ESB’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting tips for Friday focus on two IEM Katowice 2021 quarter-finals fixtures. Here are our best bets for Natus Vincere vs Gambit Esports and Astralis vs Virtus.pro.

?It’s quite remarkable how far Gambit Esports have come, although it’s not like they were ever a weak team; they were simply flying under the radar by not attending any top-tier events. Gambit have already proved their worth by beating the likes of mousesports (2-0), Heroic (2-1) and G2 Esports (2-0), but they will need to show a bit more on Friday when they face Natus Vincere.

NaVi came extremely close to securing direct passage to the semi-finals, but they fell flat against Team Liquid (1-2) in their final match of the group stage. It was not a good performance from the Ukrainian side, but it’s hard to criticise them for an overtime loss against the no.5 team in the world.

NaVi and Gambit last met in October 2020, when NaVi won with 12-16 and 11-16. Gambit should do better this time and will likely steal one map, but we have a hard time believing they will walk away with more than that. NaVi to win is a safe bet at solid odds, but we are chasing a bigger payout on the correct score.

?Astralis last met with Virtus.pro back in September 2019 in the grand finals of StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, back when VP’s roster were still playing under AVANGAR. Astralis won that match with 16-6 on Inferno and 16-5 on Dust II.

A lot has changed since then, as Astralis are no longer the powerhouse they were in 2019. The Danes fell to Team Spirit (1-2) in their final group match last week, which is concerning when they are set to face a team that swept the likes of Ninjas in Pyjamas, FURIA Esports and Team Vitality en route to the IEM Katowice playoffs.

We expect Astralis will win, but they won’t come with a clean sweep. If everything goes their way, VP might even edge past Astralis, but we are not ready to take a shot with the underdogs at these odds.