It’s a massive week in Esports this week as the first CS:GO Major event since January will take place. The FACEIT London Major kicks off on Wednesday and offers a massive $1,000,000 prize pool, attracting sixteen of the best teams in the world and promising to be an exciting event. We take a look at the event and give our betting tips below.
CS:GO FACEIT London Major Betting Tips
Astralis
Currently the #1 ranked team in the world, Astralis will enter the major as the red-hot favourite after recently finishing second in the DreamHack Masters in Stockholm earlier this month. The squad of Xyp9x, dupreeh, Magisk, device and in game leader gla1ve has now been since February, which is an eternity in Esports and while they might not have the star power of some other teams competing this week, their chemistry is leaps and bounds ahead of any other team.
The team made the decision to drop long standing role player Kjaerbye in February after a disappointing 12th place finish at the last major event, the Boston ELEAGUE Major. Since bringing in Magisk, formerly of North and Optic Gaming, Astralis has been the most dominant team in Counter Strike, collecting four wins in 2018 alone totalling over $1,000,000 in prizemoney ad absolutely breezing through the qualification stage.
Astralis start as $2.62 favourites here and it’s hard to look past them after the run they’ve had since their disappointing early exit in the last major. They have arguably the deepest map pool of any team in the world and have proven time and time again that they are the only team in the world that are consistent enough to warrant betting on. I think Astralis put an exclamation point on their dominant 2018 here and take out first place.
Bet365 are offering the ‘betting without Astralis’ which is a great market if you fancy the Danish team to take out the title but don’t think there is much value there. FaZe Clan, Team Liquid and MiBR lead the race at $4, $4.50 and $5.50 respectively and while Team Liquid is probably our best bet from those three, we are going off the board here and looking at Natus Vincere and at $8.
NaVi are currently the #2 ranked team in the world and have probably had the next most successful year behind Astralis. They have picked up wins in the Star Series Season 5, the CS:GO Asia Championship and the ESL One: Cologne in 2018, totalling $375,000 in prize money and boast the best player in the world on their roster.
Since joining NaVi in 2016, s1mple has picked up seven MVP trophies in various tournaments, with four of them coming in 2018 alone. He will stand atop the HLTV 2018 players rankings at the end of the season without question and has the ability to lead his otherwise extremely talented team deep in this tournament. Back NaVi to make a deep run to consolidate on a stellar 2018. A bet on s1mplie to win the MVP at $7 is also great value.
s1mple MVP at $7
Navi without Astralis
$8.00
There is one other team that is worth mentioning here, and that’s FaZe Clan. As frustrating and inconsistent as they might be, FaZe Clan have arguably the most star-studded line-up in all of CS:GO capable, on their day, of beating anyone in the world in humiliating fashion. NiKo, GuardiaN, rain and olofmeister all sit in the top 13 in the MVP betting market and their in-game leader, karrigan, is one of the smarter minds in the game.
Granted, their results of late haven’t been promising but this roster has now been together for a while and they’ll be looking to make a statement at their second major as a unit after a heartbreaking loss to Cloud9 in the final of ELEAGUE Boston. $3 to reach the final is good value for a side this talented.
FaZe to reach the final
$3.00
