?GODSENT have made it past Wisla Krakov (2-1) and Endpoint (2-1) to reach the final round of ESL Pro League Conference Season 15. Like GODSENT, Movistar Riders have done just enough to reach the third round, albeit they only needed to defeat RBG Esports (2-1) and Anonoymo Esports (2-1), which are objectively weaker teams than Wisla and Endpoint.

So performance-wise, GODSENT have shown more, and they also seem to be in a much better form than the Spanish squad, seeing how GODSENT’s only two losses across their last six came against Fnatic and Entropiq. Movistar, meanwhile, share the same 4-2 record, but with defeats against Team Fiend and ENTERPRISE esports.

There isn’t much to separate GODSENT and Movistar Riders individual talent-wise. But based on what we have seen from the teams in recent weeks, it’s hard not to side with GODSENT.

?K23 and SKADE will clash in the opening match of Group C at Funspark ULTI 2021 Europe Season 4. It will mark their third meeting of the year and the first since September, when K23 won 2-1, with 16-11 on Ancient, 14-16 on Overpass, and 16-14 on Inferno.

At the time, SKADE and K23 were rated no.22 and no.25 globally. Now SKADE are no.29, while K23 have fallen down to no.46. While those numbers don’t tell the whole story, K23 have indeed been struggling of late, losing three of their last four outings.

SKADE seem to be in a better spot, but their recent showings haven’t been too impressive either – with defeats against Team Unique (0-2) and Team Finest (1-2). On paper, SKADE look like a better team, but if they can’t beat Unique, they won’t have an easy time against K23.

?K23 have yet to lose against SKADE in their three meetings dating back to August 2020, yet it’s the Bulgarians who enter this bout as betting favourites.

Much of that has to do with SKADE’s form. All five of their players are averaging positive ratings for the past three months, with three posting 1.10 or better. For K23, meanwhile, David “n0rb3r7” Danielyan is the only player showing that kind of consistency, averaging a 1.21 rating in the same stretch.

What’s more, SKADE have been far more efficient on five out of seven maps in the rotation, excluding Dust II (50%–57%) and Train (69%–88%), yet even those numbers don’t show an accurate picture. The difference in win rates on Dust II is marginal, whereas SKADE have played over four times as many maps on Train as K23 (35-8).

There is a world where this one goes to three maps. However, with the form SKADE have been showing, this is their game to lose.

?Since Aleksi “allu” Jalli took a break from competitive play, ENCE have gone undefeated with wins over SKADE (2-1), Dignitas (2-0), and Team Fiend (2-0), the latter of whom they defeated just two weeks back.

The LOOT.BET/CS Season 9 finals clash between ENCE and Team Fiend ended in a commanding victory for the Finnish side, who won with 16-6 on both Overpass and Train. That would suggest ENCE are in for another easy victory, but that might not be the case.

Since their last meeting, ENCE have not played a single match, whereas Team Fiend have played seven and won all of them. That includes sweeps of PACT, Izako Boars, Copenhagen Flames, and 100PingGods.

Given the improvement Fiend have been showing over the last two weeks, we have reason to believe they’ll perform better on Saturday. Whether that will be enough for them to come out ahead is anyone’s guess, but they should at least force a three-map series.

?In the space of a few months, BIG have gone from the no.1 team in the world to something resembling a B-Tier side. Outside of their semi-finals appearance at DreamHack Open January 2021 Europe and a top-three finish at BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021, the Germans haven’t done anything of note in 2021. They enter Funspark ULTI 2020 off a disappointing third-fourth finish in the Pinnacle Cup, where they beat only Endpoint and got swept by HAVU in the semis.

Extra Salt aren’t exactly a top-tier team either, and they didn’t impress at BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021 last week. Their only match of the month happened last Wednesday against Team Spirit, who we tipped to win 2-0, and that’s exactly what happened. Although Spirit are an extremely strong team, Extra Salt can’t really make any excuses for their showing that day.

Neither team looks good, but it’s difficult to side with BIG at the offered odds. Extra Salt should be somewhat competitive at the very least and force a tight series, so we have to go with over 2.5 maps for this one.

?Dignitas enter FUNSPARK ULTI 2020 as a replacement team for Heroic. The veteran lineup will have huge shoes to fill, as they take over a squad that has gone undefeated since February, but they’re not to be overlooked as a potential dark-horse of the tournament.

