PGL Krákow Major Betting

SK Gaming vs PENTA Sports (PGL Major Kraków 2017, July 16, Sunday, 15:30 CEST)

SK Gaming is currently the best side in CS:GO and working under a German organization. They are the favorites to lift their second major champions’ title. They have exhibited impressive skill, focus, and form by finishing in first place in three consecutive LAN tournaments.

Every member of the team has demonstrated incredible performances by stepping up in big games. However, the best player on the side, and in the world, is Marcelo “coldzera” David.

Although they had a shaky start to their ESL One Campaign, they showed that experience and skill can take you to a tournament title. Anything less than a first place finish should be and would be considered a failure for SK Gaming.

SK Gaming has the form. They are “the wave” and have recently won tournaments, so PENTA may have a problem with them. Just before PGL, SK Gaming has won five titles this year alone.

Diversity of PENTA

This past year for PENTA has been quite strange. Until March, the roster of the team lacked chemistry. In just four months since their formation, it is a miracle to see them qualifying for a Major.

This incredible recent form of PENTA can be attributed to the only original member of PENTA’s German squad, Kevin “kRYSTAL” Amend. PENTA has moved on from having a German based roster. The new team includes Jesse “zehN” Linjala and Miikka “suNny” Kemppi from Finland, Paweł “innocent” Mocek from Poland, and lastly, Kevin “HS” Tarn from Estonia. The question that pops into everyone’s mind is: Will this diverse squad from across the globe be able to synergize well in PGL?

Looking at their recent performances, it hasn’t been a problem as of yet. At the Europe Minor Championship 2017 – Kraków, they secured the 2nd spot, which enabled the team to compete for the Major Qualifier.

On their way to PGL, they defeated experienced sides like Dignitas and EnVyUs. They took the qualifiers of the PGL Major by storm with a 3-1 score. PENTA was only defeated by mousesports , which is also a resurging side. They were victorious against highly underperforming teams, like underdog Vega Squadron (16-8), Team Liquid (16-3), and Optic Gaming (16-14). It is fair to say that PENTA had an easy run to the qualification of the Majors.

How Will PENTA Perform Against the Best?

The real problem for PENTA is that they don’t have the skill or experience of an international tier one team. With average HLTV ratings of 1.08 and 0.97, respectively, zehN and kRYSTAL are the worst performing players on the team.

These digits would be decent against tier two teams but unfortunately, they are against teams like Astralis or SK. These players are struggling to perform against average teams. The only hope for PENTA is that their star player suNny would perform well against SK Gaming, but realistically it is highly unlikely.

The stealth plays of suNny might be impressive against tier two teams but against SG Gaming, they would need a miracle. With that in mind, PENTA has almost no chance of beating SK Gaming or getting out of groups.

Odds at 10bet: SK Gaming 1.18 – 4.10 PENTA.

Virtus.Pro vs Vega Squadron (PGL Major Kraków 2017, July 16, Sunday, 14:00 CEST)

Despite the current state of Virtus.Pro, to write them off the “golden five” would be premature. Firstly, for the players this is a home tournament, and competing in their own house will help. Secondly, VP always manages to gather for a performance at the Major event. This time, however, it is unlikely that team members will depart from their habits, but their matches are likely to be some of the most nerve wracking of the tournament.

Unknown Vega Squadron

Over the course of last year, Vega Squadron has transformed from a meme to a near tier one team. At the ELeague Major Main Qualifiers, they were reputed as the team that 16-2’d NiP. As a consequence of this loss, the streak of attending every Major ended for NiP.

Nobody knows much about team Vega apart from this famous victory. The only international LAN that the side attended was the DreamHack Leipzig earlier this year where, with a score of 1-2, they were eliminated in the group stages.

The only victory they had was against a freshly unranked Rouge side with a 16-14 score. But after defeats from BIG and Flipesid3, they were knocked out.

Experience vs Surprises

With an impressive rating of 1.29 on the HLTV ranking, Nikolay “mir” Bityukov is the star player of the unknown side of Vega. While with 1.15 and 1.19 ratings, Pavel “hutji” Lashkov and Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov are the two next best players. The only reason these players have high ratings is because they haven’t had many meetings with the tier one teams.

Officially, on HLTV, these players have played approximately 200 maps. Compared to a player like Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas, who has played 968 maps professionally, the Vega side will need to come out guns blazing.

With this all in mind, it would be fair to predict a 0-3 exit from the Major for Vega Squadron.

Odds at 10bet: Virtus Pro 1.40 – 2.65 Vega Squadron.

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