ESL Pro League Season 11 predictions and betting odds
We have already reported on the conversion of the ESL Pro League to a purely online format. Although the corona virus pandemic has brought almost all sporting events to a standstill worldwide, it has not hit the CS: GO scene too much, except that some LAN events have been postponed. Esports betting is currently experiencing unprecedented hype.
The 11th season of the ESL Pro League would have been a big tournament anyway. The organizers originally planned to play the first global championship this year. But under the current conditions, this is not possible for obvious reasons. Nevertheless or precisely because of the global crisis, this year’s edition of the ESL Pro League is a huge event.
It is practically one of the few eSports leagues and therefore sports events that are still viable during this pandemic, and this is because the league has traditionally always been online. Of course, we will most likely have to do without the LAN finale, but at least we can watch a lot of high-quality eSport action until then. And of course the ESL Pro League Season 11 also offers many opportunities for friends of sports betting, for whom it otherwise looks rather poor at this time.
Changes and difficulties
There have been some changes and team cancellations prior to the start of the tournament, as well as minor issues, but we are confident that the online format will allow the tournament to continue.
A team that continues to struggle is the winners of the last major counterstrike tournament, the Intel Extreme Masters XIV in Katowice, Poland, Natus Vincere. Na’Vi has to play from two different locations because of the coronavirus pandemic, as the borders between Russia and Ukraine have been closed due to the global crisis situation, Na’Vi has decided to split into two groups for the duration of the tournament
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The team has entered into such an agreement so that none of the players will have difficulty returning home while playing the tournament in a suitable environment. Electronic, flamie and Boombl4 therefore remain in Moscow, s1mple, perfecto and team captain B1ad3 play from their hometown Kiev.
Of course, this is by no means ideal for the favorites to win the tournament, as there is a certain transmission loss over this distance that would not occur under normal conditions, but this should hardly be noticeable.
But it’s not just about the difference in ping, it’s all about team communication. It won’t be as smooth or seamless as you would want when you play in a top league. It will therefore be interesting to see whether the team competing with Astralis for the title of “best CS team in the world” is able to show the same form that it showed in Katowice. So far, however, it does not appear that this does not greatly affect the shape. One can only hope that there won’t be a problem at the crucial moment of a big match.
Decisions of the ESL Pro League group stage
We are currently at the beginning of the decisive group phase in the European competition for the 11th season of the ESL Pro League. The first playoff matches are already set on the American side. They will take place on April 9th.
After starting with 18 teams on the European side, the second phase of the 11th ESL Pro League season consists of only a group of 6 teams. The second group phase on the European side will be decided in three matches a day until April 9th.
The group’s winner will be given a place in the grand final of the playoffs, while the teams in second and third place will fight for their entry into the final in a kind of semi-final. Every game in this group phase is played as best-of-3, just like in phase 1. Throughout the event, the only best-of-5 game is the Grand Finale.
The previous course of the tournament
One should have guessed: After an initial weakness of the Danes of Astralis, who lost their first match with 0-2 quite spectacularly against Evil Geniuses, they did nothing more and won all four subsequent matches of their group A to prove themselves as Qualify group winners directly for the second group phase of the European championship.
From the start, Astralis were of course the strongest team and top favorite for group victory, but when they lost to NiP at the beginning of the event, this led to some hasty statements that the Danes had now lost their dominance, and we also made such a prediction entice. Once again, the star players from Astralis mislead their doubters and finally led their group with a 4: 1 record to move into the second group stage as favorites again.
Natus Vincere as group B winner and mousesports also qualified directly for the decisive group stage by winning Group C. As expected, Natus Vincere finished first in Group B, although both Fnatic and ForZe had the same number of points. This is because Na’Vi beat both ForZe and Fnatic in their 5 games in total. So it was only fair that Na’Vi went straight to the 2nd phase due to winning both direct duels. There can be no question of the expected dominance on the part of the CIS players. The question remains whether this is due to the external circumstances mentioned above.
In subsequent decision matches between the second and third of all groups, the FaZe clan prevailed against ForZe, Fnatic won against NiP 2-1 and OG defeated the French of Team Vitality with 2-1 in an exciting match.
So we have the six teams together for the decisive group phase, as mentioned above, the group leaders Astralis, Na’Vi and mousesports have joined FaZe, Fnatic and OG and we can look forward to a top-class and highly competitive final round.
