What to expect from Wildcard v. Cloud9

Wildcard were dealt an incredibly rough hand at IEM Chengdu 2024. It really is the 2-7 off-suit of tournament starts. Not only do they have to play former player with Ian "motm" Hardy, they also lost star Josh "JBa" Barutt to a bout with food poisoning. And now, to make things even worse, after being crushed in their opening match to Virtus.Pro, their opponents are none other than Cloud9, who meet the Americans courtesy of an upset victory by FlyQuest.

One of Wildcard or Cloud9's time in China will be over tonight. We have one best-of-three to determine exactly who that will be.

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Wildcard: let's be honest

Let's be completely honest here. Wildcard already came into Chengdu as one of the least favorite teams to make a deep run. Then we got news of Qihao "C4LLM3SU3" Su's situation. Then jBa was sidelined. It's been a truly terrible turn of events all around, and nobody would be disappointed if Wildcard did not put on their best performance tonight. Nonetheless, you play the hand you've been dealt, so our plucky NA squad must do just that.

jBa has a 1.13 rating over the past three months, losing him hurts
horvy's 0.36 rating against Cloud9 was tragic. He doesn't need to be a star, but he cannot be a liability if Wildcard want to make this upset work
Aran "sonic" Groesbeek can be a dominating presence with no full-time AWPer on the other side

Cloud9, the Major hangover

It's no secret that Cloud9 haven't had the rosiest of starts to 2024, but one would have thought those quirks had been worked out seeing their quarterfinal appearance at the Copenhagen Major. Unfortunately, the turnaround time to IEM Chengdu proved to be too quick as Cloud9 lost twelve in a row to FlyQuest in the opening match to lose 6-13.

They gotta figure out an AWPer, man
Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov has hit a rough patch, only 1.09 rating over the past three months
Is an early loss the the Aussies indicative of jet lag, BO1 upsets, or something more?

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Previous Matchups

These two teams have yet to face one another courtesy of Wildcard's limited international experience.

Likely Vetoes

Wildcard remove Ancient (First ban usually)
Cloud9 remove Vertigo (Permaban)
Wildcard pick Mirage (Picked first in recent times)
Cloud9 pick Anubis (By far most played map, good win rate)
Overpass decider (Comfortable for both teams)

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