ASTRALIS VS FNATIC CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS
CSGO Betting Odds:	Astralis $1.34 at GG Bet | Fnatic $3.35 at GG Bet
CSGO Betting Lines:	Astralis -1.5 at $1.95 | Fnatic +1.5 at $1.79
When:	February 27, 2020 at 15:30 CET
Where:	International Congress Centre – Katowice, Poland
Watch Live:	Twitch

ASTRALIS VS FNATIC IEM KATOWICE 2020 BETTING PREVIEW

Two of the strongest Scandinavian CS:GO esports teams are set to lock horns in round three of the Group A upper bracket at the prestigious Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) World Championship in one of the most anticipated fixtures of the tournament.

Astralis have yet to drop a single round at IEM Katowice as they enter what could be their final fixture of the group stage. The Danes decimated Cloud9 in the opening round and edged past Team Vitality after a hard-fought 22-19 overtime win on Vertigo on Tuesday.

Astralis’ bout with Vitality took off on Overpass, where Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander’s men got off to a strong start and secured the first three rounds. They met some resistance from the French squad, however, as Dan “apEX” Madesclaire secured a triple-kill to turn the tide. Vitality pushed Astralis on the back foot and secured five straight rounds to get themselves two rounds up at 5-3.

Although things were not looking good for the no.1 team in the world, Astralis rallied in round nine and pocketed the majority of the remaining rounds to enter the second half with a comfortable 9-6 lead.The two sides went back and forth after the switch, but Alex “ALEX” McMeekin and company eventually had to admit as the Danes ran out 16-9 winners.

The second map was as chaotic as it gets. Astralis secured six out of the first seven rounds but failed to keep the momentum going, as they dropped the remaining eight to end the first half in a 6-9 hole. Vitality kept the pressure on after the swap by winning the opening three rounds, but they stumbled at the last hurdle as Astralis did just enough on CT to push the match to overtime.

In the extra rounds, it was Astralis who had more gas left in their tank. Emil “Magisk” Reif was the man of the match with a 1.33 rating and 57 kills across the series, followed by Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen on 54 kills and a 1.22 rating.

Fnatic will enter round three of the upper bracket in Group A following a commanding 2-0 win over Renegades in the opening round and a hard-fought 2-1 win over Natus Vincere on Tuesday.

The latter match started on Dust II, where Maikil “Golden” Selim’s squad outclassed their adversaries 16-7 thanks to a phenomenal performance from Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, who ended the match with a 2.16 rating and 31 kills. Fnatic failed to deliver on Inferno, however, where they held a 13-10 lead but dropped the ball and let Natus Vincere win six out of the remaining seven rounds to tie the series.

The third and final map saw Fnatic secure the opening three rounds, only to drop 10 out of the remaining 12 to enter the second half 5-10 behind. The Swedes, however, found their footing on the CT side, where they won the opening 10 rounds and sealed the series with a 16-12 score. KRIMZ finished with the highest rating (1.33), 69 kills and +25 KD.

ASTRALIS VS FNATIC IEM KATOWICE 2020 BETTING PREDICTIONS

Astralis will enter this bout priced as heavy favourites to pocket an early ticket for the playoffs, but Fnatic are not to be ignored and might be a bit underrated by esports bookmakers.

Since Fnatic rebuilt their roster with Robin “flusha” R?nnquist and Golden, they have met Astralis three times. Their clash at DreamHack Masters Malm? and ended in a 2-0 win for the Swedes, but the next two meetings – at ESL Pro league S10 Europe in October and the ECS S8 Finals in December – ended in clean sweeps to Astralis.

Astralis are undoubtedly the stronger team, yet we would not exclude the possibility of a close match. At $2.27 for a three-map series, there is value in backing Fnatic to push their Scandinavian rivals all the way.