The Esports action continues on Monday, August 23rd as our resident Esports guru Michael Lee takes a look at matches from the Malta Vibes Knockout Series 1 and ESL Australia & NZ Championship Season 13 for all his best bets of the night.
ESports Betting Tips: Monday, August 23rd
Sprout vs Wisla Krakow
Malta Vibes Knockout Series 1
The last time these two teams played each other was back in April in ESEA Premier Season 37 Europe, where Sprout won with 2-1. Wisla Krakow opened the series with a 16-12 win on Train, but what followed was a complete collapse of the Poles, who lost 4-16 on Dust2 and 8-16 on Nuke.
Josef 'faveN' Baumann was on fire that day with almost 70 frags, 102.4 ADR, and a 1.50 HLTV rating. On the side of Wisla Krakow, Krzysiek 'Goofy' Gorski was the only positive player with 54 frags and a 1.04 HLTV rating, while his teammates all finished the series below the 1.00 HLTV line.
Anyway, the last match happened quite some time ago, and both teams have since made roster changes. What's more, this match will be played right after the player break, so you can't know what to expect; just look at what is happening in ESL Pro League Group B!
While Sprout haven't played a single match since the player break, Wisla Krakow have played two Polish derbies and recorded two wins; 2-0 over Illuminar and 2-1 over PACT. It is also fair to mention that Wisla Krakow will be playing against Apeks in the morning, so they should be warmed up for this match.
This should be quite a close affair between two similarly skilled teams, and while you should favour Sprout under normal circumstances, they might be a bit ring rusty, which Wisla Krakow should be able to exploit.
TeamOne vs Izako Boars
Malta Vibes Knockout Series 1
Team One enter this match with a five-match losing streak, but considering all these losses happened about seven weeks ago, they shouldn't affect Team One's morale as they look to end their dry streak against Izako Boars.
Since the end of the player break, the Poles have played two matches and won both; 2-1 against 777 and 2-1 against Finest. Those results are nothing special, and you could even argue that Izako Boars should be winning games like that without dropping a single map. At the same time, I don't really rate the Izako Boars that highly.
These odds are downward ridiculous! TeamOne have been boot camping in Europe, and while their five-match losing streak looks terrible, their losses came against OG, ENCE, Sprout, AGO, who are all established t1 and t2 teams. Meanwhile, Izako Boars have been losing maps against 777 and Finest.
Back in NA, Team One were beating the likes of Extra Salt and Triumph with ease, so a team like Izako Boars should not be much of a problem for them! Value bet on TeamOne!
VERTEX vs Chiefs
ESL Australia & NZ Championship Season 13
VERTEX have played only one official match since the player break; 16-4 win over Exsto, while Chiefs were pretty active during the break and have played a total of four this month. They lost once to Paradox but followed it up with two wins against Rooster (2-0, 2-0), and a 16-11 victory agianst Fury.
These two teams met only once in their history, back in April during ESEA Premier Season 37 Australia, when Chiefs won (2-1) in the upper bracket quarter-final. However, we shouldn't analyse the said match too much, as both teams have made several roster changes since then.
In round one of the ESL Australia & NZ Championship Season 13, VERTEX demolished Exsto 16-4 on Vertigo, while Chiefs secured a 16-11 victory over FURY on Nuke. An online BO1 match between similarly skilled teams is pretty much as close to a coin toss as you can get. Value bet on Chiefs!
