Our esports betting tipster Michael Lee is back with his betting previews for three Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches. Today, he focuses on 1win vs SAW, forZe vs 9INE, and 00Prospects vs Sashi Esports in ESL Challenger League EU and Elisa Invitational 2022 Fall.
Esports Betting Tips: Tuesday 30th August
1win vs SAW
ESL Challenger League Season 42: Europe
1win and SAW will clash on Tuesday, for the third time this month and for the sixth time since December 2021. 1win was the better team across the six clashes, winning nine maps of 12. However, despite their strong record, the two squads have looked evenly matched recently.
1win and SAW met during the second IEM Road to Rio European qualifiers on August 21, when 1win edged out a 22-20 overtime win. However, despite their success on that day, the Russian CS:GO roster lost the rematch on Sunday, with 9-16.
It's wise to mention that SAW played exceptionally well on the weekend, but I wouldn't say that they overperformed. They might not be a powerful team, but SAW have proven time and time again that they can compete for top spots in second-division tournaments like ESL Challenger League.
Moreover, 1win have not been in the best shape across the last few weeks, only doing well against lesser squads in the open qualifiers. But when met with a proper team, 1win have been showing cracks, particularly on Dust2.
Their poor figures on Dust2 shouldn't concern 1win too much since it's not a map SAW play, but the Russians hold a worse map record on all shared maps, including Ancient, Vertigo, and Nuke. Their weak map pool combined with the fact that SAW found serious traction last week, makes SAW an excellent bet at 2.25.
The way I see it, the betting odds should be the other way around – SAW are currently the better team and should win.
SAW to Win
$2.25 (1 Unit)
forZe vs 9INE
ESL Challenger League Season 42: Europe
9INE have recently built a new roster which has yet to produce anything that would excite me. They attended six events since the start of the month but have not achieved much, crashing out of three European IEM RMR open qualifiers without making it further than top-16.
ForZe, on the other hand, have been playing well over the year, relative to the expectations. They qualified for the Antwerp Major, reached the finals of ESEA Season 41: Advanced and made it to the European RMR Group A with a third-place finish in the closed qualifiers.
Even looking at the teams' results, it's very evident that forZe are a higher-class squad than 9INE, who have yet to prove they're anything more than a top-60 team. And even though it's entirely possible that forZe won't give their all against an inferior squad, 9INE shouldn't win or come even close to beating forZe.
ForZe -7.5 Rounds
$1.83 (1 Unit)
00Prospects vs Sashi Esports
Elisa Invitational 2022 Fall
There isn't much to divide 00Prospects and Sashi Esports based on their results across the opening two rounds of Elisa Invitational 2022 Fall. 00Prospects have lost against MASONIC (1-2) and won against schadE halt (2-1), while Sashi Esports lost against EYEBALLERS (0-2) and won against KOVA (2-1).
But while those results don't tell much, 00Prospects and Sashi have also been competing in other events. But unfortunately, looking at those results doesn't do any favours for 00Prospects, who have not looked too clean.
They're 3-6 across their last nine fixtures, with defeats against NASR (2-16), HOPTU (14-16), Websterz (6-16), MASONIC (1-2), ONXY (1-2), and askars (1-2). Of those six defeats, three came against vastly inferior teams ranked well outside the top 100 in the CS:GO rankings.
Knowing that 00Prospects are capable of losing against teams like askars, Websterz, and even ONXY makes me wonder why they are 1.53 favourites to win this match. Sashi Esports are not a particularly good team, nor have they done much in the opening rounds of this event, but this seems like a very open game.
Sashi Esports to Win
$2.37 (1 Unit)