ESB returns with another set of Counter-Strike betting predictions for Wednesday’s matches at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. Here are our best bets for Team Spirit vs Extra Salt, NASR vs Gambit Esports, and FURIA vs MiBR.

?It’s difficult to make a case for Extra Salt here, and not least because Team Spirit have been playing extremely well for the past month. Extra Salt are essentially the former Cloud9 core plus Edgar “MarKE” Maldonado, formerly of Chaos Esports Club.

Extra Salt enter this match with a 30-3 record since late January, which should catch anyone’s attention, but most of their wins have come against weaker sides at ESEA events and the DreamHack Open. On the other side, Team Spirit are 13-3 since late January, and that record includes wins against some of the best European sides.

Extra Salt field capable players who were relatively successful while playing under Cloud9, but it’s been a while since they last faced a top-20 team, let alone the no.7 side in the world. Team Spirit are just too good at the moment, so we are backing them to cover the map line.

?Going from one mismatch to another, we have NASR Esports taking on Gambit Esports in the second fixture of the day. A quick look at the odds reveals just how one-sided this match should be, with esports bookmakers giving NASR only a 6% chance to defeat the reigning IEM Katowice champions.

The betting odds don’t surprise us, considering NASR are a UAE squad featuring four unknown players and former Budapest Five in-game leader Atif “gejmzilla” Mustafa as their captain. What’s more, NASR have yet to face a top-tier team since World Electronic Sports Games 2018, where they fielded a completely different squad.

Betting on Gambit to win 2-0 at $1.16 offers no value, but we are happy to take a shot with NASR at the +1.5 map handicap. This is a complete long shot, but the odds make it worth a stab for two reasons.

Firstly, Gambit might not take this match too seriously and could be overconfident, which could turn around and bite them. Secondly, NASR are an unknown opponent for Gambit, whereas the underdogs have more than enough film to analyse and figure out how to play this one. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen, but at $4.81, we are ready to pull the trigger on NASR getting on the board.

?Once a Classico of the LATAM CS:GO scene, this fixture is now regarded as more of a warm-up match for FURIA. The latest CS:GO betting odds don’t seem too wrong at first, but we have to consider that this is still a match between two local rivals who know each other well.

It’s no secret FURIA overtook MiBR as the best Brazilian CS:GO team last year, but we are reluctant to believe Andrei “arT” Piovezan and his crew will walk away with a clean sweep. That is despite their 2-0 win against MiBR at ESL Pro League Season 13 last month.

These Brazilian derbies can be quite volatile, which is a good enough reason for us to believe MiBR can make something happen. The outsiders have a better win rate on Dust II, Mirage and Overpass, and as long as Raphael “exit” Lacerda can continue playing as well as he has for the past month, MiBR should be able to make FURIA sweat.