Natus Vincere vs. Liquid, Preview & Prediction - Free 1/20 CS:GO

Natus Vincere is a firm favorite in this Best of 3 encounter when they face Liquid in the Upper bracket quarter-final of the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 on Wednesday. The winning side will advance to the Upper semis and take on a better team from the duel between Vitality and Complexity, while the loser will go down to the Lower bracket.

Natus Vincere Team Stats and Latest Results

Even though they failed to win any of the major tournaments in the last three months, Natus Vincere is still in 3rd position in the CS:GO standings, and they are looking to improve with good displays at the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020. Before the winter break, NaVi managed to reach the Grand Final at the IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 Europe, and even had a 2-0 lead over Vitality, but lost the next three maps and ended in 2nd place. They earned $30,000 for their efforts, but after that tournament, NaVi didn’t play a big role at the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Finals and IEM Global Challenge 2020. Natus Vincere won eight of the previous 13 matches.

During the last three months, Natus Vincere displayed strong performances on Nuke (78.6% win rate) and was decent on Train (66.7%), while they disappointed on Dust2 (28.6%). NaVi is playing with the same squad since October 2020 and appeared on 47 maps with a record of 27 wins and 20 losses. The team members are flamie (0.98 rating), s1mple (1.29), electronic (1.12), Boombl4 (0.92), and Perfecto (1.00).

Liquid Team Stats and Latest Results

Liquid didn’t have a lot of success at the major tournaments before the winter break as they failed to get to the trophy at the IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 North America, BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Showdown, and DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 Europe. They were close at the IEM Global Challenge 2020, where they reached the Grand Final, but Astralis proved to be too strong, and Liquid had to settle with 2nd place and $100,000, which is a solid amount of money. Liquid won seven of the last 13 games.

In the previous three months, Liquid was decent on Nuke (71.4%) and Dust2 (60.0%), while they were below average only on Inferno (37.5%). Liquid will be playing with a new squad at this tournament after they parted ways with Twistzz (0.98) and changed him with FalleN, a former MIBR member. The rest of the team is NAF (1.11), EliGE (1.12), Stewie2K (0.96), and Grim (1.08).

Natus Vincere vs. Liquid H2H Record

These rivals have met on seven occasions, and Liquid is leading the all-time series 4-3. Still, NaVi won the last three H2H encounters, including at the IEM Global Challenge 2020 a month ago. They also didn’t drop a single map in those three wins.

Natus Vincere vs. Liquid Betting Preview

With a new member in their team, Liquid will find it hard to cope with one of the best teams in the world. Even so, I expect the Americans to put up a fight and cause some trouble to the favored NaVi. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get a map here, but after failing to do so in the last three H2H duels, I cannot put money on it. That’s why I am going with a sure shot and win on Natus Vincere.

The Pick: Natus Vincere to win (-222 @BUFF.BET)