Dignitas caught our attention in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown with their win over Team Liquid, to which they added straightforward victories against HAVU, Sprout, and SINNERS Esports. That form has seen Dignitas climb to no.28 in the CS:GO world rankings, and they could rise further still after the next update.

Evil Geniuses haven’t been playing too well recently, although they have had a few flashes of greatness. They pocketed a 2-1 win over Astralis at ESL Pro League Season 13 and emerged as the only team at IEM Katowice to beat the eventual champions, Gambit, but EG’s 3-7 record in their last 10 matches says it all.

On Thursday, Evil Geniuses replaced Tarik “tarik” Celik with Micha? “MICHU” Müller, who is hardly an upgrade, and it definitely won’t help the team’s synergy early on. EG might be the favourite, but we don’t believe they will have an easy time against Dignitas.

?After a year of disappointing results, MAD Lions decided to completely rebuild their CS:GO project by releasing their Danish lineup in favour of a mix of young and promising European players. Led by Polish CS legend Jakub “kuben” Gurczyński, MAD Lions now field a roster of relatively unknown faces, with Filip “tudsoN” Tudev and Thomas “TMB” Bundsb?k as the only two individuals with previous experience playing at the highest level.

Sprout have not made any major roster changes of late – besides adding Can “kyuubii” Kamber as their sixth player – which should give them an advantage in terms of synergy. That said, Sprout have not been playing too well recently, which makes us question whether they should really be priced as such short favourites.

MAD Lions enter this bout off a narrow losses to ENCE (19-22) and Dignitas (12-16) at the Nordic BLAST Premier Qualifier, although they defeated ENCE 16-7 in their first fixture of that event. While those are not exactly spectacular results, MAD have proved they can take on any B-Tier team, which gives us hope they can win at least one map against the Germans.

?Dignitas enter Funspark ULTI off a disappointing 16th-18th finish in the Pinnacle Cup, where they went 1-3 with a win against Lyngby Vikings (2-0) and losses against HAVU (0-2), SINNERS Esports (0-2), and Winstrike Team (0-2). That poor run is nothing too shocking, however, as they have managed only four wins in their last 10 outings.

AGO can hardly be viewed as a much better team, but they’ve done better than Dignitas of late. The Poles enter this match with a 7-3 record in their last 10, which includes wins against Ninjas in Pyjamas (2-1), Copenhagen Flames (2-1) and Sprout (2-0).

Dignitas beat Singularity (16-10) and MAD Lions (16-12) on Saturday, which would suggest they’re in good form, but we have a hard time trusting a squad that is known for inconsistency. This should be a tight affair, and we don’t expect a clean sweep from either side.

Intel Extreme Masters XV New York Online

These teams last met in July during Mythic Invite League Season?1, where Chaos Esports Club picked up a comfortable 2-0 win with 16-6 on Overpass and 16-3 on Nuke. Since late June, Chaos have met Mythic on the battlefield three times and won each encounter convincingly, allowing Mythic to reach double digits on a map only twice.

Even though this is an online tournament, we don’t expect to see any surprises. While the odds offered on Chaos to win 2-0 are relatively short, they still offer great value. Alternatively, a -5.5 round in-play bet on Chaos for the first map is worth considering if the series begins on either Train, Nuke or Mirage.

?These sides last met in August during DreamHack Open Summer 2020 North America, where Team Liquid pocketed a 2-0 win with 16-12 on Dust II and 16-5 on Inferno. Since then, Liquid have won eight out of 14 games while Team oNe have won 10 out of 11.

However, we must note that Liquid have played significantly stronger opponents. While they’ve faced some of the best teams from the region, Team oNe have won most of their games against semi-amateur squads at ESEA Premier Division.

Despite oNe’s strong form, they don’t have the tools to defeat Liquid, nor do we believe they will manage to keep the bout close. A -4.5 round bet on Liquid is the best option regardless of the map.

ESL One Germany 2020

?Nigma and Yellow Submarine will clash for the first time in their history this Wednesday in what promises to be a very one-sided bout. The short odds on the favourites offer no value here, nor do the map handicaps, but that does not necessarily mean there are no betting opportunities.

Some esports bookmakers are offering as much as $1.83 on the first map to end in under 33 minutes, which is far too high considering the massive quality gap between the teams.

This will be Nigma’s easiest match since their formation in November 2019. Considering we have seen them run over A-Tier teams before, there is no reason to believe they can’t defeat Yellow Submarine in under 30 minutes.

