imo here the map pool is pretty favored towards PRX.
ZETA's perma bans are ascent and breeze, though in the DRX series they opted to ban haven because it has looked very lackluster in the group stages, they ended up doing pretty well on ascent, losing in part due to heroics by buzz. other than that they have 3 other very solid maps in icebox, fracture, and split. that leaves only bind, which they lost to G2 on, so im not very confident in their ability on it, especially against PRX's trained bind setups.
PRX seem to not like ascent, fracture, and breeze. they're comfortable on split, haven, and bind, only banning haven once against DRX. though we haven't seen their icebox in Reykjavik so far, they looked solid on it in the APAC playoffs, not losing once on it.
im predicting the map veto will go:
- PRX ban fracture (they don't like it, zeta are really good on it, really surprising if they dont ban it)
- ZETA ban haven/bind (both definitely dont want to go on breeze, and maybe ascent. both teams look fairly decent on it, but not their comfort maps for sure. with both haven and bind being PRX's comfort picks, ZETA ban which ever one they feel less confident in, im personally leaning haven)
- PRX pick haven/bind (which ever zeta don't ban, on both maps PRX are solid and ZETA are not)
- ZETA pick icebox (they must have confidence in their icebox if they picked it into DRX)
- PRX ban ascent/split (banning split could be a really good read by them, eliminating ZETA's only other really solid map if they have confidence in their ascent, they could also just not ¯_(ツ)_/¯)
- ZETA ban breeze
Ascent/Split remains
of course this is all assuming if ZETA and PRX's supporting staff make a read on each other's map pools and adjust to it. Icebox is gonna be a crucial map, deciding the series IMO. ZETA's chance of winning is if PRX leave split open and they pull a win on icebox, I really don't see them besting PRX on haven or bind. As I mentioned, historically PRX have looked good on Icebox, so ZETA basically have to pull a miracle show AGAIN to reach lower finals.
personally i will be rooting for both teams as I've supported them since the first Masters a whole year ago. if i could change my pickems i would have PRX winning, but my heart is still with ZETA even if i doubted them from the start. seeing them both find success getting it this far after last year, it feels like I'm the real winner here. no matter the outcome the match will be a 10000% certified banger. #ZETAWIN #PRXWIN
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