Counter Strike: Global Offensive headlines the slate of esports this Tuesday night and as usual, our gaming expert Michael Lee has you covered with a round of best bets from the Nine to Five 3 Cup and the ESL One Cologne that are currently happening.
ESports Betting Tips: Tuesday, August 25th
MIBR vs Wisla Krakow
Nine to Five 3
MIBR have decided to switch regions by travelling to Serbia where they bootcamped and prepared themselves to compete in the European CS:GO scene. Since they are now in Europe, MIBR got invited to the European division of ESL One Cologne 2020 and so far they have shown little to nothing.
The Brazilians lost both of their matches against G2 Esports (0-2) and FaZe (1-2), and as the results would suggest, MIBR looked terrible. I am still a firm believer that MIBR need to completely rebuild their roster if they ever wish to reach their former glory because the current version of this team is going nowhere - not at the highest level of play nor in the second-tier competitions.
On the other side, we have Wisla Krakow who are nothing special, but they are entering this match with a four-game winning streak, which they have achieved by defeating AVEZ, K23, Singularity and Galaxy Racer. Throughout those four games, they have not lost a single map, which should give them the needed morale boost to compete with MIBR.
MIBR have been producing underwhelming results for a while now and since they are also under heavy fire by their fans on social media, I highly doubt this roster will be in the right mindset to play at the level they are capable of, which is why MIBR should not be priced at such low odds even though they are facing Wisla Krakow who are by no means a top-tier team.
Motivation will be a crucial factor for this match and while MIBR will surely lack it, we can expect Wisla Krakow players to do their best to not only defeat a renowned team like MIBR, but also to prove themselves in front of CS legends like Fallen and Fer.
MIBR have before played close games against teams of similar quality like Wisla Krakow and since they are not improving one bit, I expect much of the same here. Wisla Krakow might struggle to come out ahead, however, there is definitely a chance we might see an upset win.
North vs forZe
Nine to Five 3
North and forZe have met three times throughout 2020 and so far it's forZe who are leading with a 2-1 H2H record, which includes two BO3 wins and one BO1 loss.
Their last meeting came in June during the quarter-finals of Home Sweet Home Cup 8, where forZe defeated North 2-1. While North took the series lead with 16-7 on Overpass, they got completely stomped on Inferno (6-16) and Dust2 (5-16). ForZe's Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov was the man to watch that day with 51 frags and 1.32 HLTV rating, while his teammates Almaz "almazer" Asadullin and Dmitriy "facecrack" Alekseyev looked decent as well with 48 and 49 frags respectively
On the side of North, all five members underperformed as neither managed a positive 1.00 HLTV rating. The worst player of the day was Kristoffer "Kristou" Aamand, who has since left the team and got replaced by former Ninjas in Pyjamas IGL, Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson.
North have not played an official match for about two months and are on top of that entering this match with a new player, which is obviously not ideal. ForZe, on the other hand, have been very active in the competitive scene and even managed to produce a few solid results, which is why I have them as the favourites to take down the rusty Danes. Bet on ForZe to make short work out of North.
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs Natus Vincere
ESL One Cologne 2020 Europe
Since October 2019, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere met five times and as it stands now, NiP failed to win a single match, let alone a single map against the CIS juggernauts. The last time NiP lost to NaVi was in the upper bracket quarter-final at the BLAST Premier Spring 2020 Europe Finals, where NaVi swept NiP 2-0 with 16-14 on Mirage and 16-9 on Nuke.
Denis "electronic" Sharipov and Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev were (once more) doing most of the heavy lifting for NaVi. Electronic ended the series with 64 frags and an amazing 1.80 HLTV rating, while s1mple managed 46 frags and 1.41 HLTV rating. On the side of NiP, the only player worth mentioning was Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora with 42 frags and 1.13 HLTV rating, while all of his teammates earned ratings below the 1.00 line.
Ninjas have been playing decently well since the player break and even managed to win against the current no.1 team in the world BIG, so we can be sure they will be coming into this match hungry to prove themselves. NaVi, on the other side only managed to defeat mousesports, but convincingly lost to Complexity. Even though their results don't look too good, NaVi are known to start their tournaments slow so I would not criticise them too much for their loss.
Given that NaVi hold a commanding H2H lead over NiP and the fact that electronic always performs well against the Swedish squad, I have no doubt in my mind NaVi will win here. The odds offered on NaVi might not seem great, but they are much higher than they should be, making my decision on where to put my money very easy. Take advantage of these odds on NaVi!
