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MechanoGun reunites with Semyon “kinqie” Lisitsyn, Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko, Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy, Svyatoslav “svyat” Dovbakh and Dmitry “rAge” Bolotov, who he led to a handful of impressive achievements earlier in the year.
The 33-year-old Counter-Strike esports veteran held the coaching position at Hard Legion from October 2019 until June 2020, when he left the team due to a conflict with the team’s owner, Aleksei “HARDPLAY” Baranov.
Some of MechanoGun’s most notable results in that time include a gold medal from MEGOGO Open, bronze from ESL One: Road to Rio CIS and silver from Hellcase Cup #8, which are also some of the best placements Hard Legion have achieved in recent years. The team also reached 28th in the CS:GO world rankings, which marked the second-highest position in the organisation’s history.
Hard Legion Esports are planning on going on vacation from Tuesday, August 25, after which they will begin intensive training for the third Regional Major Rankings (RMR) tournament – Intel Extreme Masters XV New York: CIS – which is slated to kick off on Tuesday, October 6.
Hard Legion have decided to skip almost all tournaments leading to the IEM Masters and only plan on completing their obligations at LOOT.BET/CS Season 7, where they have already qualified for the playoffs.
MechanoGun also stated that he had only agreed to coach the team until January or February next year, at which points assistant coach Eric “Akimov” Akimov will take the reins. For now, however, Akimov and MechanoGun will work together to help Hard Legion make one last push in the RMR standings and claim Legends status for the upcoming ESL One: Rio 2020 Major.
As it stands now, Hard Legion are ranked fourth in the CIS RMR standings with 2,765 points. This sets them only 60 points behind Nemiga (2,825) in third, 665 behind Natus Vincere (3,430) in second and 710 behind the current leaders, Team Spirit (3,475).
]]>WINSTRIKE TEAM vs HARD LEGION ESPORTS CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS
WINSTRIKE vs HARD LEGION WEPLAY! CLUTCH ISLAND BETTING PREVIEW
Winstrike Team and Hard Legion Esports will clash for the second time in history this Saturday in the seventh-place decider match at WePlay! Clutch Island.
Despite receiving a direct invite to the third stage of the tournament, Winstrike’s performances have left a lot to be desired. They started with a 0-2 loss to Nemiga Gaming and followed up with a 1-2 defeat to ESPADA, thus finishing bottom of Group A and failing to progress to the playoffs.
The latter of those results was especially disappointing, as Winstrike squandered two golden opportunities to close out the match. Having sealed a comfortable 16-10 win on Dust II, they threw away a 14-7 lead on Mirage and then butchered a 9-6 advantage on Overpass. Both of those maps were notable for Winstrike’s awful performances on T-side.
Viktor “Lack1” Boldyrev ended the series against ESPADA with an impressive 1.40 rating, which was easily the top mark of all players on both sides. His teammates, however, were well below their best, as none of them neither to put up higher than a 1.09 rating.
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Like Winstrike, Hard Legion Esports have underperformed after receiving a direct invite to stage three of WePlay! Clutch Island. In the group stage, Sviatoslav “svyat” Dovbakh and his crew lost to Virtus.pro (1-2) and were trounced by Natus Vincere (0-2). They won only seven rounds against the IEM Katowice champions, finishing 2-16 on Train and 5-16 on Overpass.
Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy was the best-performing player on the team with a 0.73 rating against NaVi, while Dmytro “rAge” Bolotov managed only 0.50 for the series and an astounding 0.17 on Train – one of the lowest ratings ever seen in a professional play.
Hard Legion looked somewhat decent against Virtus.pro, although it was Forester was doing most of the work in that clash as well. He ended the series with the highest rating on the server (1.28), while his teammates Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko (0.91), Semyon “kinqie” Lisitsyn (0.89), rAge (0.86) and svyat (0.77) all struggled.
WINSTRIKE vs HARD LEGION ESPORTS WEPLAY! CLUTCH ISLAND BETTING PREDICTIONS
As above, Hard Legion mostly rely on Forester to do all the work. Although they showed some progress in May, their 50% win rate across the last 10 games is not too promising, especially considering they only managed to defeat HellRaisers, Wisla Krakow, Quantum Bellator Five and AGF, twice.
Winstrike, meanwhile, have an 80% win rate across the last 10 games. Most of those wins came in the ESEA Season 34: Advanced Division – Europe: Regular Season, where they faced semi-amateur teams such as Budapest Five, Kaban Gaming, Nevermind, Orgles5 and Wygers. They also defeated hREDS, sAw and AGF, but even that is not something to write home about.
