What to expect from M80 v. paiN

M80 and paiN will meet today in the 1-0 pool of the ESL Pro League Season 21 Stage 1 Swiss group. The North Americans took down FlyQuest in their debut without too much problem, while paiN decimated the Australian team Housebets.

Playing paiN in theory will be much more difficult as the Brazilians are in considerably better form than FlyQuest. However, should M80 win, they'll put one foot in EPL S21 Stage 2 already.

One of M80's best maps is probably out of the cards

M80 has won all their last four games on Ancient and even put up a good fight against FaZe and 500 when Nils "k1to" Gruhne was standing in for Ethan "reck" Serrano. However, the map is likely off the cards as paiN last played Ancient in November 2024 and it's their perma ban.

• M80 could go for Anubis, a map that paiN don't play since the Perfect World Shanghai Major in December 2024

• slaxz played well against FlyQuest, but he'll face nqz, who has been paiN's best player this year (1.10 rating on LAN)

• s1n's calls will have to be diverse as biguzera is known for anti-stratting

paiN are trying to find that consistency to start challenging for titles

Even though paiN are likely the best Brazilian team at the moment, they still lack the consistency to really be title contenders. This is because Lucas "nqz" Soares is the closest they have of a superstar, but he's still far off getting true superstar numbers consistently.

What makes paiN a good team is Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt and Henrique 'rikz' Waku's system and the amount of time they put into preparing for matches.

• paiN generally have good reads, regardless of who they're playing against

• David "dav1deuS" Tapia has popped off in some matches, leading Alexandre "gAuLeS" Borba to call him the Chilean malbsMd

• They tend to approach every match individually and prepare accordingly

Previous matchups

paiN and M80 have never played each other.

Likely vetoes

Unlike FlyQuest, paiN has a much broader map pool, so M80 won't have the upper hand again when it comes to the veto. This is mere speculation, given we don't know if paiN will pick first or ban last, but let's assume paiN will ban last.

• M80 remove Nuke (it's their perma ban)

• paiN remove Ancient (see above)

• M80 pick Dust 2 (they're good in it and paiN have a negative record)

• paiN pick Mirage (one of their favorite maps and they beat Astralis, Falcons, GamerLegion, and Virtus.pro in it recently)

• M80 remove Train (they played only once, with k1to, and lost)

• paiN remove Inferno (M80's best map in the past three months)

• Anubis is left over (both teams are solid in it)

This isn't the worst for M80 and should the veto play out like this, they have a fair chance of overcoming paiN despite the Brazilians' favoritism.