The round robin stage of ELEAGUE’s Group B went mostly in line as expected. The only exception being G2’s defeat of NiP, and some closer games between the European and American sides. Now it’s time for the matches that matter. Losing sees a side eliminated from the competition, so everyone will be looking to bring their A game. It’s a standard best of three format following the usual ban-pick format.
G2 (1/33 William Hill) vs Selfless (10/1 William Hill)
Is this the most one sided match in the history of CounterStrike? Quite possibly. G2 will win this series – but you aren’t getting rich by saying that. With odds of 1.03 at Pinnacle, we make G2 the shortest priced favourite for a game of CounterStrike ever to have taken place.
This leaves us only with the handicap betting as a realistic proposition. Selfless took 12 rounds on both Cobblestone and Cache in the groupstage when the teams met, which means G2 are likely to pay a bit closer attention to this match. They won’t want to be taking any chances.
Selfless are likely to remove their perma-ban Nuke and likewise G2 should ban Mirage. Selfless would then usually pick from Train, Cache or Overpass, so the latter is preferred given G2 don’t frequently play the map. The issue for the Americans is that despite not playing much Overpass, G2 have been very successful on it. G2 usually pick Cache or Train, but given Selfless rarely play it, they should choose Dust2. It’s difficult to predict the final map, but it shouldn’t matter anyway.
Assuming that Overpass and Dust2 are played, G2 should comfortably cover the -7.5 round spread on D2. It’s impossible to foresee which G2 and which Selfless will show up on Overpass (the one which beat Luminosity, or the one that lost 16-3 to Team Dignitas?) so we’ll leave that alone.
Recommended Bet:
G2 to win Dust2 (if played) -7.5 rounds with Pinnacle at Evens (2.03)
NiP (1/10 Ladbrokes) vs OpTic (7/1 William Hill)
Can OpTic pull a 360 on NiP compared to their performance the other day? Unlikely. The 7/1 available with William Hill is arguably too big but realistically, there are better bets to be had.
NiP used to be a brilliant side on Nuke and given that G2 decimated OpTic on it yesterday, the Swedes would be better leaving it in the map pool and removing Overpass where OpTic are stronger. Whatever OpTic choose not to remove out of Cache and Dust 2 will likely be NiP’s selection. That’d leave OpTic a choice of Nuke/Overpass, Cobblestone, Mirage and Train. They lost to NiP 16-10 on Train, and 16-4 on Cobble, so we can likely discount that pair. Both sides have been hit and miss on Mirage, and it should be here that OpTic choose to take their chances.
Until the maps are known it’s hard to make a call on the handicap on OpTic’s selection, but back NiP -5.5 at 1.99 to win their selection. The correct score of 2-0 is overpriced at 2/5 with Betway. NiP are heavily favoured on all the maps that are likely to be played – they simply outclass OpTic.
Recommended Bet:
NiP to win 2-0 with Betway at 2/5 (1.40)
NiP to win their map selection -5.5 rounds with Pinnacle at evens (1.99)
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