The last time these teams met was in May at ESL One: Road to Rio – CIS, where Winstrike won 2-0. But while it makes sense to have them priced as favourites, we would not be so quick to side with them on the outright market.
Hard Legion might have slipped against NaVi, but that’s to be expected when facing one of the strongest teams in CS:GO esports. They have a lot of issues to work on but should at least win on Overpass, where they hold a 56% win rate over 25 games compared to Winstrike’s 0% in four games.
Over 2.5 maps is paying more than $2.00 at most online bookmakers, so we don’t have to think twice about this one.
Over 2.5 maps
HARD LEGION ESPORTS vs NORDAVIND CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS
HARD LEGION ESPORTS vs NORDAVIND #HOMESWEETHOME: WEEK 6 BETTING PREVIEW
The opening Group D fixture of #HomeSweetHome: Week 6 will mark the first official Counter-Strike meeting between Russia’s Hard Legion Esports and Norway’s Nordavind.
There is a sense of excitement whenever two esports teams meet for the first time, as it is often difficult to tell which side will have the upper hand. For this fixture, however, it’s hard to argue against Hard Legion’s substantial advantage.
Sviatoslav “svyat” Dovbakh and co. enter this match following an impressive run through ESL One: Road to Rio – CIS, where they finished third behind Winstrike Team and Team Spirit. Throughout the group stage, Hard Legion picked up wins over Syman (2-1), pro 100 (2-0), Virtus.pro (2-1) and even against the reigning IEM Katowice champions, Natus Vincere (2-0).
In the playoffs, however, Hard Legion failed to overcome Winstrike, who defeated them 19-16 on Vertigo and 16-7 on Mirage. On the bright side, svyat’s squad took down Virtus.pro in the third-place decider match and with that earned 1,400 Regional Major Ranking points, which puts them at the top of the CIS standings.
Hard Legion also participated at the fourth and fifth week of #HomeSweetHome. They reached the playoffs in both events but failed to make it past the quarter-finals, losing to Gambit Youngsters (1-2) and Heroic (1-2) respectively.
Despite their 58.1% win rate across the past three months and a very impressive 7-3 record in their last 10, Hard Legion have struggled to deliver when it matters. Nonetheless, their consistent performances in group stages should give them plenty of confidence for Friday’s fixture.
SEE ALSO: BEST ESPORTS BETTING SITES
Nordavind will look to improve upon their fifth-eighth finish at #HomeSweetHome: Week 5, where they looked fairly solid throughout the group stage but fell apart in the quarter-finals against SMASH Esports (1-2).
In their four group stage fixtures, Nordavind defeated SKADE twice (16-4 and 2-0), but failed to deliver against the eventual champions, Heroic (0-2). They put up a lot of resistance against Heroic, however, taking them to 40 rounds (18-22) on the first map, which suggests Jesper “tenzki” Plougmann and co. are not as terrible as they’re portrayed to be.
Nordavind also participated at LOOT.BET/CS Season 6 and BLAST Rising, finishing in third-fourth place at both events after losing their semi-final bouts against Heroic (0-2) and Endpoint (0-2) respectively. Again, those fixtures were closer than the scorelines appear to suggest.
While it is hard to criticise Nordavind for their lack of success in recent weeks, their failure to close out crucial matches is concerning. That issue is a byproduct of losing their in-game leader, Ruben “RUBINO” Villarroel, to a wrist injury at the start of March.
Nordavind enter this match with a 50% win rate from the last three months and a 5-5 record in their last five. Tenzki and his team picked up wins against HAVU, AGO, FATE and twice against SKADE, but they failed to see the same success against Sprout, Endpoint, Heroic, Smash and most recently against Nemiga at ESEA Season 34: Premier Division – Europe.
HARD LEGION ESPORTS vs NORDAVIND #HOMESWEETHOME: WEEK 6 BETTING PREDICTIONS
Because this is the first-ever fixture between Hard Legion and Nordavind, it’s difficult to predict how these two sides will stack up against each other. The best-of-one (Bo1) online format does not make it any easier.
Form-wise, Hard Legion hold a slight advantage over Nordavind, while the CIS roster’s average player rating is marginally higher across the last three months (1.048 – 1.018). In their last five fixtures, HL defeated HellRaisers, Tricked and AGO, while Nordavind only managed two wins over SKADE.
The map pools look fairly similar, although they further solidify Hard Legion’s favouritism. Nuke and Train are likely to be banned, and the Russians hold a better win rate on three of the remaining five maps. Even then, Nordavind’s advantage on Overpass (58% – 56%) and Inferno (45% – 39%) is only slight.
