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.

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These teams last met in the CCT North Europe Series #7 final a week ago, when BIG won with 16-8 on Vertigo and 16-11 on Anubis. It marked their third meeting of 2023 and the first since March, when BIG won 2-1. Monte won the first match 2-1 during the Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2023 European qualifiers.

Despite leading 2-1 in the head-to-head count and beating Monte just one week ago, BIG enter this match as underdogs, which doesn’t sound right. On the one hand, BIG are not the most consistent team, and they looked terrible at the start of August, but they’ve recently found some momentum and won CCT North Europe Series #7 by beating ENDPOINT, SAW, los kogutos, and Monte.

Monte are 9-5 since the start of August, which isn’t great, but they’re not placed worse than the top four in their last four tournaments. Like BIG, Monte aren’t the most consistent CS:GO squad, but they can have their moments.

These teams are close enough talent-wise to believe it’ll be a tight affair. As such, taking over 2.5 maps makes more sense than backing either side to win.

MiBR have made four roster changes since the turn of the year, but they’ve yet to accomplish anything noteworthy. Since the end of the summer break, MiBR have attended three events – CCT North Europe Series #6, CCT Online Finals #2, and Gamers8 2023 – and haven’t placed higher than the top six in any of them.

To make matters worse, MiBR are 0-3 ahead of their match with MOUZ and haven’t played a single game in three weeks, so it’s no surprise they’re expected to struggle on Wednesday. Some of it has to do with the fact that MOUZ have been playing well over the last month.

MOUZ made the finals of Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2023 and reached semifinals at Elisa Invitational Spring 2023 before the summer break. They’ve since added an unfortunate early exit from IEM Cologne 2023 (9th-12th) but won Thunderpick World Championship 2023: European Series #1 three weeks ago.

MOUZ will likely have a hard time once they face any of the top ESL Pro League Season 18 contenders, but they shouldn’t struggle to beat MiBR.

ENCE are one of the three leading candidates to win ESL Pro League Season 18. Evil Geniuses, meanwhile, are hardly worth talking about in the context of which teams can make a deep run in Malta.

Evil Geniuses have not fielded a strong CS:GO team since 2020, and the team’s performances over the last nine months have been particularly disappointing. Even the most recent roster shuffle – when EG promoted their academy lineup to the main team – has not led to any significant success.

On the other side, ENCE have been ramping up over the last few months and looked especially good in August, with two finals appearances at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 and Gamers8 2023. And the biggest reason ENCE are so successful is their consistency.

The opening rounds of any tournament tend to produce more upsets than expected, but ENCE are known to take care of business when faced with weaker teams.

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Astralis’ new roster had a slow start in July, suffering an early exit from the Gamers8 2023 Last Chance Qualifier, but then started ramping up at BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023 (4th-6th) and made the semifinals at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 at the start of this month.

In Cologne, Astralis produced a few good games, beat Heroic (2-0) in the first round of the playoffs, and crushed Ninjas in Pyjamas (16-6, 16-6) during the group stage. Those are excellent results, and while it’s too early to draw any conclusions, this new-look roster has potential.

Ninjas in Pyjamas made a single roster change in June, when they let go of Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen and replaced the Finnish in-game leader with Hampus “hampus” Poser. The change didn’t seem like it would affect the team too much, but NiP haven’t looked too good since.

Besides winning BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023 in July, NiP have looked mediocre at best, and their performance en route to fourth place in the Intel Extreme Masters Sydney 2023 European Qualifier last week left much to be desired.

Astralis are slowly finding their stride, and it’s fair to be cautiously optimistic about what this new-look roster can accomplish. Even though there are doubts about Astralis and how they’ll fare in big events, the Danes shouldn’t struggle against NiP.

FURIA Esports spared no expense to bring in Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo and Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes during the summer break. But the big spending hasn’t led to any notable results.

A 17th-20th finish at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 in July kicked off a dry streak that extended through both IEM Sydney 2023 European Open Qualifiers (9th-16th, 17th-32nd) and Gamers8 2023 (9th-16th). Until the Brazilians start showing something, it’s tough to feel optimistic about their chances in ESL Pro League Season 18.

Movistar Riders are in a similar spot results-wise, as they’ve come close to winning an event over the last two months. Like FURIA, Movistar Riders failed to make it through the IEM Sydney 2023 European Open Qualifiers, and they didn’t look good at CCT Online Finals #2 (13th-16th) either.

FURIA Esports are priced as favourites for this match, which makes sense as this roster has a much higher ceiling, but that doesn’t necessarily mean much. Expect a close game between two struggling teams.

Grayhound recently attended Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 but didn’t make it far. The Australian squad crashed out in the first round of the play-in stage with defeats against FURIA Esports (11-16) and Imperial Esports (1-2).

Results like that don’t inspire much confidence, but it’s not like Grayhound were expected to do well in bigger events. Before the summer break, they attended BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 and IEM Dallas 2023, and in both tournaments they got crushed when faced with top-tier teams.

