Team Liquid vs Vitality: ESL Pro League S21 playoffs betting tips

Luke Warr Published March 11, 2025

The ESL Pro League Season 21 playoffs are upon us and one of the opening matchups is Team Liquid vs Team Vitality; but how can bettors approach this one?

Team Liquid squeaked its way into the ESL Pro League playoffs yet again. While this is actually a standard happening for the league, the NA king had to claw its way through groups. On the flipside, Team Vitality breezed through the competition to a 3-0 record.

There’s a clear favorite both on paper and by the eyeball check. So how can anyone hope to make money here?

Team Vitality vs Team Liquid match overview

Counter-Strike 2’s top league will host a playoff matchup between Team Vitality and Team Liquid on March 14, 2025. The playoffs are an eight-team, single-elimination tournament. The winner will advance to the semifinals, while the loser goes home.

Team Vitality vs Team Liquid in-depth team analysis

Team Vitality roster and recent results

Team Vitality is off to a hot start in 2025, winning IEM Katowice 2025 and blazing its way through the ESL Pro League Season 21 group stage. It went 3-0 against MIBR, 3DMAX, and MOUZ. It brings its standard roster to the field, led by apEX and ZywOo:

• Dan “apEX” Madesclaire
• Robin “ropz” Kool
• Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
• Shahar “flameZ” Shushan
• William “mezii” Merriman

Team Vitality map pool

Vitality is a strong team and as such, it’s strong on basically every map. It has a 100% winrate over the last three months on Dust 2, Nuke, Inferno, and Train, with Nuke being one of the team’s go-to maps. The only area of weakness is Anubis, where the team actually struggles.

Team Liquid roster and recent results

Team Liquid has generally posted solid, but not particularly dazzling results in recent months. Twistzz has his hand on the team’s reins these days and while there have been questions about whether that’s a good thing, he’s individually talented enough to make up for it. Here’s Team Liquid’s roster for the ESL Pro League Season 21 playoffs:

• Keith “NAF” Markovic
• Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
• Roland “ultimate” Tomkowiak
• Justin “jks” Savage
• Guy “NertZ” Iluz

Team Liquid map pool

Anubis is Liquid’s go-to map and it has a solid record there, which could let the boys in blue get on the board. Elsewhere, they’ve been performing well on Inferno. Liquid also typically bans Dust 2.

Team Vitality vs Team Liquid statistics, data

• This is Team Liquid’s 14th time competing in ESL Pro League playoffs
• Liquid has a favorable matchup against Vitality on Anubis

Team Vitality vs Team Liquid head-to-head record

Liquid and Vitality have faced off three times in the last six months, with Vitality getting the win every time. Two of those have been 2-1 victories while the other was a 2-0.

Team Vitality vs Team Liquid betting odds snapshot

Team Vitality is a huge 1.17 favorite against Team Liquid, who has a moneyline standing at about 5.00. Bookies are mostly convinced that Team Liquid has this in the bag, which is understandable given Vitality’s recent form and the head-to-head results.

Team Vitality vs Team Liquid betting picks & predictions

Core picks

• Team Liquid wins on Anubis
  • Liquid’s chances of winning a map radically go up if Anubis gets in there, which is something for live bettors to watch out for
• Vitality wins quickly
  • Vitality hasn’t given up more than eight rounds on a map where it wins thus far in ESL Pro League Season 21, so there’s some value in combining wins with over/unders

Prediction

Team Vitality should be able to defeat Team Liquid fairly comfortably in ESL Pro League Season 21’s playoffs. It’s not impossible for Liquid to pick up a victory as the team is quite scrappy, but a 2-0 victory for Vitality is the favored outcome among bookies. But once again, Anubis presents a real chance for Liquid to, at the very least, get on the board.

Think you know who will win?