Good to see you at EGamersWorld.

We continue to keep an eye on IEM Cologne 2023. In case you somehow forgot, this is one of the most prestigious tournaments on the professional CSGO scene and one of the main events of this summer with a prize pool of 1,000,000.

We are at the Play-In stage, where 16 teams are fighting for the group stage. Only half of them will be able to continue on their way to the Champions Cup.

One of the lucky eight will be the winner of the Fnatic - 9INE pairing. The teams will play each other a ticket to the group stage of IEM Cologne 2023 in the second round of Play-In with bo3 match.

We will try to figure out who will be the winner in this series and will soon join the top teams of Vitality, FaZe, G2, NaVi and others.

Let's go.

Fnatic uniforms

Let's open the match analysis with the analysis of Fnatic's form. In this match the team will play in the status of favourite.

Bookmakers believe in the success of the "orange". The odds on the victory of the team is estimated at 1.6.

For Bo3 this is a very working situation. A working situation for 9INE.

The top-17 club in the world is experiencing difficulties as the 2023 season progresses. You can see it in the team's performance.

Fnatic started the year with a shaky top 12 at IEM Masters Katowice 2023 and top 16 at CCT North America Europe Series #4. There was also a 16th place finish at EPL Season 17.

A qualitative breakthrough happened at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A. There Fnatic finished in the top 2, which opened the way for them to BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023.

The only Major in 2023 went well for Fnatic. The team finished in the top 11, which is a decent result.

The last tournament before IEM Cologne 2023 was IEM Dallas 2023. Fnatic was not allowed to play in America: 9z Team knocked the "orange" out of the tournament at the TOP-16 stage.

• Fnatic roster: KRIMZ, dextre, roej, mezii, afro .

Prior to the Long Round of the tournament, fnatic had a significant reshuffle in their roster. Dexter and afro joined the club during the Big Reshuffle. The Australian played for MOUZ for the last two years, and the Frenchman afro played for LDLC.

In the first match, the renewed Fnatic roster faced Complexity on Inferno. It took a series of dops to win, but still a 19-17 victory was sealed.

Fnatic Mappool

Ancient was the perfect map for Fnatic. "Orange" played it 4 times and won all matches.

A hundred per cent winrate also on Nuke with Anubis, but fnatic has only 1 match there.

The worst matches for fnatic are Overpass and Vertigo, where the team has one win each in 3 matches.

Form 9INE

Let's continue the review with the analysis of 9INE's form. In this match the Poles will play the second number.

Bookmakers are cautious about the prospects of 9INE. The odds for the club to win are at around 2.2.

9INE had a very fruitful first half of the year, which allowed the Polish club to climb into the top 20 teams in the world. However, the lion's share of the events played were TIR-2 events.

9INE managed to get a number of victories at OMEN WGR Challenge 2023, GAM3RS_X Polish Clash and other local tournaments. However, the main achievements came in the spring of this year.

In April, 9INE triumphed at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: Europe RMR B, which opened the way to BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. The Major itself ended for the Poles in the top 16.

Before the IEM Cologne 2023 Long Circuit, 9INE picked up another important win. They qualified for the big-budget Gamers8 by beating SAW in last chance qualification.

• 9INE roster: Goofy, KEi, Kylar, mynio, hades.

9INE is one of the most stable Play-In IEM Cologne teams. The club has been playing in such a roster for half a year already.

The first Play-In IEM Cologne 2023 opponent for 9INE was OG. Again they needed "dopes" and again the score was 19-17.

9INE Mappool

The best 9INE map is Vertigo. There the Poles won 14 matches with only 4 losses.

Next are Mirage (66% wins in 6 games), Anubis (58% wins in 12 maps) and Nuke (57% winrate in 7 matches).

The worst maps for 9INE are Ancient with 36% wins in 7 matches and Inferno, where the Poles have not won a single match in 3 maps.

History of head-to-head meetings

The last time the teams played each other was at the spring BLAST Showdown, where 9INE won 2-1.

Predicted result of the match Fnatic - 9INE

Despite Fnatic's nominal lead, I think the match will be close and The International will be interesting. I favour the Poles. This is hinted at by the map pool, where the opponents don't play each other's best maps.

Taking into account the tendency of the tournament to tiebreakers, and also the history of head-to-head meetings, it seems that the match is bound to go to the 3rd map.

Bottom line: total +2.5.