Astralis vs Evil Geniuses – BLAST Premier Global Final 2020
We kick off our BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 betting coverage with a preview of a match between Astralis and Evil Geniuses who will lock horns on Tuesday, January 19. It will mark the first fixture of the tournament and the first meeting between these teams since November when Astralis won 2-1.
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Astralis enter the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 as the no.1 team in the world according to HLTV global rankings, which I can’t argue with. Astralis seemed like a team that has adapted well to the online era of CS early in 2020, but even they could not avoid a massive drop in form, which sparked speculations about some players wanting to leave the organization.
In the end, the rumours not only proved to be false, but Astralis also managed an impressive comeback and won three tournaments including the ESL Pro League Season 12: Europe, DreamHack Masters Winter 2020: Europe, Intel Extreme Masters XV – Global Challenge, as well as placed first in the BLAST Premier Circuit 2020. The Danes have won 70% of their games across the last three months, which is quite impressive, however, we have to note they will enter this match after a month-long hiatus, so some ring rust and a bit sloppier performance are expected.
The current Astralis – while not as strong as they were in the old days – are arguably the strongest team in the world, although I would say they’re not far ahead of Team Vitality. Regardless, they’re objectively better than Evil Geniuses so I have nothing to say about the shorter odds for this match.
Evil Geniuses have played only two fixtures against EU teams (OG, Ninjas in Pyjamas) in the online era of CS and lost both even though they were billed as the favourites in both. EG were priced around 1.80 against NiP and 1.84 against OG, however, the market did not have much confidence in the NA squad, who opened at around 1.74 against NiP and 1.65 against OG.
I’m not too surprised with the lack of confidence in EG, since they were terrible at the start of the year, however, they seemingly found their stride in early summer, when they established themselves as one of the best NA teams. EG have won BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 American Finals, cs_summit 6 Online: North America and ESL One: Cologne 2020 Online – North America and placed third at the ESL Pro League Season 12: North America and Intel Extreme Masters XV – New York Online: North America, which is nothing to sneeze at.
After that period, EG slumped a bit and managed a disastrous 10th-12th place finish at the BLAST Premier: Fall 2020 Regular Season, and later got eliminated from the Intel Extreme Masters XV – Beijing Online: North America by Chaos Esports Club despite being priced at only 1.27 to win the match.
Historically, EG’s firepower proved to be enough to match well with Astralis’ tactical prowess. EG have even beaten Astralis twice at the ESL One New York 2019 (2-0 and 3-1), whereas they managed to keep all other series fairly close.
These teams last met during the ECS Season 8 Finals, where we saw another close series, although it was Astralis who came out ahead with 2-1.
Even though a lot of time has passed since their previous meetings, we expect another close affair, largely because this will be the teams’ first match after the break. Value bet on EG +1.50 Maps!
Prediction: Evil Geniuses +1.50 Maps, 1.925 at Pinnacle
We will continue with providing free betting previews for BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 thru the duration of the tournament. This preview has been posted a couple of days after we have sent out our predictions to our premium members, who at the time got a chance to bet at 2.08. If you wish to join our premium membership, check out our premium section or contact us via email.
