Our esports tipster Michael Lee is back with three Counter-Strike: Global Offensive previews for three games in the first round of Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 Play-In Stage. Today he looks at Into the Breach vs Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic vs Complexity, and Astralis vs Team Liquid, who will play on Wednesday, July 26.
Check out our expert previews and betting tips below, and make sure to head over to Picklebet – Australia’s #1 esports betting site.
Esports Betting Tips: Wednesday, July 26th 2023
Into the Breach vs Ninjas in Pyjamas
IEM Cologne 2023 Play-In Stage
Ninjas in Pyjamas have recently won BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 with a huge upset victory against Team Vitality (2-0) in Group A final. That's quite an accomplishment, but BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 was a bit of a mess, so while NiP looked good, I wouldn't come to any conclusions.
Into the Breach will debut its new roster on Wednesday, with Aurimas "Bymas" Pipiras and Adam "NEOFRAG" Zouhar as the latest additions. The duo won't make Into the Breach a top-10 team, but this lineup looks pretty good – with much bigger potential than ITB's previous roster.
We don't know what ITB can accomplish with the new players, but this looks like a very competitive team that should do more than fine against Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Ninjas in Pyjamas are priced as 1.40 favourites of this match, which is a bit of an over-exaggeration. They won BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023, which sounds impressive, but they didn't show much throughout the tournament and only won because Vitality played poorly in the finals.
Ninjas in Pyjamas should still be slightly favoured to defeat Into the Breach, but they shouldn't be 1.40 favourites. I prefer Into the Breach at the offered esports betting odds.
Into the Breach to win
$2.75 (1 Unit)
Fnatic vs Complexity
IEM Cologne 2023 Play-In Stage
Fnatic made a couple of roster changes at the start of June, signing two new players, Aurélien "afro" Drapier and Christopher "dexter" Nong. These additions won't make Fnatic any stronger, so until proven otherwise, Fnatic will remain a competitive team but not good enough to accomplish anything at the top level.
Complexity are in a similar spot. They didn't accomplish anything in the first half of the year, and even with Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski, they likely won't contest any big trophies. That was already noticeable earlier this month when Complexity attended BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023, where they won against Ninjas in Pyjamas (2-1) but lost the next three against Vitality (0-2), NiP (1-2), and Astralis (0-2).
Complexity didn't amaze me with what they've shown at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023, but that doesn't mean they will struggle against Fnatic, who don't seem much stronger. Complexity also had a chance to warm up at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023, whereas Fnatic have yet to play an official match with their new roster, which works in favour of the outsiders.
This game can end both ways, but I like Complexity better, who are a good bet at $2.
Complexity to win
$2 (1 Unit)
Astralis vs Team Liquid
IEM Cologne 2023 Play-In Stage
Astralis and Team Liquid already met on Saturday in the second round of BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 Play-In Stage. Astralis won the game convincingly, with 16-11 (Overpass) and 16-9 (Inferno), but they're priced as 2.10 underdogs for this game.
One head-to-head win doesn't make Astralis an objectively better team, but at the same time, it doesn't make sense that Team Liquid are priced as 1.66 favourites. Team Liquid did look solid at BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023, where they defeated FaZe (2-1) and G2 Esports (2-1), but both games were very close, so I would take those wins with a grain of salt.
Astralis, on the other side, lost against Natus Vincere (1-2) and BIG (1-2) during BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2023 group stage but then won against Complexity (2-0) and Team Liquid (2-0). So if we focus only on the team's recent games, Astralis have looked worse.
Both teams have played just four games since the break, and they're still trying to figure things out, and I expect that to show on Wednesday. This is a coin-flip match – as many of the first-round IEM Cologne 2023 games are – so it makes more sense to take the underdogs, even though Liquid has a higher ceiling and will likely outperform Astralis as the season progresses.
Astralis to win
$2.10 (1 Unit)
