Our esports tipster Michael Lee is back with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting previews for three matches in the first round of Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023: European Qualifier. Today he looks at Apeks vs knasigT, BetBoom Team vs OG, and Ninjas in Pyjamas vs 1win, who will meet on Wednesday, August 23.
Check out our expert previews and betting tips below, and make sure to head over to Picklebet – Australia’s #1 esports betting site.
Esports Betting Tips: Wednesday, August 23rd 2023
Apeks vs knasigT
IEM Sydney 2023 EU Qualifier
Apeks haven’t found much success over the last month, and even that is an understatement. At the start of August, Apeks exited CCT Online Finals #2 in 9th-12th place and in the following two weeks, added two 9th-16th place finishes at Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 and Gamers8 2023.
Form is evidently a problem for Apeks, but this doesn’t change the fact that Apeks are an A-Tier team. Before their dry streak, Apeks made the semifinals of the Paris Major and won ESL Challenger League Season 45: Europe and Elisa Invitational Spring 2023, so they have the talent to compete for top spots in bigger events. The only problem Apeks have now is that they need to find some momentum.
IEM Sydney 2023 EU Qualifier gives them an excellent opportunity to do so, as the qualifier doesn’t feature any great teams. KnasigT falls into the category of teams that shouldn’t cause Apeks issues, and even though Apeks are in bad shape, the roster talent discrepancy here is large enough to confidently say that Apeks should win.
We’re getting a good offer on Apeks to defeat a third-tier team, mainly because they’ve not looked good recently. And even though form is a factor, it’s extremely unlikely for knasigT to upset the Major semi-finalists.
Apeks -13.5 rounds
$1.83 (1 Unit)
BetBoom Team vs OG
IEM Sydney 2023 EU Qualifier
BetBoom Team and OG are bound to produce an exciting match, as OG look to bounce back from their concerning streak of iffy results and BetBoom hoping they can continue posting good results in the team’s second official event.
BetBoom have so far attended just one tournament – IEM Sydney 2023 EU Open Qualifiers if we can even count that as an official debut. Over the open qualifiers, BetBoom have beaten 1win (16-13), FTW (19-17), Eclot (16-3), 500 (16-14), and Into the Breach (2-1), which are decent results for a new team.
Since the open qualifiers, BetBom also played two games at CCT North Europe Series #7, producing mixed results in a 0-2 loss against Preasy and a 2-1 win against Space. But it’s fair to assume that BetBoom didn’t care too much about CCT North Europe, hence the questionable results.
Like BetBoom, OG haven’t looked too amazing lately. They exited CCT Online Finals #2 with defeats against Virtus.pro (1-2) and SAW (1-2) and have, over their last three games, lost against ORKS (1-2) and won against IKLA UA (2-0) and kogutos (2-0). Winning two of their last three games counts for something, but the quality of the opponents makes that record far less valuable.
Even late in July, OG haven’t accomplished much, going 2-8 over a 10-game stretch, which proves one thing – OG are in terrible form. Yet they’re priced as favourites against BetBoom because we don’t know how good BetBoom is. However, looking at the players on the two teams, BetBoom can definitely beat OG, especially in the shape they’re currently in.
BetBoom Team to win
$2.10 (2 Units)
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs 1win
IEM Sydney 2023 EU Qualifier
Ninjas in Pyjamas are possibly the biggest favourites to win IEM Sydney 2023 EU Qualifier, and unless BetBoom Team step up, OG wake up from their slumber, or 9INE produce another miracle run, NiP should end up with the gold medal.
1win could be added to the list of potential candidates to make a deep run, but they haven’t shown enough lately to make this believable. 1win are in good shape, having won seven straight games and are on a run of 14 wins and just three losses. Unfortunately, most of those wins happened against much weaker teams.
NiP are fresh off a disappointing performance at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023, where they failed to make it past the first round of the group stage. But we have to consider that NiP had to play much stronger teams than 1win.
Ninjas in Pyjamas can lose a map since they’ve not played a game in three weeks, but they’re also good enough to sweep 1win without any issues.
Ninjas in Pyjamas -1.5 maps
$2.37 (1 Unit)
