?Mousesports have done surprisingly well to make it thus far, but they’re now set to face their toughest Flashpoint Season 3 challenger yet. G2 Esports needed some time to get their wheel spinning, but they’re currently looking a top-three team in Europe and enter this bout in great form.

G2 have made it past FaZe Clan, Heroic, and Ninjas in Pyjamas to earn their spot in the Flashpoint semi-finals, whereas mouz had to edge past Fnatic BIG, and Astralis. This will be the first meeting between these two squads since late April when G2 swept the international roster with 16-10 on Vertigo and 16-12 on Mirage.

Both teams are in great form, however, we are leaning more towards G2. They have the talent to match any team in the world, but not the consistency to warrant backing a clean sweep. A 2-1 victory for the French-Balkan squad is something we expect to see.

?Team Spirit and Gambit will clash in the EPIC CIS League Spring 2021 upper bracket semi-finals. It will mark their second meeting of the month, after Spirit upset the reigning IEM Katowice champions 2-0 during the group stage.

That victory marked Spirit’s first head-to-head triumph since October 2020, having lost four best-of series since then. Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov and co. will be eager to repeat their success from a week back, but we can’t help but feel like Spirit overperformed a bit that day.

Seeing an underdog win in these CIS derbies is nothing unusual and it may happen again. Gambit are the better team, however, and should be favoured on the CS:GO betting markets. We expect a close series that will likely end in Gambit’s favour – albeit it won’t be a clean victory.

?The Elisa Invitational 2021 Summer bout between gorillazzz and Natus Vincere Junior will be a clash between the young up-and-coming Ukrainians and the experienced line-up led by the three-time CS:GO Major champion Robin “flusha” R?nnquist.

Since forming his CS:GO project gorillazzz, flusha has yet to see much success. They’re 1-4 in their last five, which isn’t great, especially considering the quality of the teams that beat them – Sangal Esports, 100PingGods, and Copenhagen Flames.

Natus Vincere Junior have been doing better relative to the old guard, although they are winless in their last three, losing to Apeks and twice against Young Ninjas. We would normally side with gorillazzz due to the established talent they field, but at $1.57, this is not a position we’re interested in.

NaVi Jr. should be competitive enough to steal one map and make this bout interesting. They might even upset gorillazz, but we like overs as a safer bet.

?Team Vitality aren’t the same powerhouse they were earlier this year. They have been struggling for a good portion of the last two months, losing against teams they should beat – 9z, Complexity, DBL Poney – which is not a good look.

That said, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and his crew seemingly found some traction last week, picking up two solid victories over OG (2-0) and FunPlus Phoenix (2-1). Although those results weren’t spotless, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel for the fallen giants.

Heroic have been one of the most dominant teams in the upper echelons of the European CS:GO scene for the past two months. They held one of the longest winning streaks of any team in 2021 and currently boast a scary 85% win rate across the last three months.

However, the Danes have started showing signs of slowing down and are 2-2 in their last four. Heroic’s drop in form should make Vitality slightly more competitive, so we are taking the overs on total maps.

?Complexity might not have achieved any remarkable wins of late, but they’re still holding a 58.3% win rate across the last three months. That’s only slightly above what FunPlus Phoenix have produced (53.3%) in the same stretch.

FunPlus Phoenix dropped out of the race for the Flashpoint Season 3 title after a 1-2 loss to the surging Team Vitality, having also lost to Ninjas in Pyjamas (0-2) earlier. Complexity have been just as unconvincing with 0-2 losses to BIG and Heroic.

While we don’t have a problem with the esports bookmakers pricing Complexity as the favourites, the offered odds seems a bit low. This is an ‘underdog or nothing’ spot, so you either take FPX or avoid betting on this match altogether.

?After BIG’s less-than-inspiring performance against mousesports on Wednesday, it’s hard to be overly confident about them. That said, it’s not like the Germans have ever been known for their consistency.

