Another Saturday night in esports, another great slate of action to look forward to in the CS:GO and DOTA2 titles. We have a full preview and betting tips for some of the key matchups of the night and into Sunday morning below.
Esports Betting Tips: Saturday, May 9th
ENCE vs Astralis
CS:GO ESL One: Road to Rio
Although ENCE were struggling with getting some decent results for the latter part of 2019 and early into 2020, they actually managed to turn things around and are coming into this match against Astralis in a fairly decent form. They placed 1st-2nd at the recent Elisa Invitational and earned their ticked for the BLAST Spring EU Showdown after beating GODSENT, Dignitas and Apeks (twice). Those are not exactly the results you would celebrate, however, and considering they were playing with their new addition, Jamppi, who can’t play at official Valve events due to a VAC ban, the results are not as impressive as it may seem.
Nonetheless, the core of ENCE at least has some wins behind them, which just might give them the motivation to perform up to par against Astralis. As for Astralis, they started their RtR campaign with a win against Complexity and fell flat against Fnatic in game two, but have since picked themselves up and defeated Vitality, NiP, Heretics and Dignitas, which helped them re-established themselves as the No.1 team in the world.
Many bettors were predicting a disastrous RtR campaign from ENCE, but to be fair, things are looking much better than what was expected. They picked a win against Fnatic in the opening match, to which they added three straight loses against Heretics, NiP and Complexity. After their losing streak, ENCE turned things around and picked up a win against Dignitas and Vitality. Based on what I have seen, ENCE tend to produce close affairs on some maps, even against much stronger teams. I see no reason why they would not be able to win at least one map against Astralis, considering they managed to achieve that feat only two months ago in the ESL Pro League. Trust ENCE to take home at least one map!
Vitality vs Heretics
CS:GO ESL One: Road to Rio
The French derby between shaky Vitality and the rising Heretics is here and it will take place in Group A of the ESL One: Road to Rio. Vitality are coming into the match after a couple of questionable displays. They lost against Ninjas in Pyjamas, Astralis and ENCE but won a couple of tough fixtures against Complexity and Fnatic.
Based on their results, Vitality look either like a disorganised mess only glued together by amazing performances from their star player Zywoo or like a proper top-five team. As for Heretics, most of the bettors did not believe Heretics will achieve anything at RtR but with the introduction of the online format, they have produced a couple of impressive upset wins over Dignitas, ENCE and Complexity, however, looked like a bit iffy against Fnatic, Astralis and NiP.
This will be a battle between two of the hottest players at this tournament, Heretics' star player Maka who is averaging an amazing 1.28 HLTV rating and Vitality's superstar Zywoo who is boasting with an equally impressive 1.27 HLTV rating. As I see it, this match will come down to which one of these two players will have a better day and considering how right most of these French derbies usually are, the value is often on the underdog. Value bet on Heretics!
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs VP.Prodigy
DOTA2 WePlay! Pushka League Season 1: Division 1
The semi-finals of Puchka League are upon us and what a surprise match we have got on our hands! Almost no one expected to see Ninjas in Pyjamas (previously Chicken Fighters) and VP.Prodigy to go so far, however, we can safely say both teams deserve to sit where they are. NiP finished the group stage at fourth place, with a 3-3 record, which saw them earn a ticket for the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. Meanwhile, VP.Prodigy ended their group stage journey with an impressive 4-2 record, losing only to FlyToMoon and Virtus.pro. In the quarter-finals, Ninjas in Pyjamas disposed of HellRaisers (2-0), while VP.Prodigy made easy work of Alliance (2-0).
Since VP.Prodigy are a newly formed team these two sides have never met before, which does bring a level of uncertainty to this match. VP.Prodigy produced a stronger record in the group stage and even defeated Alliance, however, NiP's road to the semi-finals was arguably much tougher, so we can rank these two teams equally. VP.Prodigy will enter this match as favourites, which seems fair, but considering this will be the first meeting between these two rosters and in an online tournament, I would not feel comfortable betting on an outright winner. Both teams played very solid Dota2 recently and if they can both step up here, we should be in for a close and exciting match. Expect a three-map series, while NiP should not be completely ignored as a team that can come out ahead with the spoils.