No matter which way you look at it, Hard Legion should have the upper hand in this contest. The online format will keep it entertaining, but Nordavind, missing their IGL, will struggle to stay within three rounds.
Hard Legion -2.5 rounds
- CSGO Betting Odds: ForZe $1.15 at GG Bet | Hard Legion $4.60 at GG Bet
- CSGO Betting Lines: ForZe -1.5 at $1.62 | Hard Legion +1.5 at $2.18
- When: January 20, 2020 at 14:00 CET
- Watch Live: Twitch
FORZE VS HARD LEGION UNITED MASTERS LEAGUE BETTING PREVIEW
Everything is set for the final quarter-finals fixture at United Masters League (UM), where we will see forZe take on their compatriots Hard Legion Esports (HL) in their first meeting since HL’s inception in October 2019.
ForZe are entering the quarter-finals as the alpha dogs of the tournament, having finished the regular season with a perfect 3-0 record, which they achieved with clean sweeps against HAVU Gaming, Giants Gaming and Sprout. While their record is impressive on its own, forZe also finished the group stage with +26 round difference. Since their last appearance in UM, back in November, when forZe bested Sprout (2-0), the Russians participated in five tournaments. On the same day as their clash with Sprout, forZe also played Aristocracy at SECTOR:MOSTBET, where they lost 0-2 and ended the tournament at the seventh-eighth place.
Shortly after, forZe appeared at DreamHack Open Winter, where they started slow with a defeat against Tricked Esport, but soon found their stride and bested the likes of MARSKALK, GODSENT and avenged their defeat against Tricked to claim the title and $50,000 in tournament winnings. The Russian outfit kept their fire going into December and defeated HAVU in the finals of the ESEA S32: Premier Division – Europe Finals, to which they added another title-winning run at ESEA S32: Global Challenge.
After their incredible run through DreamHack Open Winter and ESEA, forZe entered EPICENTER 2019, which was their first S-Tier tournament since Berlin Major back in August. Going against all the odds, forZe defeated Virtus.pro and Evil Geniuses in the group stage, which secured them a spot in the playoffs, where their Cinderella story came to an end, as they dropped the match against Heroic and finished the tournament at the fifth-sixth spot.
While forZe were making waves in the European CS:GO esports scene, Hard Legion were fighting for survival at UM. Following their disastrous start of the season, where they lost to Giants (1-2) and HAVU (0-2), HL pocketed a forfeit win against ex-Windigo Gaming, to which they added two wins against GODSENT (2-1) and ex-Virtus.pro (2-0).
With three wins under their belt, HL secured the sixth spot on the standing and a ticket leading into the playoffs, where they are now set to clash with their toughest opponents of the season. Since their win against ex-Virtus.pro roster in December, HL made an appearance at Champions Cup Finals, IEM Katowice 2020 Europe Open Qualifier #2 and Great Universe Cup.
At Champions Cup, HL crashed out of the group stage after suffering two humiliating defeats against G2 Esports and Team Spirit but saw more success at IEM Katowice qualifiers. There they bested Unicorns of Love, Melbet Team and water gamers, however, failed to impress in the finals, where they lost to AGO (5-16, 10-16). Just recently HL also won their opening match at Great Universe Cup against a C-Tier stack EL’quvet.
Forze versus Hard Legion Esports Betting Squad Changes
ForZe most recent major change to their squad came in August, when they appointed Anatoliy “liTTle” Yashin as their coach, while HL decided to bench Anton “speed4k” Titov at the start of the month. He got replaced by Dmitry “rAge” Bolotov who is currently a trial member.
FORZE VS HARD LEGION UNITED MASTERS LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL PREDICTIONS
HL and forZe have not met before as organizations, however, we did see DreamEaters (roster was later signed by HL) defeat forZe (2-0) at Berlin Major, which would suggest HL have a legitimate chance of winning here. That said, HL’s poor form failed to convince us they are capable of such feat and the fact that their new signing played only five games with the team doesn��t help their cause either.
To date, rAge has played five fixtures for HL and averaged 1.05 Rating. His best performance came at IEM Katowice Europe open qualifier, where he averaged 1.45 Rating against water eaters, while his worst performance (0.45) came in the finals of the same tournament, where HL lost to AGO.
Both sides are entering this bout with a 3-2 record in their last five, however, it’s worth noting forZe have played significantly stronger teams compared to HL and considering they bested the likes of EG and Virtus.pro makes us believe they should have a fairly easy time defeating HL as well.
Forze versus Hard Legion Esports Betting Tip
- Prediction: forZe -1.5 maps – $1.62 at GG Bet