Our esports expert Michael Lee has had a few days to rest up and he is back this Monday night with a full slate of best bets for the esports action around the world! Today he focuses in on the Arena of Blood, LOOT.BET and Hellcase Cup events respectively.
Esports Betting Tips: Monday, June 29th
Nemiga vs EXTREMUM
Arena of Blood Season 2
Nemiga showed no mercy for their group stage opponents, which earned them an upper bracket seed for the Arena of Blood Season 2 playoffs. So far this competition, Nemiga already defeated Team Empire (2-0), Khan (2-1) and Winstrike Team (2-0) and are now looking towards their next match against EXTREMUM. While Neimga were tearing it up in their group, EXTREMUM hit a bump in the road when they lost to Aggressive Mode (1-2). Nevertheless, they had no real difficulties defeating Team Unique and FlyToMoon 2.0, albeit they did drop one map in each game, which does not fill me up with confidence.
Nemiga last met with EXTREMUM in March at Epic Challenger League Season 1 and SIGUL Pro League. The two sides split one win apiece with Nemiga winning the first match 2-0 and suffered a 0-2 loss in the second match.
Considering how these two teams seem to match up nicely, it would be fair to assume we are in for another close bout. Furthermore, neither team is in great shape heading into this match - EXTREMUM won six games out of last 10 played, while Nemiga managed only four. I must also mention Nemiga played only one match in the past two weeks, while EXTREMUM played two.
Due to the lack of any real playtime this month, both sides will be entering this bout ring rusty and since this is also an online match, it makes me believe both squads have an equal chance to come out ahead. It won't be an easy match for EXTREMUM, but they looked solid in their recent bouts so I have my reasons to believe they can defeat Nemiga. Bet on EXTREMUM!
Hard Legion vs Nemiga
LOOT.BET Season 7
Hard Legion have managed only one win from their last five against AGF, but lost to Natus Vincere, Winstrike, Virtus.pro and Nordavind. Apart from their match against Natus Vincere, most of their matches were kinda close, so not everything is as bleak as it seems. Nemiga, on the other hand, are coming into the match in slightly better form. They have won two out of their last five matches against Apeks and Spirit but lost to Natus Vincere, Spirit and FATE.
Hard Legion will be coming into this match right after a tough BO3 match against Endpoint in the HellCase Cup 8. The said match is scheduled just three hours before their match against Nemiga. This is obviously not ideal, but on the other hand, if they manage to earn a 2-0 victory over Endpoint, Hard Legion will likely be coming into the match with a morale boost, but I am not counting on that to happen.
Nemiga are currently priced around 1.40, which is fair as they are definitely the better team, but considering that most of these matches between the lower-ranked CIS teams are a complete coin toss, especially in the online format, the value should be on the Hard Legion.
Looking at the recent history between these two teams we can see that most of the maps were fairly close, which makes me believe we are in for another close affair that will go into the distance as it already did twice so far this year (out of four matches). Bet on the series to go into the distance!
forZe vs Espada
Hellcase Cup 8
forZe are coming into the match with a disappointing 1-4 record from their last five matches. They managed to defeat only Gambit Youngsters but fell flat against Spirit, BIG, Gambit Youngsters and Nemiga. I must give forZe some praise for their performance against Spirit, where they managed to held their own, and to be fair, they were unlucky to not come away with a W.
Espada, on the other hand, are coming into the match in a slightly better form with two wins out of the last five matches. They defeated Winstrike and KOVA, but they fell short against AGF and twice against Spirit.
The only previous meeting between forZe and Espada took place about a month ago in the CIS Cup - BLAST Premier Qualifier, where forZe managed a comfortable 2-0 victory. Evgeny "FL1T" Lebedev and Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov were on point that day with 1.55 and 1.50 HLTV rating respectively. On the side of Espada Abdul "degster" Gasanov was the only player with a positive rating (1.25), while all of his teammates managed ratings below the 1.00 line.
Although forZe are coming into the match on the back of four straight loses, they are still one of the best tier-2 CIS teams, which is something I cannot say for Espada, who are in my book a Tier-3 team. ForZe are priced around 1.40 for an outright win which is fair as they should be looking to come out of this match with a clean 2-0 victory. Bet forZe to demolish Espada!