GamerLegion don’t look like an elite team, but they have been playing like one recently. Since their Cinderella run to the Paris Major finals, the international squad finished IEM Cologne 2023 and Gamers8 2023 inside the top eight, which are impressive results that suggest GL should do just fine in ESL Pro League Season 18.

GamerLegion have a long way to go to reach the top five in the CS:GO world rankings, but they’re up there with the best teams right now. Grayhound, on the other side, have been on a steady decline since July and on Monday reached their worst ranking (no.33) since March 2023.

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The tournament will run for just over one month, culminating with the grand final on October 1, and it’ll mark the final ESL Pro League season played on CS:GO before the scene transitions to Counter-Strike 2.

Here is our ESL Pro League Season 18 betting preview and outright picks, with odds courtesy of top CS:GO esports bookmakers.

ESL Pro League Season 18 format

ESL Pro League Season 18 will run from August 30 until October 1, starting with the group stage, dividing 32 participants into four triple-elimination groups of eight. All games are best-of-three (Bo3), with the top four teams advancing into the playoffs.

Playoff seeding:

• Group winners advance to quarterfinals
• Group runners-up advance to round of 12 as high seeds
• Third-placed teams advance to round of 16 as high seeds
• Fourth-placed teams advance to round of 16 as low seeds

The playoffs will use a single-elimination bracket with all matches, except for the grand final, played as best-of-three (Bo3). The final is a best-of-five (Bo5).

ESL Pro League Season 18 groups overview

At first glance, the ESL Pro League S18 groups look fairly balanced. However, while each group has a couple of solid favourites, a few underdogs and complete outsiders, there are a few excellent betting opportunities we can explore.

Group A

• Group odds at GG Bet:
• Team Vitality $2.00
• Astralis $5.00
• FURIA $8.00
• Ninjas in Pyjamas $8.00
• GamerLegion $9.00
• Movistar Riders $12.00
• Grayhound $26.00
• ORKS $71.00

Group A looks very straightforward because there doesn’t seem to be a single team capable of spoiling Team Vitality’s fun. The Bees are in exceptional form, and even though they slipped at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2023 at the start of the month, they quickly got back on their feet by winning Gamers8 last week.

The raw firepower Team Vitality bring is enough to confidently say they’ll reach at least the semifinals in Malta. Even at $2.00 to win the group, Team Vitality are an excellent bet.

Astralis, who are $5.00 second favourites to win the group, can impress, but the Danes are still learning how to play with new players. On the other side, Ninjas in Pyjamas ($8.00) have not looked good lately, and the rest of the teams are either weak, in poor form, or both.

Group B

• Group odds at GG Bet:
• ENCE $2.50
• Heroic $2.50
• MOUZ $6.00
• Monte $10.00
• BIG $15.00
• MiBR $26.00
• Evil Geniuses $51.00
• Rooster $251.00

ENCE and Heroic are joint favourites at $2.50 apiece to win the group, and it is hard to see either of them finishing outside the top two.

MOUZ are priced as third favourites at $6.00, and while they might be able to take maps off the two top dogs, the quality gap between Heroic and ENCE and the rest of the group is large enough to feel confident that the two will meet in the group finals.

However, of the two favourites, ENCE are more likely to win the group. Heroic are undeniably one of the best CS:GO teams in the world, but recently, ENCE have been playing better, and they beat Heroic at the start of August in the Gamers8 2023 semifinals.

Group C

• Group odds at GG Bet:
• FaZe Clan $2.10
• Natus Vincere $2.37
• Fnatic $8.50
• Apeks $10.00
• 9z Team $26.00
• Imperial Esports $34.00
• M80 $67.00
• 5yclone $101.00

Of the four ESL Pro League Season 18 Groups, Group C is the least predictable. Esports betting sites have FaZe Clan ($2.10) and Natus Vincere ($2.37) priced as the favourites to win, followed by Fnatic ($8.50) and Apeks ($10.00).

These betting odds would make sense for those who’ve not been following CS:GO for a few months; however, FaZe and Natus Vincere are not nearly as good as they were early this season.

FaZe are in complete disarray, and their recent two tournament placements are evidence enough. NAVI have not looked good recently either, likely due to the abrupt switch to an international roster.

From a betting perspective, backing Fnatic to win Group C makes the most sense. The Black & Orange haven’t looked amazing with their new lineup, but this is still a decent team that should be able to take advantage of NAVI and FaZe Clan’s downfall.

The same could be said for Apeks, but Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski and co. have produced a few too many concerning results against weaker squads lately.

Group D

• Group odds at GG Bet:
• G2 Esports $2.62
• Cloud9 $2.75
• Virtus.pro $5.50
• Team Liquid $10.00
• Eternal Fire $15.00
• 9INE $19.00
• Complexity $21.00
• Lynn Vision $251.00

G2 Esports won IEM Cologne 2023 at the start of the month and last week added a top-four finish at Gamers8 2023. But they have also produced some concerning results since the summer break and were a bit lucky to end those two tournaments so high, so they are hardly secure favourites at $2.62 to win the group.

Cloud9 ($2.75) have yet to find any traction with their new roster. They placed fifth-sixth at IEM Cologne 2023 and last week crashed out of Gamers8 2023 in fifth-eight.

