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We continue to traverse the vastness of the League of Legends competitive scene. While the big tournaments are just getting ready to resume, there are plenty of smaller championships, but no less The International heresy.
ESL Challenger Katowice 2024 is one of them, where 8 teams play for a $100,000 prize pool and a trip to ESL Pro League Season 21. Among the contenders for the top prize are Falcons and sAw.
The match between Falcons and sAw will take place on 25 October as part of Group A at ESL Challenger Katowice 2024. Let's try to figure out who will be stronger and qualify for the next stage of the group, and who will have to play in the match for life.
Let's go.
Falcons shape
We open our analysis of the Falcons vs sAw match with an analysis of the Falcons' form. They play in this match as favourites with odds to win at around 1.6.
For the whole of 2023 Falcons have been, as they call it, in search of themselves. They started the professional season with appearances at B-Tier tournaments: Thunderpick Bitcoin Series #2, OMEN WRG Challenge 2023 and CCT West Europe Series #1. At the first two, they celebrated a top-2 finish, and at the more prestigious CCT, a top-8 finish.
Later tried to make it to the Paris Major . Had two attempts, at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A and BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR B. Both were unsuccessful: top-11 and top-6.
In the middle of the year, Falcons continued to bang their heads against the wall. Top-13 at ESL Challenge League Season 45: Europe, Top-10 at ESL Championnat National Spring 2023 and Top-24 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1.
Tried to qualify for IEM Sydney 2023, but fell off at the top-64 stage in the open qualifiers. As a Saudi Arabian club they got a slot at Gamers8 2023, where they played to the best of their ability, which is Top 16.
- Falcons roster: Snappi, Magisk, maden, s1mple, dupreeh.
At the end of the year Falcons tried to put together a DreamTeam. So far it's not working out so well, because the first tournament with the new squad they failed. That was BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2024, where the team finished top-12.
At IEM Katowice 2024 they got to the IEM Katowice 2024 by ESL Ranking points. There they were ranked in the top 10 before the tournament's Long Shogpeg, but for what merits - a big mystery.
IEM Katowice 2024 Falcons started with a defeat against the best team of Turkey - Eternal Fire. After losing to the Turks, Falcons were close to crashing out of the tournament in a lower bracket match against Rebels, but managed to stay afloat thanks to a 2-1 win. In fact, a similar situation happened in the match against CoL, where Falcons gave up the first map, but cameback on the second and closed the series with a third. Later they defeated NaVi, and at the end of the championship they took the top 4, Ledgeiv to the future champions from Team Spirit.
Later they played at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they completely failed, finishing in the top-28. IEM Dallas 2024 started with a loss to G2, but then confidently ran over Monte with a score of 2-0. However, the Falcons were not enough for much more and at the end of IEM Dallas 2024 they finished in TOP-9-12.
Before the performance at IEM Dallas 2024 they visited Challengers at DreamHack. They got to IEM Dallas 2024 thanks to ESL rankings.
IEM Cologne 2024 Play-In Long We started with a match against Eternal Fire, where Ledge won 1-2. Next was a match against ALTERNATE aTTaX in the lower grid and a clean win for Falcons. They got into the group stage after beating BIG 2-1, and in the first match of the group stage they fought MOUZ, but lost 1-2. They stayed afloat with a 2-1 win over Vp. However, they couldn't go far, because after the meeting with FaZe, Falcons finished their performance at IEM Cologne 2024 on top 9-12.
At ESL Pro League Season 20 they started their performance with a match against FURIA (1-2), and then they beat ATOX (2-0) without any problems. However, they were not able to go far, because in the next match they lost, dropping out at the TOP-28 stage.
Later Falcons played at Thunderpick World Championship 2024, where they failed again: TOP-16 is not a good result.
Falcons Mappool
The Falcons' best map is Nuke (1 game, 1 win). Next is Ancient (1 win, 1 loss).
Among the unfavourable maps for Falcons are Vertigo and Anubis. They have 3 matches and 1 win on the former, while Anubis has 1 loss.
Form sAw.
We continue our analysis of the match sAw - Falcons with an analysis of sAw's form. In this match the Portuguese club is playing as an outsider with odds to win at around 2.5.
sAw are ranked at number 30 in the HLTV world rankings. This is thanks to playing in a multitude of tournaments of different calibre.
They started the year with qualifications for ESL Pro League Season 17: European Conference. There we shared the top 1. Then there were two Top 4s at CCT South Europe Series #2 and OMEN WGR Challenge 2023.
There were also appearances at major championships, such as ESL Pro League Season 17. However, it was not possible to get a high result, only TOP-28, but the experience of the game.
Later sAw took the top 8 at CCT North Europe Series #4, top 4 at ESL Challenger League Season 44: Europe. In April 2023, sAw played at BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, but failed to rise above the TOP-16. But they managed to do it later, at local tournaments.
This was the case at Masters League Portugal Season 11: Online, where sAw won the trophy by beating For the Win in the final. This was the case at ESL Masters Espana Season 13: Onilne Stage, ESL Masters Espana Season 13, CCT West Europe #4.
- Composition sAw: MUTiRiS, rmn, ewjerkz, story, arrozdoce.
Before taking part in CCT Online Finals #5 sAw played a lot of championships and, to be fair, they were good almost everywhere. They took top 2 at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #2, CCT North Europe Series #6, Aveiro Techdays Cup 2023, Master League Portugal Season 12: Online Stage.
We also played in big tournaments, such as Thunderpick World Championship 2023, where unfortunately for us we couldn't rise above TOP-12. At the end of November we won Master League Portugal Season 12 and XL Games Clash 2023.
CCT Online Finals #5 sAw Long Sogpeg were very confident. They easily ran over Team Space in the first round of the top set, winning 2-0. What came next was more difficult.
In the second round of CCT Online Finals #5 sAw met Aurora, who were stronger than the Portuguese. The match lasted 3 maps and sAw even won the first one, but it didn't go any further and as a result Aurora reached the semi-finals winning their series 1-2.
In the match for the third round of play-offs CCT Online #5 sAw met Zero Tenacity. The Portuguese had no trouble getting past their vis-a-vis, closing out the series with a score of 2-0. However, Fnatic could not be defeated and sAw finished in the top 4.
Next up was a top-4 finish at ESL Challenger at DreamHack Atlanta 2024 and a similar placing at ESL Challenger League Season 48: Europe
Mappool sAw
The most successful map for sAw is Nuke, where the Spaniards have 3 wins with 1 loss. Followed by Vertigo with 2-1 and Ancient with 3-2.
Neutral choices are Inferno and Anubis. Both maps have been played 4 times and on both maps the stats are 2-2.
The worst situation is on Overpass, where sAw won 2 matches out of 6.
Mirage are not playing.
History of head-to-head meetings Falcons - sAw
Previously, the teams have not played each other in official meetings.
Predicted result of sAw - Falcons at ESL Challenger Katowice 2024
In this match my bet is on sAw. Bo1 format should play to their advantage and Falcons, to put it mildly, do not inspire confidence with their game.
Bottom line: sAw wins.
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