Michael Lee is back with Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports betting previews and predictions for three games on Monday, March 28, including ECSTATIC vs Tricked Esports, 00Prospects vs Savage, and AGO vs PACT.
Esports Betting Tips: Monday, March 28th
ECSTATIC vs Tricked Esports
Pinnacle Cup III
Tricked Esports barely made it through the Pinnacle Cup III Swiss Stage with a 3-2 record, but they deserve some recognition for bouncing back after a 0-2 start. They lost against Anonymo Esports (0-2) and SKADE (0-2), but they lined up three straight wins against SINNERS Esports (2-1), KOVA (2-0), and Team Finest (2-1).
Perhaps their most impressive victory happened in the first round of the playoffs, where Tricked defeated the top-seeded team, 4glory esports with 16-13 on Ancient and 16-10 on Nuke. In the series, Andreas "kiR" Kirstein and Sebastian "Larsen" Larsen stood out as the best player on Tricked with 1.35 and 1.15 ratings, respectively, but we should also know that not a single player of Tricked ended with a rating lower than 1.04.
ECSTATIC did not need to fight through the Swiss Stage since they received a direct invite for the playoffs. Instead, they competed in the Thunderpick Bitcoin Series, where they defeated Entropiq (2-1), which is seriously impressive. But, that was also ECSTATIC's first win after two defeats against Hellslayerz (16-19) and Dignitas (12-16).
ECSTATIC deserve some respect for beating Entroipiq, but I don't believe they can defeat the in-form Tricked without losing at least one map. Tricked Esports with a +1.5 map handicap.
Tricked Esports +1.5 Maps
$1.80
00Prospects vs Savage
Elisa Invitational 2022 Spring
00Prospects and Savage will meet in the second round of Low Matches at Elisa Invitational 2022 Spring after both teams lost their round one fixtures. Savage lost against Into the Breach, whereas 00Prospects got handed an L by Young Ninjas.
Results like that really show that these are two of the weakest teams of the tournament, but based on what the esports bookies believe, Savage should be favoured to win. However, that does not sound right, and it seems like Savage are only favoured because this is a roster of known names.
Looking back, Savage have now lost four of their last six games and eight of their last 10. That included defeats against KOVA, PACT, K23, Nexus Esports, and ONYX which is very concerning. Even their performance against Into the Breach in the first round was not convincing, seeing how Savage put together only 17 rounds (5-16, 12-16) across the series.
00Prospects were hardly any better in their match against Young Ninjas (12-16, 9-16), but they're at least 3-1 over the last two weeks and have shown some good qualities in their tournament opener. This seems like a coin-flip match, so I'm taking 00Prospects at 2.10.
AGO vs PACT
ESL Mistrzostwa Polski: Spring 2022
The fifth round of ESL Mistrzostwa Polski: Spring 2022 will serve us with an exciting match between two Polish CS:GO teams in AGO and PACT. AGO last met with PACT last month, during the ESL Mistrzostwa Polski regular season, when PACT won 19-17 on Dust II.
In that game, AGO were playing without Szymon "kRaSnaL" Mrozek, who got replaced by Roland "ultimate" Tomkowiak. According to the latest news, ultimate should again play instead of kRaSnaL for this match.
That isn't a big issue, seeing how ultimate is playing well with an average rating of 1.03 across the eight maps he has spent with the team. However, AGO as a team have not been in the best form. They are 2-4 this tournament and are fresh off a 10-16 defeat against Wisla Krakow.
AGO are much better than what they've shown, so perhaps they're not taking ESL Mistrzostwa Polski too seriously and are instead focused on preparing themselves for ESL Pro League Season 15, which they'll attend this week.
PACT are 3-3 at ESL Mistrzostwa Polski, which isn't great, but they've done well elsewhere and are 5-2 across their last seven matches. Over those seven games, PACT won against VP.Prodigy (16-11), Savage (19-16), Ungent (16-3), ThunderFlash (2-0), and Team ESCA (16-8).
This is a match between two teams that frequently play against one another and players who know each other well, and this usually means we're in for a close match, like the last time AGO and PACT played. AGO are a better team, but they're likely not focused on this tournament, so I prefer PACT at 2.20.
