Imperial Esports haven’t played an official Counter-Strike match since their 17th-20th result at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023, where they lost against Monte (9-16), won against Grayhound (2-1), and were eliminated from the tournament by Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-2). It wasn’t the most inspiring showing from the Brazilians, although they did force NiP to a third map and lost in overtime

Fnatic produced a few good games back in July, when they defeated Complexity, 9INE, and Cloud9, but then crashed out of IEM Cologne 2023 with two defeats against ENCE (0-2) and GamerLegion (1-2). Since then, Fnatic have played three games and lost them all, going down to Cloud9 (0-2), Sprout (14-16), and ALTERNATE aTTaX (14-16).

This looks like a 50-50 game, so we don’t have to think twice before siding with Imperial to hand Fnatic their fourth-straight loss.

Apeks haven’t shown much over the last couple of weeks, yet the top esports betting sites are taking a lot of money for them in this matchup. They’re 3-6 since the start of August but 3-1 across their last four, with wins against knasigT (2-0), BetBoom Team (2-1) and 9INE (2-0).

M80 have looked decent for their standards over the last month, with just one loss from their last 11 outings. But as good as this looks, M80 have only beaten lesser North American teams and a couple of more prominent names in Evil Geniuses (2-1) and Bad News Bears (16-7).

As a North American squad, M80 will always be a bit underrated when facing a European squad. However, Apeks haven’t looked too good recently, and the recent departure of coach Jakub “kuben” Gurczyński can’t have helped. M80 to keep it close is the right play.

The offered CS:GO betting odds on this match make it seem like Natus Vincere should breeze past 5yclone. However, with their form, NaVi shouldn’t be priced as $1.05 favourites against anyone.

They’ve not accomplished anything noteworthy since transitioning to an international roster. In July, NaVi exited BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023 in fourth-sixth place, and they have since added two early exits from Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 (7th-8th) and Gamers8 2023 (5th-8th). Reaching the top eight at any big event still counts for something, but the big issue with NaVi is their lack of consistency.

5yclone are the third-ranked team from Asia, and they’ve placed second in all three events Liang “advent” Zhuo has competed in, including Perfect World Arena Premier League Season 5: Professional Division. Although they’re still a class below NaVi talent-wise, 5yclone are a solid longshot bet.

More esports betting tips

The post ESL Pro League S18 Group C betting picks – September 13, 2023 appeared first on Esport Bet.