The group stage in America
On the other side of the ocean, only six teams in a group fought to reach the final directly, but four teams are now in the North American playoffs, which will see one more round than the European finals. No team could really dominate here, so that in the end three teams with a record of 3-2 wins will progress, while the Brazilians from MiBR have qualified for the playoffs despite a negative balance of 2-3.
As expected by most, Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses prevailed, but there was a big surprise on the second day of the group phase when SWOLE Patrol’s substitutes defeated Liquid 2-0. That being said, there was good news for all Brazilian fans as MiBR managed to qualify against the tied teams SWOLE Patrol and 100 Thieves thanks to a direct comparison despite a poor K / D ratio. And although all of their games in this group have been tight, this shows that MiBR has regained structure and may be a strong team when it comes to the final games of the North American division of the ESL Pro League.
In the end, SWOLE Patrol and 100 Thieves were very short and unfortunate, FURIA Esports and MiBR start their run for the title in the lower bracket, while Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses are already in the Upper Bracket Finale, a victory here qualifies the winning team for the Grand finale, the loser gets a second chance to directly reach the final in the game against the winner in the lower bracket.
ESL Pro League 11 match predictions
Right on the first day of the second group phase there is an absolute top encounter when the two favorites meet for the tournament victory Astralis and Natus Vincere. The winning team here has the best chance of reaching the final directly and this match could bring about a kind of early preliminary decision. Unfortunately our prediction will not reach you early enough, so we will focus on the later encounters here.
mousesports vs FaZe Clan (April 6)
The match mousesports against FaZe Clan will see the re-encounter of two teams from group B, the group winners mousesports will meet the group runners-up FaZe Clan, who clearly won against forZe in the decision game on Saturday with 2-0 and are now in the decisive one second group phase.
If you look at the direct matches of recent times, mousesports is clearly ahead with six wins and one defeat.
Mousesports have so far presented themselves in excellent form at this tournament, they won their group C in front of their opponent FaZe Clan and OG, but the FaZe clan also showed their form, they lost in the group phase only against G2 Esports and against mousesports with 1- 2nd
If you look at the card pools of both teams, there aren’t many serious differences or advantages that could help you make a decision here. As always, a competitive match can be expected between these two teams and it is really difficult to determine a winner here. Therefore I think that the best betting option here is a bet on the total number of cards played, one can strongly assume that the encounter between FaZe Clan and mousesports will not be decided in two cards and it will go to a third card.
mousesports vs. FaZe Clan: Total number of maps over 2.5
Odds: 1.83
mousesports vs. Natus Vincere (April 7)
A further encounter between two group winners will take place on April 7, when the Russian-speaking boys from Natus Vincere playing from two camps meet the winner of Group B, the international team mousesports based in Germany.
Aside from their defeat by OG, where they clearly lost the following cards Train and Inferno after a narrow victory on Mirage, Mousesports have collected four important victories in this group stage, as many as Group A group winners, Astralis, can boast. The most important match was probably the encounter with the FaZe clan, that the team around the legendary team captain Finn “karrigan” Andersen was able to narrowly but convincingly decide for themselves.
s1mple and electronic on the part of Na’Vi have missed the expected dominance in their group, but surprising defeats against North and the German team BIG (0-2! each) seem to have led to an awakening. Natus Vincere won their next three games, starting with a 2-1 win over ForZe and crowned with a final 2-0 win over Fnatic. So they seem to have adjusted to the unusual situation, at least that remains to be hoped for by their fans.
Once again, you can assume that this important match will not be decided in two cards, so a tip on the total number of cards is very recommendable in our eyes because of the surprisingly high odds. An outsider tip on mousesports seems tempting, but this match is too unpredictable right now and we would advise against making a bet like this.
mousesports vs. Natus Vincere: total number of maps over 2.5
Odds: 2.00
Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses (04/09/2020)
Now let’s talk about the game that is at the heart of the American finals. In the final of the Upper Bracket, the guys from Team Liquid meet Evil Geniuses again, but this time it is about the direct entry to the final for the winning team. The stars of EG like Brehze and CeRq against EliGE and NAF on the part of Liquid – the infinite rivalry between Team Liquid and the former squad of NRG continues.
When it comes to the best individual artists in both teams, their names have already been mentioned. Team Liquid’s services largely depend on their dynamic duo of NAF and EliGE. On the other hand, CeRq and Brehze have always been the best players in this EC squad who are able to decide rounds with a brilliant individual performance. The fact that Team Liquid won the last match of the two also speaks for them in this match.
