Photo: Adela Sznajder for DreamHack

The rivalry continues today at the BLAST Pro Series São Paulo as Astralis battles it out with Team Liquid. This time the titans will face each other on Dust2 and so we will compare their stats on each.

Both teams have played the map eight times against teams ranked in the top 20 on HLTV currently over the last six months. This will be the criteria we’re comparing moving forward in this article.

Liquid will be viewed with their core 4 roster as Jake “stewie2k” Yip hasn’t been there long enough to compare those stats.

Photo: ESL

In terms of win percentage, to no surprise, it is Astralis who holds the upper-hand in this category. The team which has dominated most of 2018 comes in at 87.5%. The one thing to note from this, however, is that Astralis’ one loss is to Liquid themselves at the iBUYPOWER Masters 2019 in January of this year. On the flip side, Astralis has also bested Liquid on the map. Neither series being a blow out though and showing that the map is one of their more tightly contested.

Taking a deeper dive into the stats on the map for either team reveals they’re even closer than we may think. Both Astralis and Liquid have picked up a total of 123 rounds out of 207 and 205 respectively. Almost playing each other and other teams to a T. Moreso, there is a mere .3% difference favoring Astralis in the round win percent after getting the first kill in a round. Liquid holds the title in this matchup at 79.8% to Astralis’ 79.5%.

Comparing opponents,

Liquids faced:

Natus Vincere

fnatic

BIG

mousesports

NRG

Astralis

Astralis faced:

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Natus Vincere

FaZe

HellRaisers

fnatic

MIBR

I find it hard to say one had it harder than the other as FaZe, MIBR, NiP, NRG, and BIG are all formiddable foes.

Astralis wins EPL S8 (Credit: ESL)

Based on the stats, it’s a tough call to make. Both teams have been nearly identical and also have a 1-1 head-to-head record in the last 6 months. If you consider this exact 5-man lineup for Liquid, they hold a 1-0 advantage over the Danes on Dust2, but let’s not make it more than it is. Astralis immediately bounced back and won the IEM Katowice 2018 Major while Liquid went home early and disappointed.

Taking into account Astralis’ accolades over the last year, they, of course, will enter the series as the favorites but counting Liquid out isn’t looking like the safest option either. Throwing a wrench into a prediction even further is the new economy, but we’ll give it a shot anyway.

My mind: 16-13 Astralis

My heart: 16-14 Liquid

All stats were gathered from HLTV.