Another night, another great slate of esports action to look forward to. This Tuesday night, our gaming expert takes a look at some of the key matchups across the Flashpoint 2 and the IEM Beijing - Haidian 2020 Europe!
ESports Betting Tips: Tuesday, November 10th
BIG vs MIBR
Flashpoint 2
BIG have recently attended the BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 where they finished in a disappointing fourth-sixth place. They have played four matches and won only against FaZe Clan and Complexity, but dropped two games against the rejuvenated Vitality.
Prior to the BLAST, BIG competed at the DreamHack Open Fall 2020 where they finished only fifth after they lost to Heroic and Vitality. On a more positive note, BIG have defeated the likes of FaZe, GODSENT, G2 Esports and Fnatic without any real issues.
MiBR are currently bootcamping in Europe and have so far played only three matches. They have lost to Astralis and G2, but picked up a shocking win over their regional rivals FURIA.
A lot of people are hyping up MiBR after their triumph over FURIA, but I don't entirely agree with all the hype. Sure, they played well against FURIA and even took a map off G2 and Astralis, but they're still a new roster with mostly inexperienced players who are enjoying the so-called honeymoon phase.
BIG are a well-organised team that usually does well into weaker sides and with all due respect, MiBR fall into that category. Anything else than a clean sweep for BIG would be quite an upset here. Bet on BIG to win 2-0!
Envy vs forZe
Flashpoint 2
ForZe hold a 64% win rate across the last three months and while they have played mostly against teams of similar or lower quality, forZe also took quite a few big scalps with wins over Natus Vincere, Gambit, North and MAD Lions. If those results are to go by, forZe should do well in the second season of FLASHPOINT and oughtn’t to have any real issues defeating the likes of Envy.
The last proper tournament forZe were involved in was the IEM New York 2020 CIS, where they finished only sixth, but considering the competition was quite stacked with teams like Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, Gambit, Spirit a top-six finish is not a bad placement.
Envy have not played a single map for the last two months and even when they were playing games, Envy did not impress. Their last game happened in June, when Envy lost to MiBR by combining only eight rounds across the series.
ForZe are undeniably a much stronger team than Envy, who will struggle to walk away from this bout with anything. I don't believe Envy have it in them to put up much of a resistance and unless forZe somehow underperforms, they should win with ease. Bet on forZe to win 2-0!
MAD Lions vs fnatic
IEM Beijing - Haidian 2020 Europe
Fnatic did not impress me with their form. They have won only 40% of their games across the last three months and have won only one game in their last five against North but lost to Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas, BIG and Complexity, which are all solid teams, but that does not justify Fnatic's iffy performances.
By now it's very obvious that the online era of CS does not suit Fnatic. They should improve once the competition returns to LAN, but for now, I am very sceptical about Fnatic's resurgence.
Like Fnatic, MAD Lions are not as strong as they used to be but in their case, their lack of success comes down to multiple roster changes that make no sense. MAD managed to win the first iteration of FLASHPOINT when they looked like a proper top-10 team, but have since lost their star player Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen to Astralis and with that a lot of quality that made them a scary team to face.
Bubzkji was later replaced by Paweł "innocent" Mocek who just couldn't find his footing in the team and left the team. Soon after, MAD also decided to drop their IGL Asger "AcilioN" Larsen and acquired two new players in Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen and Ismail "refrezh" Ali who are hailing from a tier-two team x6tence.
This feels like a complete coin-toss. MAD went through multiple roster changes which is not optimal, whereas Fnatic are just not playing well. Value bet on MAD LIons!