It’s hard to make sense of Natus Vincere’s recent results. They have managed to defeat the likes of OG (2-1) and Nigma (2-0) yet dropped the ball against VP.Prodigy (1-2), 5men (0-2) and Cyber Legacy (0-2), who they last met at the start of September.

Cyber Legacy have been far more consistent, putting together an impressive 8-2 run. However, their last match was at the start of September when they lost to FlyToMoon (0-2), which suggests the Russians will enter this match a bit ring rusty.

There are some concerns with CL’s lack of competitive gametime, but that does not justify the surprisingly low odds offered on NaVi, who are far too inconsistent for us to believe they can manage a 2-0 sweep. We will take our chances with the underdogs to win at least one map.

FunSpark ULTI 2020 Asia

These teams have met 14 times in 2020. While Invictus Gaming emerged as the stronger side in nine of those clashes, we should not ignore Lynn Vision Gaming’s five wins, which include their most recent clash at the start of August.

The latest CS:GO betting odds suggest IG should win comfortably. While that might be the case, Lynn are by no means a bad team. They have won five tournaments since the turn of the year and last month finished third at WDNMD Asia Invitational 2020 – far above IG, who ended in seventh-eighth place.

Lynn have also won four out of their last five games, while IG have managed only two wins from their last five against teams of similar quality. Lynn should not be priced at such high odds, so it makes sense to take a shot with the underdogs.

Team Liquid lose to LoL Worlds underdogs

Team Liquid lost one of their LoL World Championship play-in games against INTZ, an underdog this year.

While they picked themselves back up and defeated Legacy Esports to seal a place in the main event, the loss was a shocker that has instilled doubt among League of Legends betting sites.

They now have a few days to revisit the match and see where they went wrong so they can prevent another embarrassment.

Asia esports news

Invictus favorites in FunSpark ULTI 2020 betting

Counter-Strike betting sites have Invictus Gaming and Lynn Vision Gaming as the two favorites to proceed to the Group B finals at the FunSpark ULTI 2020 Asia tournament. as they face D13 and Zero.TSG, respectively.

The next task for Invictus is a clash with D13, who they have never lost to before. While Invictus have set the tone throughout the campaign, losing once to ViCi, D13 have struggled to find any consistency.

Lynn Vision Gaming and Zero.TSG match up rather evenly; however, Lynn Vision defeated Zero.TSG in their most recent encounter, giving them an advantage in the betting.

Africa esports news

EFX lead Red Bull M.E.O. PUBG Mobile Qualifier

EFX Esports took the lead over the weekend at the Red Bull M.E.O PUBG Mobile Qualifier, which secures them a spot in the 2021 Turkey World Finals. They’ll take to the Worlds as underdogs, but they have sufficient time to analyze upcoming opponents and get the practice needed to stand a chance.

Europe esports news

BIG favored in ESL Pro League playoffs

ESL Pro League Season 12 for the European region continues this week with the first round of the playoffs, where BIG will take on Team Spirit in the upper-bracket quarter-finals.

Esports betting sites favor BIG, who are on a dominating winning streak. On the other hand, Team Spirit have delivered inconsistent performances and failed to defeat BIG in their last two encounters.

They’ll want to step their game up, as the winner from the playoff secures a spot in the ESL Pro League upper-bracket semi-finals.

South America esports news

BOOM Esports lose CS:GO coach

A couple of hours after BOOM Esports took home the ESL Pro League South America title, their coach, Alessandro “?Apoka?” Marcucci, received a ban for using a bug that gave him an advantage on several occasions.

Apoka has welcomed the ban because he understands the ramifications of cheating; however, he claims he was unaware that the bug existed. In the meantime he’ll be departing BOOM, who’ve been unstoppable in recent battles.

Despite that news, BOOM head into their upcoming clashes with Keyd and RED as the favorites at most CS:GO betting sites.

Oceania esports news

Can YSIM Disrupt Bokebi’s Streak?

Bokebi are listed as the clear favorites at Dota 2 betting sites across Australia as they prepare to face Your Soul Is Mine in the Oceanic Esports League this week.

YSIM have had a troubling run this season and are yet to claim a victory. They’ve managed to draw six of their 14 matches and lost eight. Bokebi’s form is much stronger, as they’ve won four of their last five battles. Their only draw in that time was against cuteanimegirls, who are ranked at the top of the standings.