Can Heroic Carry Their Momentum Into Rio?
As a unit, Heroic has excelled at making the team better than the sum of its parts, combining team play and tactical re-aggression into a fluid system. Martin “stavn” Lund was previously the team’s stand-out star and the one the team could rely on to bring them wins when their system was not clicking, but recent role changes and the onboarding of jabbi have allowed the team to more consistently come together to find wins.
As Heroic turn their attention to Rio, their focus will be on maintaining the momentum of their recent results, something which may be made harder after a prolonged wait for the beginning of the Legends Stage. That same wait hasn’t prevented them from advancing in their previous two Major attempts, though, and shouldn’t do so this time around either, with the Danes heading into the top sixteen stage as one of the teams that should slot into a playoff spot.
What they can do from that point forward is where the interest lies. With so many strong competitors in contention for the Major title this time around, cadiaN’s side are in with a fighting chance as a dark horse to make a heroic run to the title.
More realistically, they will be simply looking to repeat their best result at a Major with a semi-final finish, or do one better with a grand final appearance. Any result of that caliber would offer the team relatively early proof that their roster change was the right move and that it is paying off in spades already.
Outsiders Will Try to Upset Their Way to a Title Run
First of all, Outsiders are not among the top contenders in the world, but playing many tournaments and placing well at ESL Challenger-level events while some teams struggle to remain active brought them up to seventh place in the world ranking, a steep 10-place increase from where they started at the beginning of summer when they made roster changes.
Most power ranking ahead of the Major placed them fairly below in the standings, due to their recent performances at smaller events, but Outsiders have shown they have a sting against teams of their caliber and are close to delivering against tougher opposition.
It’s nearly impossible to make a case for Outsiders to make their way to the trophy, or even a wild run to the grand final like Jame and Qikert did at StarLadder Berlin, although the IEM Rio Major could shape up to be a surprise fest. It would be equally reckless, however, to say that they can’t put up a fight to make it to the Legends Stage and even reach the playoffs, as they did at ESL Pro League, where they lost in two close quarter-final maps (one in overtime) to the tournament’s champions and current No.1 team in the world ranking, Vitality.
Fortunately for them, clear progress is being made as more time passes since the changes in May, which can be seen in their dominating performances against the second line of competition and by their important series wins against top opposition, such as beating FURIA in Pro League after falling to them at IEM Cologne or winning the ESL Challenger Rotterdam grand final 2-0 against ENCE.
Heroic vs Outsiders Match Information
- Date: Saturday, November 5
- Time: 12:30 pm ET
- Heroic vs Outsiders Live Stream: ESL_CSGO – Twitch
Heroic vs Outsiders Prediction
Outsiders have been blowing hot and cold since making their last changes in May, from second at ESL Challenger Valencia to 13-16th at IEM Cologne to quarter-finalists at ESL Pro League to scraping by the European RMR in the 2-2 pool for a spot at the Major to winning ESL Challenger Rotterdam.
Part of Heroic’s consistency lies in the leadership of cadiaN, who continues to be the driving squad on the server both as their caller and as their emotional captain, often yelling and hyping up the team during matches. He is never shy to speak up in interviews and talk up narratives for the camera ahead of a match, adding interest to games.
Taking both teams’ current form and mainly their consistency throughout the last few months, I really think that Heroic shouldn’t have a hard time at all against Outsiders, starting the Major with a very important victory.
The IEM Rio Major Legends Stage is just getting started, so make sure to stay tuned as we’ll be sharing our esports picks with you! Don’t forget to bet on esports at BetUS Sportsbook & Casino. We’ve plenty of CSGO odds for you to consider.
