BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 kicks off on Monday, May 8, as the final Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championships, welcoming 24 teams vying for the coveted trophy. And here you can find top betting tips for the day, courtesy of our esports tipster Michael Lee who offers his insight into three round-one matches, including FORZE vs Grayhound, Ninjas in Pyjamas vs MOUZ, and OG vs ENCE.
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Esports Betting Tips: Monday, May 8th 2023
FORZE vs Greyhound
BLAST.tv Paris Major
Greyhound and FORZE will meet in BLAST.tv Paris Major Challengers Stage in the fifth match of the day. According to the CS:GO betting odds, this should be a very lopsided affair, with FORZE expected to dominate the Australian squad, which looks about right. But it’s important to remember that opening matches at any Major tend to be closer than expected.
FORZE have not long ago found serious momentum and produced some of their best results of the year. They made it to the finals of BetBoom Playlist. Urbanistic with wins against BNE (2-0), Virtus.pro (2-0), and MOUZ, and then successfully qualified for the Major with a 3-2 record and wins against ENCE, NiP, and Aurora.
Since then, FORZE haven’t won much and are 2-3 from their last five fixtures, with defeats against Cosmo, Spirit Academy, and L40.
Grayhound have looked quite good since March. They won Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023: Oceanic Qualifier, finished BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: Asia-Pacific RMR in first place, and ESL Challenger at DreamHack Melbourne 2023 in third-fourth. They’re 13-0 since the IEM Dallas qualifier, and even though those mainly include wins against other Oceanic squads, there’s no denying that the Grayhound are in good form.
FORZE have achieved more than Grayhound this season and are therefore considered heavy favourites for his match. But I wouldn’t underestimate Grayhound, and I definitely wouldn’t bet on FORZE at 1.36 to win a BO1 series. Grayhound can win, but I’ll tame my expectations and take the Australian squad with 4.5 rounds advantage.
Grayhound +4.5 rounds
$1.72 (1 Unit)
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs MOUZ
BLAST.tv Paris Major
Ninjas in Pyjamas are priced as 2.00 underdogs to defeat MOUZ, which isn’t too surprising. Even though MOUZ qualified for the Major as Contender and NiP as Challenger, MOUZ have looked very good over the last few weeks.
At the RMR, they beat FaZe (2-1), Virtus.pro (2-0), and SAW (16-12), and they didn’t disappoint at ESL Pro League Season 17 either. They won beat SAW (2-0), FURIA (2-0), paiN (2-1) and won a map against Cloud9 (1-2). But even though MOUZ have shown some improvement recently, I still consider Ninjas in Pyjamas as the better team.
They finished the RMR wins against Eternal Fire (16-11), Astralis (2-0), and BIG (2-0) and then added a 2-2 run at IEM Rio 2023, where Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Imperial (16-5) and 9INE (2-1) and lost only against Heroic (0-2) and Natus Vincere (0-2).
Neither team enters the Paris Major as a serious candidate to win it all, and their performances over the last month aren’t spectacular. But comparing what MOUZ and NiP have achieved, there isn’t much to set them apart, not to mention that NiP have a more experienced roster. It’s hard to justify MOUZ priced as favourites.
Ninjas in Pyjamas to win
$2 (1 Unit)
OG vs ENCE
BLAST.tv Paris Major
OG and ENCE have not met once since June 2022, and they’ve looked about equally as good with their performances over the last month, so it makes sense for esports bookmakers to price them relatively close.
OG qualified for the Major via RMR A, where they won against SAW (2-0), 1win (2-0) and Falcons (2-0), and they haven’t looked bad since then. However, after making it through the RMR, OG put together a 2-2 record at IEM Rio 2023 with wins against Vitality (19.17) and Fnatic (2-0) and have recently attended Brazy Party, where they finished third-fourth after losing to Cloud9 (0-2) in the semifinals.
ENCE have not accomplished nearly as much since reaching the semifinals of ESL Pro League Season 17 in March. They barely made it through the RMR B and finished Brazy Party in ninth-12th place with defeats against Astralis (0-2) and SAW (1-2).
I wouldn’t ignore how good ENCE looked at ESL Pro League S17, but based on what we’ve seen from them since, it might’ve been just a flash in the pan. Moreover, if we take away ENCE’s run at ESL Pro league, we’re left with a squad whose success over the last 12 months was limited to only minor events.
This is a BO1 series, so anything can happen, but I much prefer OG at 1.92 over ENCE.
