BLAST Pro Series will travel to Copenhagen for the sixth and last BLAST Pro Series event of the year before the Global Finals, which are set to kick off on December 12th. Being the last event of the circuit, BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen promises to be the most thrilling event of the year, as this will prove to be one last shot for some of the pro teams to earn their spot at the global finals.
BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2019 Betting Tips
As it stands now, Team Liquid, Astralis and FaZe Clan already secured their spot at Global Finals, by earning 20 points or more at the previous BLAST Pro series events. Team Liquid won the Los Angeles event and finished runners-up in Sao Paulo as well as Miami. Astralis won in Sao Paulo and finished second in Madrid, whereas FaZe secured a top spot in Miami and finished second in Los Angeles.
That leaves us with Ninjas in Pyjamas (16 points), Natus Vincere (six points) and Cloud9 (six points) as the remaining three teams who can potentially earn a spot at the Global Finals in Bahrain. That being said NiP are the most likely team to advance here - if they finish at least fifth, they will earn two points and will be guaranteed to advance into the finals. MiBR, who are tied with NiP with 16 BPS points lost their chance to advance into the finals, because they will not participate at this event, thus they will not have a chance to earn additional points.
The Copenhagen event will kick off on Friday, November 1, with the opening fixtures of the group stage. All six teams have been seeded into one single round-robin group, where all fixtures will be played in best-of-one (Bo1) series. The group stage will feature five rounds of fixtures, with three bouts in each round, that will conclude on Saturday, November 2. Once the group stage comes to a close, only the top two teams from the group stage will advance into the grand finals, where they will fight it out in a best-of-three (Bo3) series to determine which team will be crowned the champion.
With a lot on the line for C9, NaVi and NiP, we can expect great things from them this November. That being said, they will all have to be on top of their game if they wish to stack up with Team Liquid, Astralis and FaZe.
Because most of the tournament will be played in a Bo1 series, it's very difficult to predict an outright winner. As we have come accustomed to, Bo1 series are notorious for upset wins, and we are confident saying there will be more than a handful of such on display in Copenhagen. That said, the odds provided offer us with some attractive betting options, which we will look over in this betting preview.
Cloud9 ($51.00 at Skrilla) will arrive at Copenhagen as heavy underdogs to win the tournament and it's easy to see why. The North American team have not been faring too well recently and they seem to be in a downright spiral with one bad performance after another. Most recently they underperformed at Esports Championship Series Season 8 - North America, where C9 lost to INTZ eSports 0-2, which resulted in them getting knocked out in quarter-finals. Less than a week earlier, C9 dropped the ball at ESL Pro League Season 10 - Americas, where they finished their group stage dead-last behind eUnited, Complexity Gaming and EG. At the last BLAST Pro Series event in Los Angeles, C9 managed to get into top four but lost to TL in the semi-finals. All in all, C9's performances seem to get worse as time passes, which is why we would avoid backing them all together as they are objectively the worst team competing in Copenhagen.
We would also advise against betting on NiP ($21.00 at Skrilla) who are not one of the teams we would imagine can impress. They had their moments of greatness at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8 at the start of October, but overall, NiP simply lack the firepower to compete with the likes of Team Liquid, Astralis and even NaVi. NiP come off as a team which is very prone to making mistakes and losing matches they shouldn't. While we can imagine them causing an upset against stronger sides, when push comes to shove, they will fall short of finishing top two.
That leaves us with FaZe ($13.50) and Natus Vincere ($6.50) as the remaining two underdogs.
Since acquiring coldzera, FaZe put themselves back on the map, as one of the teams which should not be underestimated and while we can agree FaZe look very strong on paper, their results tell a completely different story. FaZe finished their ESL One: New York 2019 campaign dead-last. While they managed to claim a spot in the playoffs at ESL Pro League Season 10 - Europe, they failed to look too convincing. The biggest issue we have with FaZe is a lack of a proper IGL, which results in very inconsistent results and questionable approach to their games. While we can't deny FaZe are capable of stacking up against some of the strongest teams in terms of individual quality, as a team, they will fall flat.
NaVi on the other side will enter the tournament in iffy form, after losing to G2 (1:2) and Heroic (0:2) at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8. And while it's only two results, NaVi have been recently known for being a hit-or-miss team. All in all, they have the needed quality to produce remarkable results and stack up with the best and while we can't know for sure if NaVi will manage to show off their true potential in Copenhagen, they will desperately need to claim all 10 points if they wish to appear in the global finals, which is a reason enough to make them a team to watch out for.
NaVi to reach final
$3.50
With those four teams covered, we are left with two favorites, Team Liquid ($3.00) and Astralis ($2.00) and we can't argue with the odds offered on them. Both teams are in a great form and there is no denying the fact they are the strongest two teams arriving at Copenhagen. However, only one team can be crowned the champion. Seeing how there is not much to separate the two sides in terms of quality, it will all come down to their form, where we have to side with Astralis. Team Liquid have failed to impress us with what they have shown recently, especially their performance at Esports Championship Series Season 8 - North America, where they looked very iffy. Astralis on the other side have been putting up solid results for over a month, with the only setback being their 0:2 defeat against Fnatic at DreamHack Masters Malmo. While this tournament won't change much for Team Liquid and Astralis in terms of them qualifying for the Global Finals, there is still US$125,000 on the line and the pride that comes with winning an event, which is why we can't say they won't take this event seriously.
For our prediction, we will side with Astralis to go all the way and claim the title. Backing NaVi to upset one of the favorites and appear in the finals is also a very appealing bet, priced at $3.50, and while the CIS outfit can be very unpredictable at times, the odds offered are enough for us to back them up to impress here and make it into the final two.