On Saturday, BIG will clash with yet another regional rival in Sprout, who should be a much easier opponent than mousesports – or so it may seem. There’s a gap of 23 places between these sides’ global rankings, but those numbers mean little to nothing.

This is a match between two rosters that know each other extremely well. Almost all players involved in this series have played together at one point of their esports careers. This should nullify any tactical advantages either team might enjoy, and that usually favours the underdogs.

However, it’s tough to view Sprout as a true outsider, given that they’re 3-0 in the head-to-head stakes with BIG across the last 12 months. At $2.44, siding with Sprout is a no-brainer.

?It was painful to watch Double Poney drop the ball against Astralis on Wednesday, but it wouldn’t be fair to say that Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt and his crew disappointed with 13 rounds on both Vertigo and Nuke.

Despite that loss, we are still very high on this side and don’t quite understand why the esports bookmakers don’t like them. Double Poney were priced as high as $1.66 against Nordavind for their BLAST Rising match and are now billed as underdogs against Anonymo Esports.

Anonymo are by no means a terrible squad, but they’re still struggling against Tier-2 teams and so shouldn’t be priced as favourites against a roster led by one of the most successful CS:GO players in history. This is a slam-dunk bet on Double Poney.

?Double Poney enter the second round of Flashpoint Season 3 following a 2-0 sweep of Team Vitality. Astralis were just as effective in their tournament opener, where they survived first-map overtime to beat OG 2-0.

The esports bookmakers have Astralis priced as big favourites for this match, which doesn’t sit right with us. This is one of those games where the odds are set purely on brand value and don’t consider any outside factors.

Astralis might be the most successful team in the game’s history, but their form is at an all-time low. This team that dominated the Counter-Strike esports scene in 2018-2019 is slowly falling apart, as is evident in the Danish side’s 3-5 record from their last eight outings.

Seeing Double Poney priced as high as $3.55 is outrageous and disrespectful to a team that has been gaining some serious traction in the upper echelon of the CS:GO competitive scene. We are sticking to the handicap, but an outright bet on the outsiders is not a bad choice either.

?BIG made easy work of Complexity (2-0) in the first round of the tournament and will now face their domestic rivals, mousesports. The latter demolished a poor Fnatic side on Tuesday with 16-8 on Inferno and 16-4 on Overpass, but we wouldn’t put too much weight on that result.

BIG and mouz last met just under three weeks ago, when mousesports won 2-0 at the IEM Summer 2021 Closed Qualifiers. They won both of their previous two meetings, although it is worth noting those happened in November and October of 2020.

Both sides have had good and bad performances this month and seem to be playing equally well. This is a complete coin-flip match, so we have to take the plus money on the outsiders.

?Ninjas in Pyjamas emerged as one of the favourites to win Flashpoint Season 3 after the signing of Nicolai “device” Reedtz, but we don’t expect them to show their full potential on Friday. NiP still need to learn how to play with their new signing, and they enter this match off a one-month hiatus, so some ring rust is to be expected.

Anonymo Esports are the weaker team, but we wouldn’t say that the Poles are no good. They had some success against A-Tier teams during the Flashpoint 3 qualifiers and, unlike NiP, have been fairly active in May.

At $2.02, we are ready to bet on the outsiders to win one map, even though we don’t expect Wiktor “mynio” Kruk and co. to get much more out of this bout.

?FunPlus Phoenix enter this match as $1.39 favourites, which implies that they have about a 72% chance of success. That number seems a bit high for a team that has been slipping against the likes of LDLC (10-16, 10-16) and SKADE (1-2).

What’s more, this will mark FPX’s first fixture in over two weeks, so it’s fair to doubt their readiness. One thing going for them is that they’re facing HYENAS, who are an org-less team with no official matches on their record.

HYENAS are assembled from players who were cut from the North squad at the end of 2020 due to poor results. Although the Danes weren’t very successful the last time they played together, they are still good enough individually to make FPX work for the win.

