The PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Rematch
I think this will be the best match on the opening day of the IEM Dallas 2022, and the main reason is because I find that both of these teams failed to meet the expectations during the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and now they are looking for redemption. Both teams were considered really strong teams arriving into the major, although neither of them qualified directly for the Legends Stage, which was something strange but that’s another topic.
Now both of these teams had a bit more than a week to prepare for this tournament and there’s no room for excuses. Team Vitality was one of the teams that denied Astralis’ entrance to the legends stage after they beat them early on in the tournament. But even if the French team managed to sneak into the Legends Stage, it’s not like they had a good performance. They did beat Team Liquid and BIG, which aren’t necessarily weak teams and CSGO betting experts agree with this, but Vitality clearly struggled a lot in their games against Ninjas in Pyjamas and Heroic, the two teams that did make it into the major playoffs.
On this occasion we’ll have the chance to see what kind of impact these teams suffered by their disappointing performance in the major, and the thing is that we all know that they are capable of great things, which makes it very interesting to see how they’ll end up playing in the IEM Dallas 2022.
Astralis is Struggling to Get a Top-4 Finish
Since basically the start of the year, Astralis has struggled a lot to find success in any of the numerous big events we’ve had so far. From BLAST Premier Spring to the ESL Pro League Season 15, and finishing with the PGL Major Antwerp 2022, Astralis hasn’t managed to reach a single top 4 except for the BLAST European Showdown, where they lost 2-1 in the grand finals against ENCE. Astralis is clearly missing a very important piece in the team and unless they don’t find out quickly what’s going on, I believe that they’ll keep falling farther behind as the time passes.
Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander are the longest standings members for the roster and they must be very frustrated with this situation, considering that they are 4-time major winners and now they can’t even reach top-4 consistently. This year might be a fork in the road for these two players because we’ve seen time and time again that only some exceptional players are able to hold out for so long after many failures. This is just the start of the tournament for them, but considering this is a best-of-1, things might start going south early on for them.
It might sound like this is the end of the world for Astralis, but it’s not like that, but considering all their recent performances, sometimes it’s easy to forget how strong a team was. And we also have to take into consideration that this isn’t even close to being the same Astralis that we saw win major after major.
ApeX Might Find a Get Back On Track
Dan “apEX” Madesclaire is the in-game leader for Team Vitality and it’s been like that for a while now. He is a major winner and he is considered one of the most iconic IGLs in the history of CSGO, but as of lately, he has struggled to find success with Team Vitality. Throughout 2021, Team Vitality ended up meeting a lot of times with NaVi in the quarterfinals and semifinals, and we all know how hard it was to beat NaVi around that time and the CSGO odds clearly indicated that. This meant that Team Vitality’s chances to win any big event were drastically reduced, which is the complete opposite of what we saw from them back in 2020.
Their most recent appearance on a big event was at the PGL Major Antwerp and just like I mentioned before, their performance didn’t meet the expectations. It was saddening to see Apex’s disappointment on his face after every single defeat, and we could tell how the team’s atmosphere was deteriorating each day. Now Team Vitality will have a chance, once again, that they are still one of the best teams in the world, because right now, having a losing streak is no excuse, and considering how punishing this tournament’s format is, they have to try their hardest in their very first match.
Astralis vs Team Vitality Game Information
- Date: Monday, May 30
- Time: 1:05pm ET
- Live Stream: ESL_CSGO – Twitch
Take a Look at the Other 2 Picks for This Week’s CS-GO Matchups
- G2 Esports vs Movistar Riders Predictions, Game Preview, Live Stream, Odds & Picks
- MOUZ vs ENCE Predictions, Game Preview, Live Stream, Odds & Picks
Astralis vs Team Vitality Predictions
I think many CSGO betting sites experts will agree with me when I say that this will be the best match of the opening day just because of how important it is for both teams to have a good start, but only one team is going to win. The last time these two teams met was in the PGL Major Antwerp Challengers Stage and Team Vitality completely rolled over them with a 16-8 win.
Now Astralis have a chance to claim revenge, and considering how good they can be, it wouldn’t be crazy to see them score a win in this match. In the end, I think that it’s very hard to predict exactly which team will end up winning as it’s clear that this is anyone’s game, but we can be sure of one thing, this match will go the long way and we might even get to see an OT.
PICK: Total Rounds over 26.5 at -145
