ESTNN Esports Logo

Cloud9 vs ENCE Preview: ESL Pro League Season 17 Playoffs

| Tags: | Author
Cloud9 vs ENCE Preview: ESL Pro League Season 17 Playoffs

The ESL Pro League Season 17 Semifinal few expected, but both teams earned as Cloud9 take on ENCE 

Season 17 of ESL Pro League has been a weird one — much like many others before it. The lengthy nature of the tournament and the massive potential gaps between the time of a team’s group playing out and the Playoffs can often greatly affect how a team performs in the long run. As such, we have a curious Semifinal between Russian side Cloud9 and Finnish team ENCE, which many wouldn’t have expected. However, now that they’re here, both stand a chance of reaching an EPL Grand final, so if you’re planning on doing some CSGO betting, pay attention.

Cloud9 

Ever since their dominance of Group A, we’ve been waiting eagerly to see more of Cloud9. We finally got our wish when they played MOUZ in the Quarterfinal, and came back from being a map down to win the series. Now they’ve got bigger fish to fry in a resurgent ENCE, and with players from both teams in excellent form, this should be a Semifinal for the ages. It’s good to see nafany experience an uptick in form, because as the erstwhile weak link in Cloud9’s otherwise well-oiled machine, he will be important to their continued campaign at this event.

Players

Vladislav ”nafany” Gorshkov

  • HLTV Rating: 1.03
  • Impact Rating: 1.09
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.9%
  • Average Damage Round: 74.1
  • Kills Per Round: 0.66

Dmitriy ”sh1ro” Sokolov

  • HLTV Rating: 1.26
  • Impact Rating: 1.22
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 76.3%
  • Average Damage Round: 78.8
  • Kills Per Round: 0.77
MORE FROM ESTNN
The MongolZ vs Monte Preview and Predictions: BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Challengers Stage

Timur “buster” Tulepov

  • HLTV Rating: 1.08
  • Impact Rating: 1.03
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.0%
  • Average Damage Round: 73.3
  • Kills Per Round: 0.68

Sergey ”Ax1Le” Rykhtorov

  • HLTV Rating: 1.16
  • Impact Rating: 1.15
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.5%
  • Average Damage Round: 80.6
  • Kills Per Round: 0.73

Abai ”HObbit” Hasenov

  • HLTV Rating:1.06
  • Impact Rating: 1.13
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.5%
  • Average Damage Round: 80.0
  • Kills Per Round: 0.72

Player To Watch

In this case, we’ll be going with the brilliant rifler HObbit as the player to watch. The Kazakh veteran has been a consistent fragger for a very long time, and we expect him to step up to the plate as usual.

ENCE 

Given how poorly ENCE has performed through most of the last year or so, few would have expected them to make it so far. When you consider the fact that they have just taken out world number 1 G2 Esports and last season’s champion Team Vitality in back-to-back knockout matches, they begin to look even more formidable. The team has been pumped up since picking up new addition NertZ, and despite a loss to forZe in the final match of their group, they’ve picked up their pace and are looking downright mighty at the moment.

Players 

Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer

  • HLTV Rating: 0.95
  • Impact Rating: 0.96
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.4%
  • Average Damage Round: 72.5
  • Kills Per Round: 0.65

Paweł “dycha” Dycha

  • HLTV Rating: 1.12
  • Impact Rating: 1.15
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.7%
  • Average Damage Round: 81.1
  • Kills Per Round: 0.73
MORE FROM ESTNN
Top 10 CSGO Players from the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 Challengers Stage

Pavle “maden” Bošković

  • HLTV Rating: 1.08
  • Impact Rating: 1.16
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.5%
  • Average Damage Round: 79.3
  • Kills Per Round: 0.72

Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia

  • HLTV Rating: 1.16
  • Impact Rating: 1.15
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.9%
  • Average Damage Round: 74.1
  • Kills Per Round: 0.72

Guy “NertZ” Iluz

  • HLTV Rating: 1.11
  • Impact Rating: 1.28
  • Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.9%
  • Average Damage Round: 84.9
  • Kills Per Round: 0.77

Player to Watch

NertZ hasn’t just been a source of fresh blood on the team, because his impact has been felt in every single game. We’ve got the Israeli under our scrutiny for ENCE.

ESL Pro League Season 17 Playoffs: Cloud9 vs ENCE  Predictions

ENCE will put up a great fight, but C9 will take it 2-1 by the skin of their teeth. At least, that’s what we predict.

Maps 

It’s a tough call to make for these two teams because of various overlaps, but we’re putting our money on Mirage, Vertigo and Ancient.

Score 

Map 1: ENCE to win with C9 >12.

Map 2: C9 to win with ENCE >11.

Map 3: C9 to win in Overtime.

Top Fragger

Although HObbit is our main man for Cloud9, as far as frags go, we’ll opt for his brother in arms on the Big Green, sh1ro.

ESL Pro League Season 17 Playoffs: Cloud9 vs ENCE Match Links

Stay glued to ESL’s Twitch or YouTube channels from 10:30 ET/09:30 CST/07:30 PT.

Remember to check out our wide array of CSGO articles, with previews, recaps, analyses, guides and more.