Welcome to EGamersWorld.
The highest level of competitive Counter-Strike 2 is back on our screens. ESL Pro League Season 20 continues in Malta, with 32 teams playing in the race for $750,000 and BLAST Premier points.
The play-offs stage is now underway at the prestigious tournament. We're talking about the second round of the main stage, and more specifically the Team Spirit vs Imperial matchup.
Let's find out who of the Spirit - Imperial pair will be stronger and advance to the next round of ESL Pro League Season 20 play-offs, where NaVi are already waiting for the winner.
Let's go.
Team Spirit uniforms
Let's open the Spirit vs Imperial match with an analysis of Spirit's form. In this match they will play as favourites with odds to win at around 1.15.
The 2023 season has been a busy one for Spirit. The Serbian club has played wherever they can, but they have not managed to get any significant results.
They started the previous season with an appearance at IEM Master Katowice 2023, where they finished in the top 12. Then there was the local CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 2023, where they finished in the top 6.
One of the biggest tournaments of the 2023 season for Spirit was ESL Pro League Season 17, where the Dragons finished in TOP-28. They tried to make it to the Major in Paris, but again all in vain.
From the middle and up to the end of the year Spirit played at local events of small calibre. And they were quite successful, it is worth mentioning: TOP-1 at CCT North Europe Series #6, TOP-2 at CCT Online Finals #2, victory at Dunav Party LAN and Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2.
- Team Spirit roster: chopper, zont1x, sh1ro, donk, magixx.
At the end of the year, they won the BB Dacha. In 2024 BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2024 was the first big event of the Dragons. Spirit played frankly poorly there: they finished in the top 16 at their debut BLAST Championship, advancing to the Spring Showdown.
At IEM Katowice 2024 Spirit started their performance at the Play-In stage. There they beat Apeks 13-0 without a chance, and then confidently (except for 2 maps) beat MongolZ 2-0, thus qualifying for the group stage. The group stage was not a problem for Spirit either: after giving up only 1 map to NaVi, they easily made it to the play-offs by beating CoL and FaZe Clan 2-0. The IEM Katowice 2024 play-offs confirmed Spirit's dominance, as they easily shut down Falcons (2-0) and it was even easier against FaZe in the grand finals (3-0).
After the triumph at Katowice 2024, Spirit made it to PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major 2024, where they managed to reach the play-offs, but Ledge and FaZe Clan in the first round of the main stage. In doing so, Spirit finished in the top 8.
Spirit had a kind of successful performance at BB Dacha, but a 0-3 loss to MOUZ in the grand finals spoilt things a bit.
At IEM Dallas 2024 Team Spirit had a very easy time in the group stage, not giving up a single map in the B basket. However, they didn't manage to beat everyone in the play-offs: Vitality intervened at the TOP-4 stage and knocked Spirit out of the tournament.
Later Spirit won the BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2024. And then came a string of poor performances, including Top 8 and Top 16 at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024.
ESL Pro League Season 20 Team Spirit started with Group B, where in the second round of the upper grid Ledge and MIBR and after falling below, they beat The MongolZ and 3DMAX, which gave them a pass to the play-offs. Already in the main stage Spirit beat FURIA 2-0.
Team Spirit Mapple
The best map of Team Spirit is Vertigo, where the Brazilians played 5 times and won in 3 maps. Next comes Mirage, with 7 games and 4-3 statistics.
The neutral choice for Team Spirit will be Nuke and Ancient. The Brazilians have 6 maps there and the score is 3-3 on each.
The worst is Overpass (2-3) and Inferno (1-2).
Form Imperial
We continue our analysis of Imperial vs Spirit with an analysis of Imperial's form. In this match they will play as an outsider with odds to win at around 5.
The World 16 team spent the first half of the year at various qualifying events and TIR-2 tournaments. Among the rare results is a victory at the local championship TG Masters Spring 2023. We can also mention the failure at EPL Season 17, where Imperial finished in the top 32.
Imperial's main Milestone was the performance at American RMR B, a qualifier for BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023. There, the Brazilian club finished in the top-12. Later there was a disappointing IEM Masters Rio 2023 and top-16 there.
- Imperial line-up: VINI, HEN1, felps. noway, decoy.
Before the Long Convergence of IEM Cologne 2023, Imperial won the ESL Brazil Premier League Season 14 and finished in the top 4 at BLAST Premier: Spring Final 2023.
On top of that, Imperial have invited felps and HEN1 to join the team. The team's rookies lost their debut match at the club. They were run over by Monte, who won at Nuke 16-9. Next it was no better and as a result Cologne Brazilians took the top 20.
Later, they finished top-28 in ESL Pro League Season 18 and tried to make a name for themselves in other tournaments. They played at local championships like CBCS 2023 Season 1, Copa BetBoom, Game Arena and so on, but failed to achieve success there. Imperial looked better in the 2024 season.
So far, the main achievement of the year was winning the home PGL Major Copenhagen 2024: American RMR and making it to the Major itself. There, the team went 3-2 in the Opening Stage and then won the Legends Stage 1-3, which is pretty good.
They opened ESL Pro League Season 19 with a match against FaZe Clan, where they lost 0-2, but showed their teeth. In the middle set of ESL Pro League Season 19 Imperial played against Eternal Fire, where Ledgeila with a score of 1-2. Next was a loss by sAw and an elimination to the top 32.
Later Imperial won 2 "small" tournaments like Thunderpick World Championship 2024: South American Series #1 and ESL Challenger League Season 47: South America.
They got to IEM Cologne 2024 thanks to the top 2 at Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024: South American Qualifier. In the end, they finished in the top 24, but failed to make a miracle.
ESL Pro League Season 20 started with a 2-1 win over BIG in a very even match. Then they defeated MOUZ 2-0 and lost to M80, but made it to the second round of play-offs.
Mapple Imperial
Imperial's best maps are Ancient and Inferno. The former has 3 wins in 4 maps and the latter has 5 out of 7.
Don't mind playing Overpass as well, where Brazilians have 57% wins in 7 matches. Can also play Nuke with Vertigo, where they have 50% wins at 6 and 4 mapx respectively.
Do not play on Anubis.
Personal history of Imperial Esports - Team Spirit
In the 2024 season they played each other at PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024, where Team Spirit won cleanly.
Predicted result of the match Imperial Esports - Team Spirit at ESL Pro League Season 20
In this match, my bet is on Team Spirit. Imperial certainly showed a great run during the group stage and beat teams nominally better than themselves, but Spirit is an extra class team, even despite the club's recent problems. I think they should close out the match 2-0.
Bottom line: 2-0 win for Team Spirit.
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