As some of you may have already heard, I will be doing "official" predictions for Division 1 of ENSL. The plan is to release these predictions at 19:00 CET every Wednesday, so check the site around that time every week if you're interested. In addition to my own predictions, I've also brought in avl, lump and Pizza to provide additional predictions. Some matches will have more predictions than others, because we're not going to predict our own matches.

Let's get crackin'

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Ownage (0-0-0) vs. netpoint.EoD (0-0-0)


avl's prediction

Impact players (Ownage): tutu- (Marine)
Impact players (netpoint.EoD): ppon (Marine)

There's no doubting the skill present on the ownage roster, however to my mind they haven't been performing as well ingame as they look like doing on paper for quite a while now. Putting this to one side though they've been the top clan in France for a long time, and have managed to maintain a decent level of activity throughout the winter period, which should help them as they practice for this first week. netpoint.EoD on the other hand is a clan known for its varying levels of activity, though from past results in competitions such as the Clanbase Opencup where the spaniards defeated .BM and almost took knife in the finals it is clear that when in practice netpoint can be extremely strong.

I'd say that the result of this matchup depended on how much practice netpoint can fit in as they return from inactivity. Although my final prediction for this match is 2-2 with aliens ties, i'm still half expecting netpoint to take at least one of their marine rounds despite the balance flaws in this version.

(2) Ownage = netpoint.EoD (2)


Fana's prediction

Impact players (Ownage): ashrak (Lerk), tutu- (Marine)
Impact players (netpoint.EoD): ppon (Marine)

A battle of the nations this week, you could almost call it, as both Ownage and netpoint are considered to be the best NS teams their nations have to offer. Ownage have been going at it with their stable and skilled roster for a while now, constantly practicing and keeping activity levels decently high. netpoint, on the other hand, have been a bit less consistent, dropping in and out of inactivity only to surprise everyone with their strong game. Defeating Bacon Men and taking Knife to the tie breaker round, losing in a closely fought match, proved to everyone that they were a force to be reckoned with.

Both teams have what you would call an evenly divided roster, with players of fairly equal skill, all being able to make a big impact on the match. This is one of both teams' greatest advantages, and it's going to be interesting to see how this pans out when they face each other. netpoint's recent inactivity since Team Spain fell apart is definitely going to hurt them, but I've seen them play lately, and hopefully they'll be able to clear out the rust before the match. From personal experience with the teams, I believe Ownage to have a stronger alien round than netpoint, but netpoint's very aggressive marine tactics puts most other teams out of balance, and I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to take at least one marine round.

With that said, this is still 3.0.3, and aliens have the advantage. With both teams being, in my opinion, so evenly matched, and both maps being fairly alien friendly, I'm going to have to predict an alien tie here.

(2) Ownage = netpoint.EoD (2)


lump's prediction

Impact players (Ownage): Shi (Fade)
Impact players (netpoint.EoD): kArtmAn (Fade)

Netpoint is a recently formed clan made of many of the strongest players from Spain. Combining DfX and EoD, the two clans who dominated the Spanish scene since version 3 beta. However they have been inactive for a long period in NS and seem very out of practice compared to old form. This said, they where in the same situation for the Clanbase Opencup but managed to reach the finals beating many strong teams on the way and losing in an epic battle against Knife. Ownage on the other hand have been running strong for longer than most other top NS clans and are the main strength in the French leagues and have improved lots with Shivan returning to competitive NS.

I think despite the previous skill of many of the netpoint players, the activity of Ownage will give them a 3-1 win, only losing the marine on ns_lost due to its large vent structure and numerous ambush spots for aliens.

(3) Ownage > netpoint.EoD (1)


Pizza's prediction

Impact players (Ownage): Shi (Fade), tutu- (Marine)
Impact players (netpoint.EoD): kArtmAn (Marine), ppon (Marine)

Ownage has been a hot word in past leagues, but it seems like they have been starting to lack something, while EoD surprised everyone by tying Knife in the first match of the Opencup finals, and earlier by dropping BM in the playoffs. These two teams don't seem to have any drastic lineup changes and both teams have been playing with the same roster for quite some time. Ownage and netpoint both have well known, experienced players that should put up a good show of invidual skill, though most of all I'd like to see if all the old-schoolers of netpoint are actually still active.

Hard to pick a winner between these two teams so I have to predict a tie or a tight 3-1 win for netpoint.