?Heroic enter Flashpoint Season 3 priced as $2.75 favourites to win the title, which puts them well ahead of Astralis ($4.50), BIG ($7.00), and Complexity ($7.00) in the outright betting market. That isn’t entirely shocking, as they are the world no.3 team and likely won’t face any tough resistance given how shaky some of the Counter-Strike top dogs have been of late.

Sprout enter this match priced as big underdogs, with esports bookmakers giving them a mere 17.5% implied probability to win. Flashpoint Season 3 will mark Sprout’s fourth A-Tier tournament of 2021, as they have spent most of the year playing in second-tier competitions.

The lack of practice against top-tier opponents will put Sprout at a disadvantage since they are facing the reigning ESL Pro League Season 13 champions and DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 semi-finalists. This match is Heroic’s to lose, and with the form they’ve been showing, we have no reason to doubt their ability to claim a clean sweep on Wednesday.

?Last week, we trusted G2 Esports to defeat Astralis and we weren’t disappointed. The French-Balkan squad put on a show and defeated the Danes 2-1 with 16-7 on Train, 14-16 on Nuke, and 16-8 on Vertigo. They were, however, unable to make it past the current world no.1 team, Gambit Esports, who swept them 2-0 in the DreamHack Masters Spring semi-finals.

FaZe Clan also attended the DreamHack Masters, where they did not make it past the first round of the group stage. This marks FaZe’s third consecutive tournament where they failed to finish better than ninth-12th.

G2 and FaZe last met at the end of April, when G2 won 2-1 having swept FaZe 2-0 just over a month prior. G2’s hot form and their 2-0 head-to-head record with the current iteration of FaZe are the only two things you need to consider when picking a winner here.

?BIG and Complexity last met at the end of April, when BIG swept Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and co. with 19-16 on Dust II and 19-16 on Mirage. As the score would suggest, the bout was extremely close and could have ended either way.

Since then, the Germans have played 10 matches and won six, including their last two against BLINK (2-1) and Apeks (2-1). Complexity have been slightly less active with eight fixtures played during that stretch and a 5-3 record.

Even though Complexity’s record isn’t exactly promising, you can’t really defend BIG for losing maps against Tier-2 opponents either. Complexity might have not been looking too sharp lately, but they’re still the better team overall.

?Fnatic have been struggling for a good portion of the year and haven’t won anything since ESL Pro League Season 11: Europe in April 2020. It’s very clear that Fnatic aren’t as good as they once were, and it doesn’t seem like they will improve anytime soon unless they make some roster changes.

Mousesports have been dealing with their own issues, but unlike Fnatic, they’re slowly showing signs of improvement. The departure of Finn “karrigan” Andersen has left mouz without one of the best in-game leaders in the scene, but they still manage to scrape by and look somewhat competitive thanks to their firepower.

Mouz won this bout 2-1 with a reverse-sweep just over a month ago. It was a relatively tight affair, but mouz slightly underperformed that day, so it’s fair to expect that they will do better this time out.

FLASHPOINT Season 2

?BIG enter this bout following a somewhat shaky reverse-sweep win against Team Envy. Virtus.pro, meanwhile, narrowly defeated MAD Lions in the quarter-finals with a 19-17 overtime win on Train.

Virtus.pro hold a 3-2 record in their last five, which some may rank on par with BIG’s 4-1 run considering the Germans have faced relatively weaker squads. However, that does not convince us that VP are equally as strong as the no.5 team in the world.

Even though VP stole one map off MAD Lions, FURIA, Spirit, OG, Gen.G and Cloud9, that hardly means anything since BIG are significantly stronger than all those sides. We expect BIG to take this one with ease, which makes the -1.5 handicap a very appealing option.

