", but the status still has to be earned.
2024 began with qualifiers for the American RMR. They came out, which is not surprising. They also tried to qualify for IEM Chengdu 2024, but it was not successful: in the final of the qualifiers Ledge and M80.
Liquid took TOP-8 at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, and then passed at IEM Dallas 2024, did not pass at PGL Copenhagen Major 2024, taking TOP-8 at home, and then TOP-16 at BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 and TOP-6 at IEM Masters and TOP-6 Chengdu 2024. They also played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they finished Top-8.
IEM Dallas 2024 Liquid started with a victory over CoL, but then - a completely unexpected defeat by 9z Team in the match for the play-offs. As a result, at IEM Dallas 2024 Liquid finished in the top 9-12 without making the play-offs.
Liquid attended BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, where they surprised everyone. At BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024, Liquid finished in the top 1-4, winning their group, thus securing a slot at BLAST Premier: World Final.
Liquid Long Sogpeg IEM Cologne 2024 from the Play-In stage, where they played twice against Brazilian representatives: paiN and FURIA and won both times to advance to the group stage. At the Long Stage of the group stage IEM Cologne 2024 played against FaZe, where Ledgeili 0-2. After falling to the bottom of the group stage, Liquid made it to the small final, where they again played against FaZe and in a very dramatic match they lost 1-2 and as a result finished in the top 8.
ESL Pro League Season 20 Team Liquid started with a performance in Group D, where they beat ENCE and Vp 2-0, and lost to Vitality 1-2 in the play-offs seeding match. Starting the main stage of the ESL Pro League Season 20 play-offs with a match against CoL, Liquid beat the American club 2-0 without a chance. But then they faced G2 and as a result of the meeting they left ESL Pro League S20.
Next, Liquid played at BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2024, where they finished in the top 6 and at IEM Rio 2024, where they finished in the top 12. The final tournament for Liquid in the 2024 season was Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, where Liquid managed to qualify for the play-offs, but there they lost to future champions Spirit in the first round of the main stage.
Team Liquid Mappool
Team Liquid's top 1 map in the last 3 months is Mirage. Liquid has a mind-blowing winrate of 92% with 13 games played.
They also played on Inferno, where they won 5 matches out of 7 games. Nuke is also in plus winrate, where the "ninjas" have 3 wins from 5 matches.
The most not favoured map for Team Liquid will be Vertigo. There they have 6 maps and only 1 win.
Form 9 Pandas
We continue our analysis of the match 9 Pandas vs Liquid with an analysis of 9 Pandas' form. In this match they will play the number two with odds to win at around 3.4.
9 Pandas are ranked 37th in the HLTV team rankings. They got there thanks to their performance in a lot of tournaments, but as it often happens, they managed to achieve at least some results only in a few events.
For example, it was ESEA Cash Cup: Europe - Winter 2023 #1 and ESEA Cash Cup: Europe - Winter 2023 #2. There was also TOP-64 at IEM Rio 2023: European Open Qualifier. In the middle of the year we played at CCT South Europe Series #4, where we had a top-16, and also BetBoom Playlist. Freedom, where the Pandas made it to the Top 8.
One of the most important achievements, if I can put it that way, was reaching the Top 4 at CCT North Europe Series #5. Another hit in the "prizes" was Dunav Party LAN, where 9 Pandas made it to TOP-4.
- The lineup of 9 Pandas: d1Ledez, shalfey, r3salt, Alv, Krad.
At Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2, where 9 Pandas made it to the Top 24. Just before the Long Sogpeg CCT Online Finals #5, 9 Pandas' results went up. They finished in the Top 3 at ESEA Season 46: Advanced Division, Top 8 at CCT East Europe Series #3, Top 4 at CCT Central Europe Series #8 and won at PARI, Please, earning $60,000 for the win, which is more than they earned all year.
9 Pandas Long Sogpeg at CCT Online Finals #5 with a solid win over the Brazilians from Legacy. Coldzera didn't help matters, and 9 Pandas advanced to the next round, where they were already opposed by Into The Breach. The British club put up a fight and even won the second map, but it wasn't enough, and here are 9 Pandas in the next round. However, the path through CCT Online Finals #5 for the Pandas ended at the top 4.
Before the Long Copeg of the new season, 9 Pandas tried their hand at all sorts of qualifiers, but were not successful anywhere. The central tournament of the season for 9 Pandas was PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: European RMR A, where 9 Pandas finished Top 11.
Later, the team attended Thunderpick World Championship 2024: European Series #1, with a disappointing top-32 finish. There were also qualifiers for BB Dacha Belgrade 2024, Esports World Cup 2024 and RES European Series #2. Nowhere above the TOP-12.
RES European Series #3 9 Pandas started with a loss to Passion UA, but then managed to beat Gaimin Gladiators in the elimination match. However, they didn't make it very far, as they finished in the top 12 in the end.
Prior to Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, 9 Pandas won two TIRs, Winline Insight Season 6 and European Pro League Season 20.
At PW Shanghai Major 2024: European RMR B, 9 Pandas outplayed Astralis, but it didn't go any further and 9 Pandas Ledge and NiP were left out of the final tournament of the 2024 season.
Mappool 9 Pandas
The best map of 9 Pandas is Mirage. They played 12 matches and won 9 of them.
Next were Overpass with 8 matches and 5 wins. Nuke (7 matches, 4 wins), Inferno (9 matches, 5 wins). Worse is Ancient with 3 wins in 6 matches, and worst of all was Anubis. His FaZe was picked 7 times, but played with a winrate of 42%.
Not played on Vertigo.
History of head-to-head meetings 9 Pandas - Liquid
Previously the teams have not played each other in official matches. This match is the debut match between the clubs.
Predicted result of the match Liquid - 9 Pandas on BLAST Bounty Season 1
I expect Liquid to win this match. As far as I am concerned, they only strengthened during the offseason by signing NertZ. As for 9 Pandas, nothing will change compared to last season.
Bottom line: Liquid wins.
Make a bet
