It's time for our Esports betting tips for Thursday, February 18th. Today, our Esports guru Michael Lee takes us to the ESL One CIS tournament where he has plucked out three of his best bets for the day. Check out his thoughts below!
Esports Betting Tips - Thursday, February 18th 2021
EXTREMUM vs Team Empire
ESL One CIS Upper Division
Team Empire are fighting for survival in the CIS upper-division, whereas EXTREMUM still have a legitimate chance to secure a top-six finish. It's worth noting, however, there is only one win separating these two teams, so It would be hard to say one is significantly better than the other.
EXTREMUM took down NoTechies last week, albeit only barely. After a quick 22-minute win on map one, EXTREMUM put their foot off the gas and suffered a devastating loss before sealing the deal on map three. Team Empire were not as fortunate in their last outing, where they lost against Team Unique (1-2), however, they put up a decent fight so I am not ready to doubt in them just yet.
Even though EXTREMUM managed one more win so far this tournament, both teams seem evenly matched, which is why I am somewhat shocked to see Empire priced as high as $2.33 at PickleBet. This is a 50/50 match, which is why I am siding with the underdogs.
VP.Prodigy vs Imperial Pro Gaming
ESL One CIS Lower Division
VP.Prodigy managed only one win so far this tournament (1-4), which is a very concerning sight for a team that has just a few months ago made it to the finals of OGA Dota PIT S3: Europe/CIS. That said, this is no longer the same stack of players that led VP.Prodigy to that feat, but instead a completely new roster, previously known as Team Generation.
By promoting their old squad to the main team, VP.Prodigy now fields a stack of unknown and inexperienced players, so it's not too shocking to see them struggle. That said, VP.Prodigy are not nearly as bad as their record suggests, considering they managed to steal one map off HellRaisers, Winstrike and PuckChamp, who are also the current top-three teams in the league.
Imperial Pro Gaming might hold a better record (2-3) than VP.Prodigy, however, their two wins came against XactJlepbI and B8, who are not exactly strong teams. With that in mind, it's not like Imperial Pro have shown much more than VP.Prodigy - they were just slightly more effective when faced with bottom-of-the-table teams.
VP.Prodigy are not as bad as the betting odds suggest and while I don't expect them to compete for the title, they definitely are good enough to defeat Imperial Pro Gaming.
Winstrike vs PuckChamp
ESL One CIS Lower Division
This will mark Winstrike's rematch with PuckChamp, who have already bested them 2-0 on Wednesday during the Snow Sweet Snow #2. Despite PuckChamp's commanding performance, they're still priced as high as $1.88 at the moneyline and I don't think I need to explain why that's just not right.
There is not a lot to be said about this match, since we have already seen everything there was to see just hours before Winstrike and PuckChamp will meet again. It's also fair to mention that the series were extremely one-sided with PuckChamp winning both maps with 31-16 in kills and 27.1k and 25.8k net gold lead respectively. Expect another clean victory for PuckChamp.
