The IEM Rio Major will kick off the Champions Stage on Thursday, when the first two quarter-finals will take place. Below you will find our best bets for both games — Outsiders vs Fnatic and MOUZ vs Cloud9 — with odds courtesy of the best esports betting sites for gamblers in Seychelles.

The first quarter-final for the IEM Rio Major will feature Outsiders, ranked no.6 in the world, and Fnatic, ranked no.16 in the world. These two met most recently in the IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage, where Outsiders took the series 2-0 (16-1, 16-14).

Outsiders were the third team to qualify for the Champions Stage behind Cloud9 and FURIA. Outsiders lost their first match to Heroic (9-16), before going on to win their next two matches over Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-12) and Team Spirit (16-14). After finishing the first three rounds of the Swiss Stage with a 2-1 record, they were then matched up with another team who has the exact same record and that was MOUZ. However, MOUZ were no match for the majority-Russian team, as they went onto to win 16-10 on both maps to take the series 2-0. The in-game leader Dzhami “Jame” Ali has really stepped up his game at the Major, recording the fourth-best rating of any player at the event (1.30).

Fnatic were the very last team to qualify for the Legends Stage of the IEM Rio Major after beating 9z in the last series of the Challengers Stage. Nevertheless, the boys from Fnatic obviously didn’t see that as a problem as they came out in their first match of the Legends Stage and beat one of the tournament fancies, Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-13). Fnatic ran into Heroic in their second match, just like their opponents for this series, and they were convincingly beaten (2-16). Fnatic were then matched up with ENCE in their final best-of-one series and they breezed past them (16-7). Their fourth and final series of the Legends Stage came against BIG and they turned out to be no match for Fnatic as they took the series 2-0 (16-14, 16-7).

Both of these teams are in great form at the moment and even though Outsiders smashed Fnatic at their most recent clash, we think Fnatic will have taken a lot from that loss and we will see a much closer series on Thursday.

The second quarter-final of the day will be between the bookmakers’ favourite to take out the IEM Rio Major, Cloud9, and MOUZ, who are currently ranked no.7 in the world.

MOUZ were one of the first two teams to qualify for the Legends Stage, with a 3-0 record from their first three series in the Challengers Stage. They were dominant in their first two series of the Challengers Stage, defeating Outsiders (16-6) and Evil Geniuses (16-10), before going on to beat Fnatic in their third series 2-1. MOUZ have had a chequered passage through the Legends Stage, winning their first series over Liquid (16-2), then losing to BIG (7-16). However, they then went onto beat the no.2 team in the world, Vitality, 19-17 in overtime in a very tight contest. They lost their first best-of-three series to Outsiders 0-2, but they then qualified for the Champions Stage by defeating ENCE (2-1). MOUZ would have to be one of the most inconsistent teams to make the Champions Stage, which makes this series against Cloud9 more interesting than it probably should be.

Cloud9 only just qualified for the Challengers Stage after finishing fifth in their RMR and they continued that average form going into their first two matches to start the Challengers Stage, losing to Grayhound (17-19) and Fnatic (17-19). However, those two losses must have woken up the sleeping giant, world number five, as they went onto win three straight series, winning 2-0 over Imperial, Evil Geniuses and GamerLegion. Cloud9 then went onto win another three straight series, making it six in a row now, defeating the world no.1 and no.4 in the Legends Stage, FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere, before defeating Heroic 2-0 to qualify for the Champions Stage. Cloud9 are the most in-form team at IEM Rio and it makes them very tough to bet against, especially as they are now the bookies favourite to take out the Major at $3.75.

Cloud9 should be winning this series over a very inconsistent MOUZ and we expect to see the moneyline favourites to take the series 2-0.

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