Wednesday, December 18 – 13:00 MSK
All esports bookmakers seem to agree that the opening clash of Group B will be a one-sided affair.
Evil Geniuses ($1.20) enter the EPICENTER tournament after an underwhelming run at the ESL Pro League S10 Finals. They started off strong with a 16-3 win over Fnatic and a convincing 2-0 result against 100 Thieves, but they came undone with losses to NaVi in the Group A finals (1-2) and mousesports (1-2) in the quarter-finals.
Before the ESL Pro League S10 Finals, EG finished third-fourth at the ECS S8 Finals after losing 1-2 to Astralis in the semi-finals.
SEE ALSO: EPICENTER 2019 GROUP A BETTING TIPS
ForZe ($4.20) head to EPICENTER 2019 off a title-winning run at DreamHack Open Winter, which concluded at the start of the month. Approximately two weeks later, forZe also won the ESEA S32 Premier Division European Finals against HAVU (3-0).
EG and forZe have not met before. Interestingly, the two teams have a fairly similar map pool, which should result in an exciting match. The question is whether forZe can do some damage against the third-best team in the world.
As we see it, EG are in terrible shape now. They might boast some exceptional individual talent, but their inconsistency has reached alarming levels. The tournament will be played in Russia, which will add some motivation for forZe to deliver and make their home crowd proud. A +1.5 map bet on the hosts is a great pick here.
Prediction: forZe +1.5 – $2.08 at GG Bet
Wednesday, December 18 – 16:00 MSK
After winning both the CS:GO Asia Championships and ESL Pro League S10 Finals, mousesports ($1.40) will look to keep their fire going at EPICENTER 2019.
They endured a lean patch early in the year, but mouz have bounced back in style and now rank among the world’s top five CS:GO esports teams. They have won nine out of their last 10 fixtures, with their only defeat in that stretch coming against Team Liquid in round two of the ESL Pro League S10 Finals.
AVANGAR ($2.82) are a respected team in their region, yet they can hardly compare to mouz and their recent achievements. In September, AVANGAR won BLAST Pro Series: Moscow and finished second at the StarLadder Berlin Major. Those are their only two notable results in recent months and their best results of 2019.
AVANGAR failed to impress at the CS:GO Asia Championships, where Dzhami “Jame” Ali and his squad finished fifth-sixth alongside Evil Geniuses. They also claimed an underwhelming seventh-eighth finish at the ECS S8 Finals at the end of November.
Mousesports bested AVANGAR at the Berlin Major (19-17) and most recently at the Asia Championships (2-0). With mouz in superb form, another clean sweep is on the cards.
Prediction: mousesports -1.5 – $2.15 at GG Bet
]]>Tuesday, December 17 – 13:00 MSK
Vitality ($1.04) are currently ranked as the eighth-best team in the world according to HLTV world rankings. While Alex “ALEX” McMeekin and his squad have fallen off slightly in recent months, they are a perfect example of a team that has a lot of potential yet fails to produce big results.
Vitality’s most recent title came in June when they won ECS Season 7. Since then they have claimed a silver medal at ESL One: Cologne, third-fourth place at IEM Chicago, second at DreamHack Malmo and third-fourth at IEM Beijing. Their most recent tournament result was a ninth-11th finish in the ESL Pro League S10 European qualifiers.
EHOME ($9.47) are a respected team from Asia, but they are some way short of the best CS:GO esports sides from Europe and North America. EHOME are ranked ninth in the Asian region and 78th in the world.
At the start of December, EHOME won the WESG 2019 China online qualifiers. That was their only notable tournament result in the last four months.
This will be the first time EHOME and Vitality meet on the battlefield. That usually brings some level of uncertainty, but we don’t feel like there is a lot to talk about here.
Vitality are clearly the superior team. While they might not be one of the top five teams in the world, they are far better than EHOME in all aspects of the game. Expect the French squad to deliver a clean sweep.
Prediction: Vitality -1.5 – $1.19 at GG Bet
Tuesday, December 17 – 16:00 MSK
Natus Vincere ($1.30) made a solid run in the ESL Pro League S10 Finals, where they finished in third-fourth place alongside Astralis. Their only defeat of the tournament came against Fnatic, who reverse-swept them 2-1 in the semi-finals.
At BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen a month earlier, NaVi finished third and defeated both Team Liquid (16-14) and NiP (16-10) while drawing with Astralis (15-15). That being said, their defeat against FaZe (9-16) and a draw with Cloud9 (15-15) left a lot to be desired.
Heroic ($3.34) will enter EPICENTER fresh off a solid run at IEM World Championship European open qualifiers. While not a particularly tough tournament, Heroic played very well and justified their tag as the favourites.
At the start of December, Heroic also claimed a top-two seed in WESG North Europe but failed to see the same success at the ESL Pro League S10 Finals. There, Heroic finished in 13th-16th place alongside TYLOO, Sharks and North. The Danes lost both of their fixtures against 100 Thieves (8-16) and Fnatic (1-2).
Heroic have three wins and only one defeat from their last four meetings with NaVi. The one loss came in February at the GG.Bet Ice Challenge (0-2), where Heroic had defeated NaVi (2-1) only two days earlier. The other two wins for Heroic came in May 2019 at ESL Pro League S9 – Europe and in October at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8 (2-0).
Despite their poor head-to-head record against Heroic, NaVi are deserving favourites here. That being said, there is a serious chance they might drop one map.
Prediction: Heroic +1.5 – $1.78 at GG Bet
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