BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 Upper and Lower Bracket Finals
Today, we take a look at the Upper and Lower bracket finals at the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020, where we will see Astralis and Vitality duke it out for a spot in the grand finals, as well as a rematch between Natus Vincere and Team Liquid who will vie for a spot in the lower bracket finals.
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Astralis v Vitality
Astralis and Vitality have yet to taste defeat this tournament, but that will change for one side today, when they clash in the AST Premier Global Final upper bracket finals.
Astralis enter this match off two fairly comfortable wins against Evil Genuises and G2 Esports and even though both EG and G2 stole one map off the Danes, Astralis seemed like they were in the control of the series when it mattered. At this point, it’s worth noting that Astralis came close to losing against G2 on the third and final map of their series, when the French-Balkan squad held a 10-5 lead on Inferno, but failed to seal the deal and allowed Astralis Astralis to produce a comeback to secure a 16-14 victory, largely thanks to Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen who managed 18 frags and 1.92 HLTV rating on the CT-side.
Vitality, on the other side, had a much smoother road to the upper bracket finals with 2-0 victories over Complexity (6-9 on Mirage and 16-8 on Dust2) and Team Liquid (16-14 on Nuke and 16-11 on Vertigo). They were the favourites in both matches and they justified their tag as the better team, however, it’s worth noting that they were facing teams that either had to play with stand-ins or have recently made roster changes.
There were some allegations of Vitality stream sniping their opponents (video explaining the incident can be found here) which I don’t believe is the case. Nevertheless, the accusations won’t do any favours for the team’s morale, which is a rather minor factor to take into consideration, but at this level of play, everything matters.
The betting odds on this match are constantly going up and down, which is nothing unusual for such a close affair. Astralis are currently priced at around 1.97 whereas Vitality are priced as slight favourites at 1.847.
There are cases to be made for both sides, but at these odds, I have to go with Astralis. We are not adding this bet to our premium platform or BetMarkets, because we already have a bet on Vitality to reach the finals, which hopefully they will manage to achieve today and avoid facing the lower bracket monsters that are Natus Vincere.
Prediction: Astralis to win, 1.97 at Pinnacle
Team Liquid v Natus Vincere
These two teams have already met in the opening round of the tournament, where Team Liquid secured a 2-0 upset win (16-8 on Inferno and 16-14 on Nuke) over the heavily favourites Natus Vincere. The first map of the series was fairly one-sided with Liquid winning without any real issues, but they had to put much more effort into winning on Nuke, where they came extremely close to losing despite holding a 10-5 half-time lead.
Keith “NAF” Markovic was the best player on the server with 42 frags and 1.46 HLTV rating, with NaVi’s Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev finishing close behind with 47 frags and 1.39 HLTV rating. NaVi also used the services of Valeriy “B1T” Vakhovskiy that day, who replaced Egor “flamie” Vasilyev on the first map, but he failed to deliver with only 9 frags and 0.63 HLTV rating.
Team Liquid enter this match off a clean 2-0 victory against their regional rivals Evil Geniuses which should serve as a good morale booster. Natus Vincere, on the other side, stomped G2 Esports with 16-6 on Train and 16-8 on Mirage yesterday, so they should – like Liquid – be ready to keep their fire going and take one step closer to the grand finals.
NaVi are priced at around 1.60 to win, which seems about fair considering they have way more experience playing together than Liquid. What’s more, NaVi are known for their monstrous lower bracket runs, a glimpse of which we got to see yesterday.
It seems like NaVi finally woke up from their slumber and if their performance against G2 is any indication, they should have no issues getting past Liquid. Bet on NaVi to get their revenge!
Prediction: Natus Vincere to win – 1.609 at Pinnacle
These are one of the last free Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting predictions for BLAST Premier Global Finals, as there are only two more games after these left on the schedule. For more esports betting coverage, check out our League of Legends betting predictions for LEC and LCS, which can be found on our website for free.
