ESL Pro League Season 17 Group D: Team Liquid vs Rare Atom Preview

Taking a look at one of the matches in the second batch of the simultaneously-running series in Group D of ESL Pro League Season 17, Team Liquid vs Rare

In the next lot of ESL Pro League Season 17 matches, American powerhouse Team Liquid will face Chinese side Rare Atom at the same time as South African side ATK goes up against Finnish former juggernauts ENCE. This will follow in the footsteps of two exciting matches, and you can rest assured that this battle has the potential to be just as thrilling. Whether you’re planning to put money on the line for these matchups or just want to know more about the teams, here’s our in-depth preview.

Contents

1 Team Liquid
2 Rare Atom
3 Predictions
4 Match Links

Team Liquid

Liquid were last season’s ESL Pro League finalists, and were only just edged out by a resilient Team Vitality. They have since lost another final of a big event, but other than that it’s mostly been brief appearances in the Playoffs of many different tournaments. They’d no doubt love to get started with this tournament with a big splash, and Rare Atom Seem like the kind of team they can do that against.

Players

Nick “nitr0” Cannella

HLTV Rating: 0.99
Impact Rating: 0.98
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.1%
Average Damage Round: 70.7
Kills Per Round: 0.66

Joshua “oSee” Ohm

HLTV Rating: 1.14
Impact Rating: 1.12
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.9%
Average Damage Round: 75.6
Kills Per Round: 0.73

Keith “NAF” Markovic

HLTV Rating: 1.09
Impact Rating: 1.08
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.4%
Average Damage Round: 81.1
Kills Per Round: 0.73

Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski

HLTV Rating: 1.08
Impact Rating: 1.23
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.3%
Average Damage Round: 83.3
Kills Per Round: 0.75

Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis

HLTV Rating: 1.14
Impact Rating: 1.29
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.7%
Average Damage Round: 82.7
Kills Per Round: 0.75

Player to Watch

We almost always pick EliGE for this sort of thing, but for this occasion, we’re going to go with YEKINDAR, who is just as good as the American superstar on his best days.

Rare Atom

One of the lowest seeds at the tournament, the Chinese side may be one of the better teams in Asia, but has very little international pedigree. That being said, these plucky underdogs have been doing extremely well in the Asia-Pacific scene, with multiple triumphs in qualifiers and at Perfect World Arena Premier League Season 3 since the start of the year. There’s every chance that these guys might turn out to be the next IHC Esports, so don’t count them out.

Players

Liang “advent” Zhuo

HLTV Rating: 0.87
Impact Rating: 0.76
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.4%
Average Damage Round: 62.1
Kills Per Round: 0.56

Andrew “kaze” Khong

HLTV Rating: 1.18
Impact Rating: .22
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 73.8%
Average Damage Round: 79.2
Kills Per Round: 0.77

Yang “JamYoung” Yi

HLTV Rating: 1.19
Impact Rating: 1.17
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 74.0%
Average Damage Round: 81.4
Kills Per Round: 0.76

Chen “Moseyuh” Qianhao

HLTV Rating: 1.12
Impact Rating: 1.14
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 71.8%
Average Damage Round: 78.4
Kills Per Round: 0.71

Wang “Mercury” Jingxiang

HLTV Rating: 1.18
Impact Rating: 1.25
Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.6%
Average Damage Round: 82.9
Kills Per Round: 0.76

Player to watch

Little is known about Rare Atom players outside of the APAC region, but judging by the stats, we’re going to go with Mercury as he seems to be the deadliest.

Predictions

Even if they’re really good, we can’t go with Rare Atom against a team as strong as Liquid. We call a 2-0 for the Americans.

Maps

Liquid might just go for Vertigo since Anubis will likely be banned, while Rare Atom will probably go with Inferno like many other Asian teams. As for the decider, we’re going to go with Mirage.

Score

Map 1: Liquid to win with Rare Atom <12.

Map 2: Liquid to win with Rare Atom <8.

Top Fragger

Given his form and gameplay, we’ll go with YEKINDAR on this one as well. The man is a beast on the rifle, and his holds, entries and flanks are all devastating.