The games in Group A of the ESL Pro League tournament are wrapping up, and all playoff participants have been set. On Wednesday, matches in the second, most exciting group will kick off, featuring teams like Virtus.pro, Furia, Vitality, FaZe Clan, Sprout, and Ence. On March 16 at 21:30 Moscow time, Virtus.pro will take on the Brazilians from Furia. We’ve put together a prediction for this matchup.
FURIA
The Brazilians didn’t participate in the recent RMR qualifiers among American teams, as they earned their spot in the tournament through their playoff appearance at the Stockholm Major. This year, the team has a solid achievement under their belt – they finished as runners-up at the ESL Challenger. In the final, they fell to Virtus.pro. Afterward, Furia competed at IEM Katowice but failed to advance to the playoffs, placing 9th to 12th. They managed to beat Astralis, but couldn’t handle Na’Vi and G2.
Virtus.pro
The Russian organization kicked off the new season strongly, winning the ESL Challenger and pocketing $50,000. After that, they headed to Poland, where they breezed into the playoffs, only losing to Heroic. In the playoffs, they faced the eventual finalists G2. On Mirage, the bears held their own, but on Ancient, things fell apart. Recently, it was announced that Virtus.pro is banned from playing under their own tag, and the players can only compete under a neutral name. The squad chose the name Outsiders.
Statistics and Prediction
Furia has won exactly half of their games over the last three months. Virtus.pro boasts a 75% win rate. Last year, the teams met twice and played once in 2022. All matches went to the bears, with the Brazilians failing to win a single map.
The Brazilian aggressive style works well against European teams, but they struggle against CIS squads. Virtus.pro rarely has issues with mid-tier teams, but as seen at IEM Katowice, they can’t quite handle Europe’s top outfits.
FURIA has KSCERATO, their star player and arguably the best Brazilian player right now. Rookie saffee is putting up solid numbers, but art and yuurih have been underperforming. Virtus.pro doesn’t have individual weaknesses; their problems lie more in tactics and mindset. In all previous clashes between Virtus.pro and FURIA, the former dominated, and even when scores were close, the bears never faced real trouble. I expect Virtus.pro to come out on top confidently this time as well.
