3-0 day for our esports expert Michael Lee yesterday! Hitting on winners at odds of $2.11, $1.73 and $1.72 for a perfect performance! He'll be hunting more winners as he brings you his best bets for Tuesday night in the world of esports, headlined by some big matchups from the CS:GO IEM Global Challenge 2020!
ESports Betting Tips: Tuesday, December 15th
BIG vs Team Vitality
IEM Global Challenge 2020
BIG enter the IEM Global Challenge 2020 off an early exit from BLAST Premier: Fall 2020, where they won their opening two games against OG (2-0) and G2 Esports (2-1), but struggled to repeat their success against Team Vitality (1-2) and Astralis (0-2).
The most important fixture from that stretch is the 1-2 loss to Vitality, which should give us a good idea about how this next brawl will go. The series began with BIG taking a lead with 16-9 on Vertigo, only for Vitality to produce an incredible comeback with 16-1 on Inferno and 16-2 on Dust2.
Regardless, it was still a good effort from BIG, who looked good until they didn’t. In their next game against Astralis, BIG produced quite a solid resistance and came close to winning on Nuke (14-16), but they once again fell apart in the second map, which they lost with 6-16.
Team Vitality have been performing surprisingly well across the last couple of months. They have won the IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 in November, to which they added a BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 trophy on Sunday when they bested Astralis 2-1 in the finals. Prior to their most recent accomplishments, Team Vitality have also claimed a top-three finish at the BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 and a silver medal from the DreamHack Open Fall 2020.
Vitality are definitely the better team here, but I don't believe BIG should be priced as such big underdogs. They have previously stunned some of the best teams and considering Vitality will enter this match off tough schedule, BIG should win at least one map and keep the series close.
Astralis vs Complexity
IEM Global Challenge 2020
Astralis and Complexity have last met during the ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe, where Astralis took a 2-0 win with 16-8 on Nuke and 16-6 on Vertigo. The best player of the day was Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen, who racked in 47 frags and 1.59 HLTV rating, which was far better than Complexity's best player Benjamin "blameF" Bremer, who managed only 32 frags and 1.04 HLTV rating.
Even though Astralis made it to the grand finals of the BLAST Premier: Fall 2020, they did not impress me with their showings. Since they have parted ways with Patrick "es3tag" Hansen and brought back Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth, the Danes looked a bit shaky, which leaves me concerned about how they will do against Complexity.
Complexity might not be one of the best teams out there, but they're definitely capable of much more than what they have been showing. Across the last couple of months, they have managed a couple of underwhelming results including a fifth-eighth finish at the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Showdown, third-fourth at the IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 Europe as well as a second-to-last place finish at the BLAST Premier Fall Series 2020 with only one win against FaZe Clan. Despite their lack of success, some of Complexity's losses were very close, so I would not criticise them too much for their subpar results.
Even though Astralis might seem stronger, they are a bit unconvincing, which leads me to believe Complexity should have a decent chance to upset the Danes. Bet on Complexity to keep it close!
Complexity +1.5 Maps
$2.15
Natus Vincere vs FURIA
IEM Global Challenge 2020
Natus Vincere have last weekend made a deep run in BLAST Premier: Fall 2020, but eventually finished in fourth place after a disappointing 0-2 loss against Astralis. They have before that claimed a silver medal from the IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 Europe, where they have lost only to Complexity in the group stage and against Team Vitality in the grand finals.
Despite the occasional flashes of greatness, it's fairly obvious NaVi are not enjoying the online era of CS. The complete opposite, however, holds true for FURIA, who have this year already won the ESL Pro League Season 12 North America, IEM New York 2020 North America and DreamHack Open Summer 2020 North America.
FURIA enter this match with a 6-1 record across the last three weeks, with wins against Isurus, Virtus.pro, Team Liquid, North and G2 and a loss against Astralis (0-2) in the DreamHack Masters Winter 2020: Europe semi-finals.
FURIA also hold an impressive 79.2% win rate across the last three months, so it's more than fair to say they're in good form and ready to take on one of the best CS:GO teams in the world. Bet on FURIA to win!
