What to expect from FURIA vs TheMongolz

FURIA has struggled for form in 2023, following up their semifinals appearance at the IEM Rio Major with an incredibly disappointing 0-3 run in the Legends Stage of the BLAST.tv Paris Major. That forced the team's hand into making changes as they brought in Imperial duo Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo and Marcelo "chelo" Cespedes to freshen things up. With a win over the Australian side Grayhound and a close loss to Monte the only results to go off, it is yet to be seen how the team stacks up against top opposition

Favourable draw aids FURIA in their debut

FURIA were drawn against Grayhound in their opening match and whilst the Aussie team always seem to be around the big tournaments, they very rarely have managed to make significant inroads. The Brazilian side managed to surpass the Aussies, despite a 1.60 rating from Declan "Vexite" Portelli, and would then give Monte a good run for their money, where had Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato not had a rare poor series, FURIA might already have qualified for IEM Cologne.

• chelo third highest rated FURIA player at event, 1.03 rating.

• Yuri "yuurih" Boian in the top 10 players at the event, 1.26 rating.

• FURIA crumbled on the CT-side of Ancient against Monte, managing just one round.

TheMongolz secret star

Eyebrows were raised after the Mongolian team made changes despite an impressive run at IEM Katowice at the start of the year, the change seemed to not have the desired effect as the Asian side would fail to make any impact on the world stage after that as they bombed out of the BLAST.tv Paris Major Challengers Stage with just one map win. Baatarkhuu "Bart4k" Batbold and Tuvshintugs "ANNIHILATION" Nyamdorj found themselves on the way out being replaced by Ayush "mzinho" Batbold and AWPer Usukhbayar "910" Banzragch. It is 910 that has been catching the eye for the team so far in Cologne, with a 1.29 rating against Into the Breach and a 1.27 rating in the teams loss against MOUZ. Having seemingly been picked from thin air, 910 will be key to TheMongolz performance against FURIA.

• 910 has a 1.28 rating at Cologne - eight best at the event.

• TheMongolz beat FalleN's Imperial at IEM Rio 2023 2-1.

• Managed to win five clutches in the two maps against ITB.

Likely Vetoes

• FURIA ban Anubis, was their first ban against Monte

• TheMongolz ban Vertigo, has been their go-to first ban

• FURIA pick Overpass, TheMongolz are 0/2 on the map

• TheMongolz pick Mirage, looks to be the teams comfort map

• Inferno left over, both teams play and have had moderate success