The difference was the quality of wins the two teams had. Liquid now have to second ban Overpass as they’ve completely lost the map and Astralis don’t want to get into another brawl on Vertigo, so they opt for Dust2.Overall, this map veto favors Astralis as they should win Nuke most of the time, but Liquid have chances to win Inferno and Dust2.
Liquid are usually good enough to give Astralis a close match (notably ESL New York, EPL 10, and the first round at BLAST), but they feel like they are playing from a position of weakness rather than equality or strength. Instead they opted for Inferno which is probably their best map now and one they play Astralis close on. This leaves them: Train, Nuke, Inferno, and Dust2. Their CT-side is an obvious point of praise, especially on maps like Cache and Nuke, but their T-sides are just as dangerous and tight. As for Astralis, they went with Inferno since that was the only map in their pool that had retained a modicum of their 2019 form. The map veto was:NRG banned Inferno as it was the home map of Astralis and the only map where Astralis had retained a level of their prime era strength during mid 2019. As for Liquid, they couldn’t come up with any answers for Overpass and in the remaining part of the year, Overpass became one of Liquid’s weaker maps. The ensuing map-veto war between the two sides sheds light on the power dynamic and potential solutions as to where Liquid need to go heading into 2020.Before we get into the map-veto dynamic at Berlin and beyond, it’s worth looking at how the Astralis-Liquid map veto played out before the break that led into the StarLadder Berlin Major.
Liquid were able to wrest some control back with their own Vertigo ambush, but that has only left them competitive rather than on equal footing.The tactical problem is similar.
At that time Liquid were the best team in the world and Astralis hadn’t made their resurgence to contender form. Astralis weren’t that great on Nuke.
In retrospect, we know that Liquid’s Overpass had dropped off, but at the time, it was the best theoretical choice at the time. Overpass was a problematic map one of Astralis’ weaker maps in their Era and it had only gotten worse in 2019. The architecture of Vertigo had changed and that put a small reset on the map’s meta. When Liquid picked the map here, they barely won the map 19-15.
The teams then have a negotiation as they pick and choose their map draft.Unlike Dota 2, in CS:GO the terms of negotiation and feedback given back to the teams is far more ambiguous. Astralis sweeped the rematches as they won all five bo3s. Astralis banned Mirage as it was their worst map and one of NRG’s better maps when they were still playing with Damian “daps” Steele.
Liquid’s slow default style is good, but it plays perfectly into Astralis’ control style and thus creates the types of rounds that Astralis thrive in. The draft section of the game is a microcosm of how the actual game will play out. Nuke was a good map for them, so it’s unlikely they would have banned it. This is why in earlier encounters on Nuke, Astralis blew out Liquid. As for Astralis they went for Nuke. They started as a team with a wide map pool as people believed they could play all seven maps.
They’ve kept Inferno and have shifted their map pool to Overpass, Vertigo, and some Train.The games at StarLadder Berlin Major and ESL New York made it seem like EG had a good head-to-head matchup against Astralis. As time has gone on though, people have figured out that they have a weak Mirage and Overpass.
At the time though, it was still a good choice, especially as Overpass was a problem for Astralis during the mid-2019 run.The two teams then clashed again in the semifinals of the Major. At ECS Season 8 Finals, Astralis prevailed, but it was a close match. What do they value, how do they perceive their opponents, and how do they view their own strengths?
The two teams played at ESL Proleague Season 9 Finals quarterfinals.
We just got by The move made a lot of sense. ... FaZe were much more of an adversary, but Vitality beat them on Nuke, which has been one of the best maps for this new FaZe lineup.