However, their appearances in the group stage were anything but convincing, until their victory over Evil Geniuses on the last day of the group games it looked bad for Liquid, after losing to SWOLE Patrol (0-2!) And FURIA Esports was a win against Evil Geniuses the last chance for the final, in the end this even ensured the group win due to the extremely tight situation in the North American league.
Brehze and the boys will give their all in this second leg to avenge the defeat in the group stage and qualify directly for the grand finale, so we’ll likely see that this match can only be decided on a third card. It remains to be seen whether the third card will be extended as in their group match, but we are sure of another highly competitive encounter here. For the brave, I would recommend a tip on Team Liquid, the safer variant would again be the total number of cards, everything indicates that this decisive match will not be decided in two cards.
Team Liquid vs. Evil Geniuses: total number of maps over 2.5
FaZe clan vs. OG (April 9)
Like the Group C final, the final game of this second European group phase is FaZe Clan against OG. Depending on how these two teams play before this game, we could see a direct fight for one of the three places leading to the playoffs (or straight to the final).
If this is really the case, I think the experience of the FaZe Clan will help them overcome OG. Individually, the FaZe Clan is a much stronger team that has brought together impressive talents such as NiKo, olofmeister and Coldzera in its ranks. broky and rain have also been pretty good in the tournament so far, with Olofmeister being the only member who hasn’t exhausted his potential. Therefore, the question arises for many fans whether it is finally time for Olof to withdraw from the professional counter-strike.
I’m not necessarily saying that FaZe has better players in all positions, but overall, their squad is superior to OG both individually and in terms of experience. This, combined with a more diverse card pool and more top-level victories, should increase the chances for the Faze clan.
FaZe Clan vs. OG: victory FaZe clan
FURIA Esports vs. MiBR (04/09/2020)
The Brazilians from FURIA Esports are undoubtedly the surprise team in this finals of the North American ESL Pro League championships, but they deserve this place. They already had a huge success in their first match when they were able to beat the highly favored Team Liquid 2-1 in an exciting encounter and thus went into the tournament with the best prospects.
Next came the MiBR compatriots, who took a long time to find their form after major problems and restructuring in the team, but they were also considered favorites in this match against their Brazilian colleagues from FURIA Esports under team captain Andrei “arT” Piovezan. However, FURIA again triumphed and defeated MiBR with 2-1. On MiBR’s own card choice Train, FURIA gave the alleged number 1 CS organization in Brazil no chance, they won with impressive 16: 4 kills. Rearing up MiBRs, which she saw winning 16: 6 on Inferno, was of no use in the end when she clearly lost again on Mirage with 16: 8.
Subsequently, FURIA Esports had to give up first Evil Geniuses and then SWOLE Patrol, but then prevailed against 100 Thieves in the decisive match.
MiBR on the other hand can be lucky to still be in this tournament, only by directly comparing victories against the two eliminated teams SWOLE Patrol and 100 Thieves did they earn this place in the playoffs.
However, they seem to have regained their shape, and after losing to FURIA in the group game, they will be highly motivated for this crucial match. The defeat should also lead to an attractive win rate on MiBR, so that our tip falls on the more experienced guys around FallN and TACO.
FURIA Esports vs. MiBR: victory MiBR
Predictions for the tournament winners
On the North American side, where we are now in the playoffs, there are two clear favorites for the championship title. These two teams compete against each other in the Upper Bracket Final, and in our eyes everything looks like this match could be repeated in the Grand Final. Both Evil Geniuses and Team Liquid have fought their way through the group stage and are now facing a possible victory before the final.
However, anything is possible in this division, and no team could really compete in the end. In the end, FURIA Esports in particular showed that they cannot be ignored here. MiBR also always have the caliber to beat any team, but they lost in the group stage against each of the other three teams remaining in these playoffs. So it remains to be seen who will excel in the finals, in our opinion it is too unsafe for a tip.
Unsurprisingly, there is a favorite on the European side after almost three weeks of playing, and this team is again called Astralis. After Natus Vincere could not convince and teams like mousesports or FaZe Clan are always considered outsiders despite their undoubtedly top-class squads alongside Astralis, the most likely scenario here seems to be a group victory for the Danes, which would take them straight to the Grand Finale, where they only had one Victory would be removed from another big title win.
Even if it will not be easy to find a betting option for the tournament winner at this time, a tip on Astralis would be the safe, if not daring, option.
Betting odds for the winner of the ESL Pro League have not yet been determined.
