Priced at $1.01 with the top Counter-Strike betting sites, Team Vitality are given a 99% implied probability of beating ATOX Esports. The question is not whether Vitality will win, but by how much.

The Bees are in exceptional form ahead of ESL Pro League Season 20, having won the last two S-Tier tournaments: BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024 and Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024. They were not as potent at the Esports World Cup 2024, where Vitality placed top-eight, but they finished no lower than fourth at the previous ESL Pro League, IEM Dallas 2024 and BLAST Spring Final.

ATOX Esports are the eighth-ranked Counter-Strike team from Asia, with a massive collection of runner-up finishes from regional events but no medals from international competitions. While this is still a professional side with the advantage of being an unknown opponent for Vitality, the quality gap is significant enough to side with the European roster to cover seven rounds on both maps.

FURIA Esports found some success before the summer break with a run to the semifinals at YaLLa Compass 2024, and they did not do too poorly at the Esports World Cup 2024. However, they finished 13th-16th at IEM Cologne 2024 and fifth-sixth at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 #2.

Team Falcons also had their moment in August, when they won BLAST Premier Fall Showdown 2024, yet only managed seventh-eighth place at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 #2. Travelling to Malta on a five-game losing streak, Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer and co. have much to prove; however, they field enough talent to make some noise.

Quality-wise, there is not much to set these two squads apart, but there is a reason Falcons are priced as favourites. They have a stronger record on five out of seven maps in the rotation, except for Inferno and Nuke. Still, while this is the Falcons’ game to lose, there is a good chance the series will be decided on the third map.

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