Can Liquid best 9INE?

Opening the final day of the play-in stage at IEM Cologne, Liquid will be facing 9INE in the lower bracket for one of four remaining group stage slots. 9INE come from the upper bracket where they fell 0-2 to fnatic, while Liquid overcame the locals of BIG with a 2-1 series win in the lower bracket.

Liquid inconsistency continues

Since debuting the new roster in the BLAST Fall Groups, Liquid have beaten G2 and FaZe, but then gone on to lose a rematch to FaZe and two consecutive Astralis matches. Even with their win versus BIG yesterday, thing were not clean; the first two maps were close affairs that were only resolved with a decent 16-9 win on the third map of Overpass.

• Mareks"YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis has the most 1vX clutch wins of all players so far in the play-in stage.

• Aleks "Rainwaker" Petrov has unfortunately been at the bottom of the scoreboard every match so far.

• In a turn of form, YEKINDAR has been the shining star for Liquid in Cologne so far.

• Keith "NAF" Markovic continues to be Mr. Consistent for the team.

Can 9INE actually perform on LAN?

The Poles qualified to IEM Cologne through their World Ranking, however it is built almost entirely on online performances which might not always transfer to LAN results. Coming into Cologne, a narrow overtime win versus OG is all they have had to show for themselves so far after fnatic has no trouble sending them to the lower bracket. Their sole notable LAN performance was placing first in the Paris Major European B RMR, but since then they have not shown much else.

• Olek "hades" Miskiewicz is their only player to go positive versus fnatic.

• The last time they played Liquid was in May when they lost 9-16 on Overpass.

• The team's form has been on a gradual decline over the last 11 weeks.

Likely Vetoes

9INE's most often first pick of Vertigo is Liquid's most often first ban, so we'll likely not be up in the clouds today. Other than that, we'll also not be heading to hell with Inferno being 9INE's usual permaban. Barring some shenanigans, Liquid should pick either Mirage, Overpass, or Anubis, with 9INE's winrate being the lowest on Overpass.

Unless Liquid ban Nuke, 9INE will probably go for that with Liquid's 0% winrate there. Unless Liquid want to then risk something, they should ban Ancient after that Astralis match earlier in the event. Since, of Mirage and Anubis, 9INE have a better winrate on Mirage, and are overall more equally matched there, they will likely ban out Anubis as their final ban.

The likely veto will go as such:

• Liquid ban Vertigo

• 9INE ban Inferno

• Liquid pick Overpass

• 9INE pick Nuke

• Liquid ban Ancient

• 9INE ban Anubis

• Mirage is decider

Bookmaker odds

In terms of betting odds, Liquid are a decent favourite with an average 2.50 multiplier for any winning 9INE bets and only a 1.50 multiplier for Liquid bettors. It is clear that the dark horses aren't so dark in this match.