Another night, another round of esports betting tips coming via our resident expert Michael Lee. This Tuesday, the 16th of March, we focus in on the EPIC League Season 3 and the ESEA Season 36 for our three best bets of the night! Good luck to everyone following.
Esports Betting Tips: Tuesday, March 16th
VP.Prodigy vs Team Empire
EPIC League Season 3 Division 2 Playoffs
After failing to win a single match in EPIC League Season 3 group stage, VP.Prodigy will now look to salvage something by making it through the lower division bracket, which might be easier said than done. Many people seem to overestimate the strength of this team, due to the success of their previous roster (now a part of Virtus.pro main squad) has had, but we have to remember this is no longer the same team.
VP.Prodigy's current lineup features three rookie players, ex-Gamibt player Arslan "xannii" Shadzhanov and Team Spirit loanee Mikhail "Misha" Agatov. That forms a team that is not exactly terrible, but I wouldn't say VP.Prodigy are a strong team by any means.
Team Empire are not nearly as strong as they were a couple of months back, but they've done relatively fine during the group stage, beating the likes of EXTREMUM (2-1) and Puckchamp (2-1). Although they've lost the remaining three bouts, Team Empire at least stole a map off Hellbear Smashers (1-2) and Dota Team (1-2), which are solid results for a team of this calibre.
These teams have never met before, which makes it difficult to say how the game will end, especially since VP.Prodigy field a few relatively unknown players. That said, I don’t believe VP.Prodigy can cause any serious issues to Empire, unless they get Misha or xannii ahead.
Team Empire have had their fair share of underwhelming results this month, but they usually do well against weaker opponents. At 2.55 I'm ready to take a shot with Team Empire to win with a clean sweep.
Team Empire -1.5 Maps
$2.55
Dota Team vs HellRaisers
EPIC League Season 3 Division 1 Playoffs
Dota Team dropped down to the Lower bracket of EPIC League Season 3 Division 1 Playoffs after a narrow 1-2 loss against Brame on Sunday, and will now face off against HellRaisers, who struggled to defeat Vikin.gg (1-2) in their upper bracket bout. These sides have never met before so it would be interesting to see how they match up stylistically, however, looking at the quality of players on the teams, it's easy to see why Dota Team are priced as the favourites.
It was quite shocking to see Dota Team lose their bout against Brame after an incredible 3-1 run in the group stage, where they beat VP.Prodigy (2-1), Team Unique (2-1) and Team Empire (2-1), however, even looking at those results, it's not difficult to spot Dota Team tend to drop way too many maps.
With Roman "RAMZES666" Kushnarev and Rostislav "fn" Lozovoi on the team, you would expect Dota Team to dominate these second-tier teams, however, that's not the case. The only reasonable explanation for their iffy performances is lack of synergy, which nothing unusual for a stack of players who haven't played together for long.
HellRaisers produced similar results in the group stage with losses against Brame (1-2) and Winstrike (1-2), as well as three wins against Prosti Esli (2-1), PuckChamp (2-1) and Team Unique (2-1). Those results lead me to believe HellRaisers can perform at the same level as Dota Team, since they haven't done much worse than Dota Team against similar-quality squads.
It's fair to expect Dota Team will win, solely due to the individual quality of their players, but due to their tendency to drop games, I like a bet on Over 2.5 maps better. At this level of play, clean sweeps are few and are rarely worth considering unless the odds are right. While you can back Dota Team to win 2-0 at odds as high as 3.00 at PickleBet, they're far too unpredictable for me to take a shot with them.
Sprout vs aLTERNATE aTTax
ESEA Season 36: Premier Division - Europe
The ESEA Season 36: Premier Division - Europe will serve us with a German Counter-Strike: Global Offensive derby between Sprout vs ALTERNATE aTTax, who will clash on Tuesday, March 16. This will mark their first meeting since January, when they clashed three times in the span of three days, with Sprout coming our ahead every time with 2-0, 2-0 and 2-1.
Their last clash happened in the semi-finals of ESL Meisterschaft: Autumn 2020, where Sprout won with 16-6 on Vertigo and 16-13 on Mirage and then went on to win the grand finals match against BIG (2-1). A lot of time has passed since then and both sides have made some roster changes.
ALTERNATE aTTax have last week acquired BIG Academy player David "prosus" Hesse as a replacement for Stefan "stfN" Seier, who has stepped down from the roster due to personal reasons. Sprout's only roster change since their last clash with ALTERNATE aTTax happened only a few days after the match, when they parted ways with Paweł "dycha" Dycha, who was an inactive member at the time, effectively meaning there were no impactful moves on Sprout.
The betting odds suggest Sprout should be winning this match with ease and I don't see a problem with that. Even though Sprout struggled to impress at the Snow Sweet Snow #2 last week, where they crashed out of the quarter-finals (1-2 against HAVU), they're still one of the strongest German CS:GO teams.
ALTERNATE aTTax have had a few flashes of greatness in 2020, but their current form is disastrous, to say the least. Since the start of February, they've won only four games out of 10 and are entering this match off a 11-16 loss against Singularity. This should be an easy 2-0 victory for Sprout, who shouldn't be struggling against teams like ALTERNATE aTTax.
