ESL Pro League Season 18 continues on Wednesday, with the first round of Group B matches, and our esports tipster Michael Lee has prepared a betting preview and his top picks for the day. Today, he looks over Heroic vs Rooster, BIG vs Monte, and MOUZ vs MIBR, who will meet on Wednesday, September 6.
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, September 6th 2023
Heroic vs Rooster
ESL Pro League Season 18
Heroic are 1.005 favourites to defeat Rooster, who are 17.00 underdogs to win the game on Wednesday, and as pricey as Heroic are, the numbers seem right. Heroic are the second-highest-rated CS:GO team in the world, while Rooster are ranked 104th, which alone is a good enough indication of how this game should go.
And yet, despite a significant difference in the quality of the two teams, we are still getting 1.72 on Heroic to cover a 7.5-round handicap on both maps. In other words, we're getting 1.72 on Heroic not to lose more than eight rounds per map, which should be more than achievable.
Heroic are not the most consistent team and are quite known to choke when most unexpected. However, this is a match between the current second-best team in the world and Rooster, who are not even one of the top three teams in their region.
This should be by far the most one-sided game of the tournament, and I wouldn't be too shocked if Heroic manage to keep the Australians at under 16 total rounds over the series.
Heroic -7.5 rounds
$1.72 (1 Unit)
BIG vs Monte
ESL Pro League Season 18
This match should be an interesting one, featuring two CS:GO teams that are good but not quite great. BIG, currently ranked as no.21 team in the world, enter ESL Pro League Season 18 as one of the outsiders but have a solid chance to reach the tournament's next stage.
With Heroic, ENCE, and MOUZ all likely finishing in the three, the final spot leading into the playoffs will be contested between BIG, Monte, MIBR, Evil Geniuses, and Rooster. However, since the latter three teams are significantly worse, the BIG and Monte, this puts much more importance on this match for both squads.
The two squads haven't looked amazing before ESL Pro League Season 18, both looking quite unprepared for the step up in the competition. However, BIG should likely be slightly favoured to win because they defeated Monte (2-0) at the end of August, with 16-11, 16-8 in the finals of CCT North Europe Series #7.
It was their fourth consecutive win, which includes good form, and even though BIG have only won against other second-tier teams, meaning they likely won't do as well when faced with Heroic, MOUZ, or ENCE, they proved that they can defeat Monte a week ago, so there's no reason to doubt their chances to do it again.
BIG to win
$1.85 (1 Unit)
MOUZ vs MIBR
ESL Pro League Season 18
MOUZ are 1.22 favourites to defeat MIBR on Wednesday, but they should probably be even bigger favourites. MOUZ are not one of the leading candidates to win ESL Pro League Season 18, and they likely won't make it much further than the first round of the playoffs, yet this is still a much stronger team than MIBR.
Despite making a handful of roster changes in June and July, MIBR have not shown anything worth talking about. They're 3-4 from their seven matches but have only beaten IKLA (2-1), Anonymo Esports (2-0), and Bad News Eagles (2-0).
Even though those are not terrible results, MIBR also lost against Evil Geniuses (0-2), Team Spirit (0-2), and Aurora (0-2). Compare that to MOUZ's 7-2 record, which includes wins against Ninjas in Pyjamas, Natus Vincere, Eternal Fire, and 500, and it's obvious how big the talent gap is between the two teams.
I don't expect any surprises here. MOUZ are a tier above MIBR, who should not win a single map on Wednesday.
MOUZ -1.5 maps
$1.82 (2 Units)