In their defence, Gamers8 2023 was Cloud9’s first tournament with the whole squad, and they only lost against eventual finalists ENCE. So even though it’s tough to find a good reason to support Cloud9 purely from their recent tournament placements, this is still one of the world’s most stacked CS:GO rosters.

Virtus.pro ($5.50) are a sneakily good team and live outsiders to win Group D. They’ve not played many games against top teams since the summer break, but still looked surprisingly good at Gamers8 2023.

ESL Pro League Season 18 betting predictions

Now that most teams are settled in with their new rosters and have shaken off the rust accumulated over the summer break, there are no more excuses not to perform. That doesn’t mean ESL Pro League Season 18 will be without upsets, and of the four groups, Group D seems most likely to produce a few shock results.

On the outright winner market, we have three teams priced at $4.50 odds to claim the title. ENCE have a lot more to prove, and G2 Esports haven’t been the most consistent in their games, leaving us with Team Vitality as the most likely ESL Pro League Season 18 champions.

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The Australian Counter-Strike team faced off against VERTEX in the event’s grand finals, beating them 3-1 in a best-of-five series. They duked it out on Vertigo, which Grayhound won 16-5, before VERTEX evened out the scores on Inferno with a 13-16. Grayhound won both remaining maps on Anubis and Mirage 16-13.

Grayhound started ESL Australia & NZ Championship Season 16 in dominant fashion, beating teams like Stirlzs Angels, The Big Dogs, and VERTEX on two occasions before advancing to playoffs. They kept up the pressure during playoffs and secured victories over e-LEMON-ators in a two-map series and, finally, VERTEX to win the title.

Grayhound were able to secure the win despite playing two matches without their star player, Alistair “?aliStair?” Johnston. They fielded Patrick “?Falcon?” Desousa in his place and were still able to topple other competition in the Oceania region.

The win secured Grayhound another international LAN qualification, increasing their impressive list of achievements. This year alone, they have qualified for events like IEM Katowice, IEM Dallas, the BLAST.tv Paris Major and ESL Pro League Season 17.

Season 18 of the ESL Pro League will take place from August 30 to October 1 in Malta and feature 32 teams competing for an $850,000 prize pool. The listed teams include 15 partners of ESL, the tournament operator invitees, and the winners of the regional qualifiers.

There are currently seven spots yet to be filled, and three will be teams from the ESL’s world rankings. Two spots will be taken by squads from the ESL NC EU qualifier, while the winners of the Oceania and South America qualifiers will complete the list.

ESL Pro League Season 18 qualified teams

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ATK Counter-Strike player Michael “Swisher” Schmid further confirmed that the team had decided on their attendance after some internal discussions.

paiN and ATK faced off in the ESL Challenger League Season 45 Americas on Thursday, and despite finishing in third place, ATK managed to qualify for the ESL Pro League Season 18.

The team’s qualification was due to MIBR and Evil Geniuses’ confirmed presence in the CS:GO event. After paiN was eliminated from the playoffs, the decision was split between MIBR, ATK, and Evil Geniuses Black.

MIBR secured their place following their victory in the previous iteration of the ESL Challenger League Season 44, which took them out of the equation. Evil Geniuses Black were deemed ineligible to compete because of the main team’s presence. Evil Geniuses are among the ESL partners confirmed for the event and have a permanent membership in the league.

.@ESLCS discussed internally and we qualified for EPL with the win last night over paiN. POG WE GO AGANE

— Michael ‘Swisher’ Schmid (@swishcs) May 25, 2023

As a result, ATK received the spot following their win against paiN. Despite the unusual circumstances surrounding the qualification, a similar incident happened in the ECL playoffs. MIBR and oNe faced off against each other because Evil Geniuses Black were unsuitable to receive the Conference spot.

ATK are now set to make an appearance in Malta for the ESL Pro League Season 18 as their second consecutive appearance in the event. The team are currently facing MIBR for a place in the ECL S45 finals.

The ESL Pro League Season 18 will run from August 15 to September 24 and see 32 teams compete for the $850,000 prize pool. The participant squads include winners of previous qualifiers, ESL invitees, and fifteen partners of the tournament operator.

ESL Pro League Season 18 Team List

The current team list for the upcoming ESL Pro League Season 18 features the following;

● ENCE
● Astralis
● Evil Geniuses
● FaZe
● BIG
● Fnatic
● G2
● FURIA
● MOUZ
● Heroic
● NAVI
● NIP
● Liquid
● Complexity
● Vitality
● Monte
● ATK
● Movistar Riders
● MIBR
● Lynn Lision
● ESL direct invitee #1
● ESL direct invitee #2
● ESL direct invitee #3
● ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 winner
● ESL Challenger League Season 45 Asia winner
● ESL Challenger League Season 45 North America winner
● ESL Challenger League Season 45 Europe winner
● ESL Brazil Premier League Season 14 winner
● ESL Australia & NZ Championship Season 16 winner
● Europe qualifier winner #1
● Europe qualifier winner #2
● Oceania qualifier winner
● South America qualifier winner

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