Our esports tipster Michael Lee is back with his top betting picks for Monday, September 12. Today he looks at two Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches in the main stage of Elisa Invitational Fall 2022 in Sprout vs Hotspurs and Bad News Eagles vs Dynamo Eclot and a VALORANT Champions bout between OpTic Gaming and XSET.
Esports Betting Tips: Monday 12th September
Sprout vs Hotspurs
Elisa Invitational Fall 2022
Hotspurs have made it through the Contenders Stage with a 3-2 record, which might suggest they’ve struggled, but that’s not the case. Even though Hotspurs lost two of five series, they also won against 777 Esports (2-0), Dynamo Eclot (2-1), and B8 (2-1), while their only defeats came against Sashi Esports (1-2) and Into The Breach (1-2), who finished the Contenders Stage in first and third place respectively.
So even though Hotspurs could have won more games, their only losses came against some of the top teams in the first tournament stage, so I wouldn’t blame them too much for it. However, Hotspurs will now have to step up their game if they wish to defeat Sprout, who enter Elisa Invitational as one of eight directly invited teams.
Currently ranked 25th in the world, Sprout enter this match as strong favorites and a team that shouldn’t struggle against outsiders like Hotspurs. However, I am not as bullish on Sporut as many seem to be, mainly due to their recent poor performances.
This month, Sprout have played five games and won all but one, which sounds excellent until you realise that their wins came against Gravity 9 (1-2), Prodigies (14-16), Infinite (2-0), and DIVIZION (0-2) which are not very strong teams. Moreover, Sprout lost a map against Gravity 0 and even gave away 14 rounds against Prodigies, which is hardly inspiring.
Sprout have shown nothing that would lead me to believe they deserve to be priced as 1.12 favourites. Value is with Hotspurs!
Hotspurs to win
$5.50 (1 Unit)
Bad News Eagles vs Dyamo Eclot
Elisa Invitational Fall 2022
Bad News Eagles made the headlines with their run PGL Major Antwerp 2022 in May, but they have not achieved much. Last week, they finished FiReLEAGUE 2022: Europe in third-fourth place, which sounds good until you see that the tournament featured only eight teams and that Bad News Eagles lost against MASONIC (0-2).
On a more positive note, Bad News Eagles have since played four games and won three, against Sampi (16-8), Entropiq Prague (2-0), and Ungent (2-0). A solid bounce-back run, but nothing spectacular.
Dynamo Eclot qualified for Elisa Invitational Main Stage with a 3-2 record from the Contenders Stage, where they’ve won against SKADE X (2-1), JANO Esports (2-1), and 00 Prospects (2-1), but were no match for Hotspur (1-2) and Esports Club Kyiv (0-2).
Dynamo Eclot’s run through the Contenders Stage is not very promising, but they’ve won six of their last seven games, which includes two wins against TITANS (2-0 and 2-1). Unfortunately, TITANS are not in a very good shape, so I can’t feel overly excited about Dynamo Eclot’s form.
Even though Bad News Eagles have not impressed me of late, I have to side with them to sweep Dynamo Eclot. The latter have not shown anything in recent weeks and are individually much weaker than the Kosovar squad.
Bad News Eagles -1.5 maps
$2.37 (1 Unit)
OpTic Gaming and XSET
VALORANT Champions 2022
XSET came into VALORANT Champions 2022 as one of the dark horses, but they soon found their momentum and proved all the doubters wrong. Not only have they topped Group C ahead of FunPlus Phoenix, KRU Esports and XERXIA, but they also humiliated Fnatic (2-0) in the first round of the playoffs.
Although XSET’s miracle run is far from over, they head into the upper bracket semi-finals with a lot of momentum and results, proving that XSET is more than just another outsider for the title. But before they can consider themselves serious contenders, XSET must make it past OpTic Gaming.
OpTic won Group B, but they weren’t particularly impressive, losing maps against BOOM Esports and LOUD. But we saw a lot more from OpTic on Saturday, when they reverse-swept Team Liquid (2-1) with 13-8 on Bind and Ascent.
Had this game been played a week ago, I would predict OpTic Gaming winning it without any issues, but we have to respect XSET and what they’ve shown. Even though OpTic won this H2H (2-0) in July and are 2-1 up since June, I don’t believe this will be an easy game for them.
XSET and OpTic are regional rivals, which only adds to the fact that this should be a close match, so I have to take over 2.5 maps at even odds. Even though XSET to win at 2.25 isn’t a bad choice, I would rather stick with predicting this series going the distance.
Over 2.5 maps
$2 (1 Unit)