Nine to Five #7

X6tence enter this match with a solid 7-3 record in their last 10 outings and 3-2 in their last five. That includes wins against Wizards Esports Club (2-0), Giants Gaming (16-14) and North (2-0), as well as losses against Movistar Riders (1-2) and ESPADA (1-2).

KOVA have gone 2-3 in their last five. Their only wins in that run came against semi-pro teams Esimed Esports (16-14) and Team Blink (19-17), while they could not get the better of 9INE (1-2), Nemiga (0-2) and Illuminar Gaming (0-2).

Not only are X6tence objectively stronger, but they are also in much better shape than KOVA, who only seem to do well against weak teams. We don’t expect any surprises here.

EPIC League Division 1

Natus Vincere enter the final week of EPIC League Division 1 on the heels of three consecutive defeats against Virtus.pro (1-2), Team Nigma (1-2) and OG (0-2). It’s a similar story for mudgolems, who have lost all of their last four outings against OG (0-2), Alliance (1-2), Virtus.pro (0-2) and Vikin.gg (1-2).

Even though there is a world where mudgolems steal one map off NaVi, they have yet to show anything that would convince us they can upset the ESL One Germany 2020 finalists.

Vikin.gg sit atop of EPIC League standings with a 6-1 record and 12-6 map differential. Team Nigma, on the other side, enter this match with a 4-3 record and 9-8 map differential, which is not terrible but still far from what we expected to see from The International 2019 finalists.

Vikin.gg have yet to defeat Nigma this year (0-1-3). Even though this might be their best chance to change that, their tendency to drop maps makes it hard to consider the -1.5 handicap. Vikin.gg have lost at least one map in all but two of their games at EPIC League, including all of the last three, and we don’t expect that trend to end here.

OGA Dota PIT Season 4: China

These teams last met during the China Dota2 Pro Cup two weeks ago when Elephant claimed a reverse-sweep win to improve their head-to-head record to 2-0. The only previous meeting happened at the end of October when Elephant won 2-1.

IG are clearly not as strong as they were in 2019, but that does not mean they don’t stand a chance against Elephant. At $4.22, esports bookmakers are implying that IG have only a 23.7% chance of winning this game. That makes no sense when they have forced Elephant to three maps twice and defeated ViCi Gaming (2-1) en route to a fourth-place finish at the CDA-FDC Professional Championship last week.

With that in mind, the odds on Invictus to win a map are way too good to pass up.

Esports multi bet tips for Thursday, December 3

FLASHPOINT Season 2

?Fnatic and Dignitas last met just under two weeks ago when Adam “friberg” Friberg and his crew won with 16-6 on Dust II and 16-14 on Inferno. Dignitas have not played a single match since then, whereas Fnatic outlasted MAD Lions (2-0) in the next round of the competition.

While it makes sense to see Fnatic priced as the favourites, they are notoriously inconsistent in online fixtures. Considering Dignitas came very close to forcing a three-map series last time out, they should not be priced above $2.00 to win one map.

?Even though we are not ready to believe the new MiBR are a top-tier team, they made quite a statement with their 2-0 sweep of FaZe Clan at the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown, as well as with their three-map series against BIG (twice) and G2 Esports earlier this month. OG, meanwhile, have managed a 3-2 record in their last five outings, defeating Cloud9 (2-0), Gen.G (2-0) and Virtus.pro (2-1) but losing to Gen.G (0-2) and Team Spirit (0-2).

While these teams have similar form lines, MiBR have had to play against much stronger sides and look severely overpriced at $2.63 in the match betting.

DreamHack Masters Winter 2020: Europe

?G2 Esports and Sprout have both lost only two games in their last five. While G2 had to play tougher opponents, they also dropped maps against mousesports (2-1), North (2-1) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-2) – all arguably at the same level as Sprout.

G2 might field one of the most stacked rosters in Europe, but they are not nearly as consistent as they should be. Due to their frequent slip-ups, we believe this match could be much closer than what the latest CS:GO betting odds suggest.

