We’ve had a mixture of success and failure thus far on IEM XV Katowice. But, we’ve been betting on the play-in stage up until this point.
This encounter marks the beginning of the group stage, featuring eight brand-new teams who’ve directly qualified through the Road to Katowice regional rankings.
Heroic vs. BIG predictions is the first group stage match on our to-do list, so let’s get things up and running!
Heroic vs. BIG Predictions
Just an hour following the final play-in matches, top-notch CSGO bookmakers had the first group stage matches available for betting. Nothing surprising, though, the demand for CSGO betting action must be through the roof at the moment.
Form
BIG had to take the tough road to the group stage. They had to go through three play-in stage matches. Well, two if they hadn’t lost against Team Spirit.
Well, let’s say it wasn’t awfully good, but not outright awesome either. A mediocre performance, slightly improved by the third-match blowout, courtesy of MIBR. And, if we’re being totally real here – it was more MIBR playing poorly than anything else…
While @heroicgg may have had a bumpy ride at the start of their road to #IEM Katowice 2021, they earned some HUGE wins throughout 2020 – and now come into the group stage as the #1 team by EPT ranking! 💪 pic.twitter.com/0yrqDFxK8q
— Intel®ExtremeMasters (@IEM) February 3, 2021
Heroic’s third/fourth spot on CS_Summit 7 breathes some confidence into their IEM XV Katowice performance.
Our Heroic vs. BIG predictions are still leaning in no particular direction… and from the first glance, the map pool stats don’t have a clear winner either.
Map Pool Stats
Map pool stats are pretty divisive. Mirage, Nuke, and Overpass favor Heroic; Dust 2, Inferno, and Vertigo favor BIG. Train is no man’s land… though I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes the decider map. If it goes to those lengths, I’m confident in BIG’s ability to close it out.
Individual Aspects
It’s nice to see BIG syrsoN rising up to the challenge once again. He’s been the best player on BIG in all three of their matches so far. In defeats and in victories, the German AWPer is not to be taken for granted!
Whose job will it be to hunt him down and prevent him from scoring easy kills with his trusty sniper? Well, contribution-wise, stavn and TeSeS are nothing but terrific for Heroic. They’ve been the prime catalysts for pushing the envelope even further and bringing Heroic to impressive heights.
But, I don’t think their expertise and form will yield results against BIG. The Germans stomped over MIBR and ought to give us more of the same against the Danish machinery tomorrow. So yeah, let’s cut to the chase – here’s what my Heroic vs. BIG picks are all about:
Odds are courtesy of BetOnline. You can check out our BetOnline review here.
Yessir, the odds are much narrower than one might think at the first glance. After all, both belong to the top ten teams at the moment… but BIG has had more competitive action. Not excellent competitive action, but competitive action nonetheless. Heroic played just one competition this year; it finished with a solid semifinal run following a 2:0 loss against Fnatic.
Well, that loss was more Team Spirit doing their thing than BIG playing poorly. Don’t get me wrong, both happened, but the former was much more obvious.
That, combined with Heroic’s lack of matches should allow BIG to remain in the upper bracket for at least another day. At -139, I actually like the value here. Bring it on, Heroic!
