What to expect from Imperial versus Monte

The IEM Cologne Play-Ins are about to kick off, with many rosters looking to make a sound first impression after the historically active player break. Two of those lineups, Imperial and Monte, are debuting their new look-lineups against one another. On the Americas side, all eyes will be on Imperial in this matchup after losing a pair of talented players in Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes. The new Imperial will look to start on the right foot in a BO1 battle with Cologne in their sights.

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Can HEN1 replicate his MIBR form?

Veteran AWPer Henrique “HEN1” Teles was performing at eye-popping levels with the big green while a part of the MIBR lineup before the Imperial transition, with streaks of outright dominance as he ended nearly 81% of 240 maps with MIBR over a 1.0 rating. If he can mirror that form inside of this lineup, HEN1 will be a major source of impact for his team and a rather difficult force to stop.

HEN1 ended with a 1.0+ rating in 23 of 27 events with MIBR
Statistically, 2023 has been far and away HEN1’s best year of his career

How does Monte recover after losing their star?

Like many lower-tier teams in Counter-Strike, Monte saw their roster plucked of talent in the offseason with talented rifler Mohammad ‘BOROS” Malhas seeing a transfer to Falcons. Following the departure of their number one talent, they’ve added Denmark’s Alexander “br0” Bro, a player that Monte is hoping can be as impactful as his name is cool. Until the 21-year-old proves to be a bonafide star, Monte will have to lean on their familiar talent for success.

Following the BOROS exit, the team will look to Volodymyr “Woro2k” Veletniuk and Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev for impact
br0 makes his Monte debut following 234 maps and a 1.09 rating with Astralis Talent

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Recent Matchups

These lineups have never met before.

Likely Vetos

Time will tell what these two lineups settle into as their preferred map pool, but judging by how their previous iterations picked and banned maps, it makes a lot of sense that these two would look to do battle on Overpass or Ancient given both of their mutual comfort and success on both maps.

The two teams will clash tomorrow morning at 11:00AM.

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