EPIC League Division 2

?Despite numerous roster changes, Cyberium have yet to find their footing and only seem to do well against teams that are either weak, out of form, or dealing with internal issues. Gambit Esports produced far more consistent results early in the tournament but have since cooled down, dropping the ball against Team Empire (0-2) last Friday.

The biggest issue with Gambit is their tendency to drop maps. They have lost at least one map in all but one of their last nine fixtures, including a 2-1 win against Cyberium at the EPIC League qualifiers. While they’re the most likely victors, we can’t trust Gambit to walk away with a clean sweep.

?Yellow Submarine enter the final two rounds of the EPIC League with no defeats and a 14-1 map differential, whereas Spider Pigzs have managed only three wins and a 10-7 map differential.

Spider Pigzs have also lost three out of their last four fixtures, going down to Gambit Esports (1-2), Live to Win (1-2) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (0-2). They beat Cyberium (2-1) on Saturday, but that means little when Cyberium were already certain to finish outside the top six.

Esports bookmakers have Yellow Submarine as the favourites for good reason, but it still feels like the odds for the -1.5 handicap are a bit too generous.

Esports multi bet tips for Friday, December 1

FLASHPOINT Season 2

Despite Gen.G’s convincing win against Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen and co. last Thursday, they enter the rematch as heavy underdogs. OG’s performance in their first match was an aberration, and they should put up much more resistance this time out.

OG are the stronger team overall and should claim a revenge win, but we wouldn’t count on a clean sweep. Expect Gen.G to steal at least one map and force the series to three.

Intel Extreme Masters XV Beijing Online: Europe

We can’t quite agree with the esports betting odds offered on this match, since there is no reason for Complexity to be priced as the favourites. BIG have played 10 maps against Complexity since May and won seven, including all of the last six and a 2-0 sweep three weeks ago.

Even though BIG have not produced any outstanding results this month, neither have Complexity. While Jamie “keita” Hall’s team defeated Natus Vincere (2-1) and Fnatic (2-0), we wouldn’t rank those wins too highly since both teams are in bad shape.

Intel Extreme Masters XV Beijing Online: Oceania

Since the esports scene transitioned to online play, most Counter-Strike: Global Offensive clashes in the Oceania region have became complete coin-flips. However, we don’t feel like this match will follow that rule. That is not necessarily because Avant Gaming are a bad team, but rather because Renegades are much stronger than any other team in the region.

Renegades enter this match with a phenomenal 48-6 record in 2020 and a 16-game winning streak that includes a 3-0 head-to-head record and 7-1 map differential against Avant. We should still give Avant some praise for their 8-2 run across the last month, but they’re simply not at the level of Renegades.

EPIC League Division 1

Team Secret have split their two games this tournament with a narrow win against mudgolems (2-1) and a loss against Vikin.gg (0-2). Team Liquid have not impressed either, losing to Natus Vincere (1-2), Vikin.gg (1-2) and Just Error (0-2).

Secret and Liquid are both in questionable form, which suggests this game can go either way. While Secret seem like the most likely victors given they have won eight out of 11 meetings with Liquid this year, Jacky “Stewie2k” Yip and co. completed a clean sweep in their most recent clash at ESL One Germany. On that basis, we like the outsiders to pinch a map at the very least.

National Electronic Sports Tournament 2020

Both teams field a mix of main roster and academy players, which will result in a couple of mismatches in the mid lane and jungle. Royal Never Give Up enter this match with Li “XLB” Xiao-Long and Li “Xiaohu” Yuan-Hao, who should have a fairly easy time against FunPlus Phoenix’s academy jungler Liao “Youxin” Zhi-Hui and academy mid laner Ye “Insulator” Zhi-Wei.

Even though FPX’s academy players have performed well so far, they will struggle to compete with RNG’s starters. Furthermore, the current meta prefers a strong mid-jungle synergy over anything else, so it’s very difficult to side against the favourites.