(2) Ownage = netpoint.EoD (2)

Levitacus (0-0-0) vs. BoonSquad (0-0-0)


avl's prediction

Impact players (Levitacus): Invasion (Fade)
Impact players (BoonSquad): Hickz (Marine), Mt (Fade)

Levitacus have in my opinion improved greatly in the recent past, from being just another mid-level clan to the best in finland after #lucky.ns went inactive. Their roster does lack a few well established names which makes it somewhat easy to underestimate them, though this is something BoonSquad definitely should not do considering how long Levitacus has been playing together. BoonSquad in contrast certainly does have recognisable faces and is made up of players from the now dead clans CuC, .BM and intrepid, though it remains to be seen whether these players can still match up to the new talent present in Levitacus and whether BoonSquad can get their teamwork down before this weeks match.

After watching several pcws involving these two clans over the past few days I believe this should be a very closely fought game, though if it doesnt end up as alien ties I'd put money on Levitacus winning it on lost.

(3) Levitacus > BoonSquad (1)


Fana's prediction

Impact players (Levitacus): -
Impact players (BoonSquad): mst (Lerk)

Levitacus have been one of the big surprises in European NS this spring, going from very mediocre to highly skilled in a very short time span. BoonSquad has also been a bit of a surprise, with a combination of players no-one would've thought possible before Bacon Men went inactive. What both these clans have in common, are very balanced roster, with players of seemingly equal skill who can all perform when needed. What Levitacus lacks the most are the big names, that can carry games on their own, however, while BoonSquad have a few more players of that calibre. Unfortunately for BoonSquad, they also lack some of the biggest names that dominated the clans most of them come from, such as G, morphz, zaiko and wltrs, and I don't think this will be a match dominated by solo player performances.

Levitacus are in control of what I think will be one of the deciding factors in this match, which is team play. While BoonSquad just formed a few weeks ago, Levitacus have been practicing together with mostly the same, although big, roster for the last four months. While I doubt BoonSquad will be able to win any Marine rounds against Levitacus, Levitacus might just manage to edge a marine victory on lost, the least alien biased of this week's maps.

Unfortunately for what could've been a very tense match, this is 3.0.3 and teams so close skill wise as these, will invariably alien tie unless something strange happens. An alien tie is my prediction, but if anyone takes it, it's going to be Levitacus.

(2) Levitacus = BoonSquad (2)


Pizza's prediction

Impact players (Levitacus): Invasion (Marine), Scale (Lerk)
Impact players (BoonSquad): mst (Lerk)

This should be an interesting matchup. Levitacus is rather new to the "big leagues" while Boonsquad has lots of players from past skilled clans, such as breaking Point and the Bacon Men. Then again, Levitacus has been doing better and better by playing lots of pcw's while BS has just been sewn together. Levitacus has a huge roster consisting of 14 people so I guess they will have various results depending on the current lineup that's on the field. To pick some names, mst should prove to be an annoying lerk and I've heard that Levitacus has lots of skilled players such as Kira and Scale, but I haven't had much experience with them so I can't say for sure.

Because of the current version of NS and this being the first week of ENSL, I have to call this a tie.

(2) Levitacus = BoonSquad (2)


knifegaming (0-0-0) vs. lessthanthree (0-0-0)


lump's prediction

Impact players (knifegaming): morphz (Fade/Marine), mu (Fade/Marine)
Impact players (lessthanthree): avl (Marine), Bugstah! (Lerk/Comm)

Lessthanthree and Knife have both been in the top 3 most active NS clans in europe for the last few months, with Knife always being the strong of the two despite a 1-1 draw in CAL on ns_eon. Lessthanthree have had many of their players become active again only in the last 2 months but have still managed to keep up the standards and recruited a few more promising players. Knife will still be too strong for them with their superior line-up and teamwork.

Losing G was a blow for Knife's alien round, but they will still be overpowering lessthanthree with the marine and fading skills of morphz and mu. 3-1 or 4-0 to Knife, the only doubts I have are marine on ns_lost for Knife but i expect they have been practicing the map lots to develop a strong tactic and show a good performance.

(4) knifegaming > lessthanthree (0)

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Remember to utilize the built in user prediction system on this site. Vote for whichever team you think will win, and dominate the predictor charts if you have a knack for predicting winners! Click on the match you want to predict a score for, for example knifegaming (0-0-0) vs. lessthanthree (0-0-0), click on the clan names with percentage signs next to them, and go crazy!