With little other active sports around the world at the moment, we’ll be increasing our esports coverage here on Before You Bet, thanks to the support of Picklebet – Australia’s leading dedicated esports betting provider. We’ll be providing daily esports betting tips from the major Dota2, CS:GO, LOL and COD tournaments around the world.
Today we look over two ESL Pro League S11 CS:GO fixtures and two ESL One Los Angeles Dota2 Major games, featuring some of the strongest teams from their respective esports titles, who will duke it out at the highest level of the competitive esports scene.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Betting Tips – March 31st
ESL Pro League Season 11 Europe
G2 vs OG
Since their IEM Katowice 2020 grand finals defeat against Natus Vincere, G2 Esports played only two online fixtures, both at ESL Pro League. In the opening two rounds of their group, G2 defeated TyLoo and FaZe, both with a scoreline of 2-1. Losing a map against FaZe might seem like a red flag, but in all fairness, it is something we can look past, as FaZe are playing surprisingly well recently. That being said, losing a map against the shambolic Chinese side is not something to write home about. But then again, it was their first fixture in almost a month and also an online match on Dust2, so perhaps G2 deserve some slack.
OG began their venture into ESL Pro League Season 11 Europe by defeating TyLoo 16-11 on Inferno and 16-9 on Dust2 in what was a fairly dominant performance from this newly established CS:GO squad. They carried over the momentum from day one into the next, when they shook the world with a 2-1 triumph over mousesports. Although mouz started the series with a 19-16 overtime win on Mirage, OG produced a remarkable comeback with a 16-5 win on Train and completely crushed mousesports on Inferno (16-2) to seal the series at 2-1. Much of their success was due to the phenomenal performances from Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså and Mateusz "mantuu" Wilczewski, backed by an exceptional in-game-leader performance from the team captain Aleksi "Aleksib" Virolainen.
OG and G2 met twice before at BLAST Premier Spring Series 2020 back in February, where G2 pocketed two Ws. The first bout was very one-sided (16-8 and 16-6), while the second match saw OG produce some resistance and won on Dust2, but fell short on Inferno and Nuke.
The main factor to take into consideration here is the fact that this match will be played online. Would this be a LAN match, backing G2 would be a no-brainer pick, but considering the ESL’s format change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, OG have a much greater chance to make something happen. Aleksib and co. are bursting with confidence after their dominant display against mouz and if they can show the same fire here, they should win at least one map. For that reason, backing OG at a +1.5 map handicap seems like a very appealing bet, effectively meaning it's highly likely we will be looking at a three-map series.
VALUE: Over 2.5 Maps - $1.99
Mousesports vs Virtus.pro
Ironically enough, Virtus.pro are in a dire need of (another) roster change or two if they want to stay competitive in the current scene. They are but a shadow of a team that made an amazing run to the finals at the previous major in Berlin, while Virtus.pro's roster still played under AVANGAR.
The main cause for Virtus.pro’s woes are Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev and Sanjar "SANJI" Kuliev, who are playing abnormally bad, with 0.86 and 0.84 HLTV rating over the last three months respectively, so perhaps these two should be first on the chopping block. Virtus.pro played only one match in this tournament so far and came pretty close to taking a map off FaZe clan, but again thanks to the disastrous performance from both AdreN and SANJI, they failed short 16-11 on Overpass and 16-13 on Mirage.
The most recent meeting between mousesports and Virtus.pro came at ICE Challenge 2020 in a Group A winners' match. The first map was a pretty convincing 16-9 win by mousesports on Vertigo, with Robin "ropz" Kool ravaging an impressive 1.60 HLTV rating and a total of 24 kills. The second map on Train was close but in the end, mousesports pulled ahead and won the map 16-14. In the next match of the tournament, Virtus.pro were eliminated by GODSENT, a team that should have no business winning against the major finalists. Virtus.pro ended up finishing the tournament at a fifth-sixth place, while mousesports went all the way to the finals where they defeated IEM Katowice champions Natus Vincere and hoisted the trophy.
Due to their disastrous form and overall poor performances from their players, Virtus.pro are not going to have a great time playing against mousesports, who will be looking to bounce back from their (1-2) defeat against OG. In all fairness, Virtus.pro will struggle to win more than 10 rounds on any given map, let alone win the whole map. Back mousesports to claim a 2-0 win with ease!
Mousesports -1.5 Maps
$1.87