Another big night in CS:GO coming up from the ESL One Cologne event! Our main man Michael Lee has you covered with his best bets of the night in esports below.
ESports Betting Tips: Thursday, August 20th
BIG vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe
BIG and Ninjas in Pyjamas last met five months ago during the Europe Minor Closed Qualifier - ESL One Rio 2020, where NIP came away with a convincing 2-0 win, with 16-10 on Inferno and 16-11 on Vertigo.
In the said match, NIP's former IGL Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson pocketed the MVP award with 42 frags and 1.28 HLTV rating, whereas, only Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz managed to look somewhat good on the side of BIG with 43 frags and 1.22 HLTV rating. The CS:GO scene, however, was much different back then. BIG are now leading the CS:GO global rankings, while Ninjas in Pyjamas seemed to have deteriorated and don't look nearly as promising as they did at the start of the year.
BIG are entering this match as the favourites, which I don't have a problem with, since they have earned their right to be regarded as the best team in the world. Even though they have somewhat underperformed in their most recent match against Sprout, I would not put too much emphasis on that loss, since these German derbies are often hit-or-miss.
NIP have also their most recent match with OG, which proved to be a very close bout. NIP even looked like they’re going to claim the spoils, but in the end, it was OG who edged out a win with a double OT on Mirage.
If this was a LAN match, I would be all over Ninjas, but since it will be played online, I have to side with BIG. They have been beating teams left and right ever since CS scene transitioned to online play and I am not sure if NIP possess enough quality to stop the surging Germans just yet. Bet on BIG to win 2-0!
Heretics vs fnatic
ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe
Fnatic have last defeated Heretics in April during the ESL One: Road to Rio – Europe, which was quite an achievement since fnatic were a bit rusty at the time, however, it's worth mentioning that the match was very close (2-1). Fnatic's Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin was once again the best player on his team that day with 79 frags and 1.42 HLTV rating, while Heretic's best player proved to be Nabil "Nivera" Benrlitom with 62 frags and 1.07 HLTV rating.
Heretics will enter this match after a loss to Vitality, and while they looked somewhat solid in their loss, it was very clear that they lack the proper game plan and discipline to face off against the best teams in the scene. I still believe Heretics have enough firepower to keep this match interesting, considering fnatic were not looking too sharp in the online era of CS:GO, however, we can’t ignore just how good fnatic looked like against Astralis, and if they can enter this game with the same fire, they should secure a comfortable 2-0 win.
Betting on fnatic at -1.5 maps still seems a bit like a gamble, since you never know what kind of fnatic you will get on any given day, but the odds are good enough for me to take the risk.
Chaos vs 100 Thieves
ESL One Cologne 2020 North America
Chaos are looking like a very solid team and I am sure that with time and a couple of roster changes, this team could blossom into a proper top-tier NA team. As it stands now, however, Chaos are nothing more than a team that will consistently defeat tier 2 teams, but will struggle against the top dogs.
100 Thieves, on the other side, are a decent team even when faced against other tier 1 teams from NA, but for some reason, most of their matches seem like a complete coin flip. On a bright side, 100 Thieves probably expected to face FURIA at this stage of the competition, so I am sure they have put in a lot of work to be prepared for a tough opponent, which they kind of got, but not really.
Even though Chaos deserve some praise for their win against FURIA, they definitely over performed and I can't make myself believe we will see the same level of play from them against 100T. The Australian side are overall a better team and while they have struggled a bit against Gen.G, they should be more than capable of claiming a clean sweep here. Bet on 100 Thieves to win 2-0!
100 Thieves -1.5 Maps
$2.32
