Betting-Previews is back with another set of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting picks and predictions for WePlay Academy League. Today, we take a look at four games played on the third day of the competition, kicking off on Wednesday, July 21 at 18:00 CEST.
We enter Day 3 of the WePlay Academy League, following another perfect day for our betting picks. We hit all four of our WePlay Academy League Day 2 predictions and secured another 3,34 units of profit, which brings our total profit on the tournament to 10,5 units!
If you’re following our CS:GO betting tips, we strongly advise you to look around for the best odds so that you can get the most from our service!
mouz NXT vs BIG Academy
Wednesday, July 21 – 18:00 CEST
Mouz NXT enter the third day of the tournament with one win and one loss to their name. They won their opening match against Fnatic Rising with a very close OT win (22:18) but ended up coming short against FURIA Academy yesterday.
Mouz NXT started their bout with FURIA Academy strong but made some stupid mistakes on the CT side, which pretty much ruined their economy in the first half. They never really recovered from that for the duration of the match, be due to nerves or inexperience – mouz NXT botched it up.
I am not sure what teams are thinking when vetoing maps against BIG Academy. NAVI Junior decided to play on Mirage – a map that the Germans love to play (look at their Faceit account history) – and Astralis decided that it would be wise to play on Nuke, which was one of the most comfortable maps for the previous edition of this team (BIG Academy still have three players from their previous roster, so they basically only need to incorporate two players into their system, which should not be such a difficult task at this level of CS.).
BIG Academy have some very skilled young players, and if mouz NXT play the same way they did against FURIA Academy, I fully expect mouz to get blown out of the server.
Pinnacle has mouz NXT priced as favorites around 1.38, while BIG Academy are around 2.71 to win the match, which seems reasonable if you don’t consider the team’s current tournament form. There is some value on Bet365, with BIG Academy priced at 3.00, but the best value bet in my book is the Over 24.50 Rounds at Unibet.
Prediction: Over 24.50 Rounds – 1.85 at Unibet
Alternative: BIG Academy to win – 3.00 at Bet365 and Unibet (1.52 for BIG Academy +6.50 Rounds at 1.52 at Unibet also seems unreasonably high)
Astralis Talent vs Young Ninjas
Wednesday, July 21 – 19:00 CEST
Astralis Talent are still winless at the WePlay Academy League. They lost their tournament opener against FURIA Academy (10-16), to which they added a 11-16 defeat against BIG Academy yesterday.
It was very clear which was the better team in yesterday’s clash between Astralis Talent and BIG Academy. Although the Danes showed some resistance on the T side and made it difficult for BIG Academy, the Germans proved that they had better players all around, which secured them a comfortable win.
Young Ninjas won their opening match against VP.Prodigy with 16-14. The final score was much closer than how it should have been since Ninjas were clearly the better team but threw away a few rounds towards the end of the match.
Following their victory against the Russians, Young Ninjas suffered a heavy loss (11-16) against NAVI Junior, which I didn’t find as surprising as many other analysts did. As noted yesterday, NAVI Junior won against a few proper tier 2 teams before and their Day 1 loss against BIG Academy was mostly due to them wanting to be something they are not (more on that below in their match preview).
In their 11-16 loss on Mirage against NAVI Junior, Young Ninjas underperformed across the board, with not a single player on the team managing to break the 1.00 HLTV rating. I was mostly disappointed in Erik “ztr” Gustafsson, who has experience playing at the top level of the CS:GO competitive scene and should be way more productive for his team if Young Ninjas want to compete for the title.
Young Ninjas enter this match priced as the favorites (1.21 Pinnacle), while Astralis Talent are around 4.00 to win, which seems fair.
I believe that the BO1 format is very unpredictable, especially at this level of play, and it is just a matter of time before Astralis Talent get lucky enough to take a map of someone. Despite their loss against BIG Academy, Astralis Talent had a few good rounds, and while Young Ninjas are definitely the better team (and probably the eventual winners), the Danes should have the tools to at least keep this one close!
Unibet once again offers the best odds here; Astralis Talent +5.50 looks like the best bet to take here.
Prediction: Astralis Talent +5.50 Rounds – 1.85 at Unibet, 1.80 at Bet365
VP.Prodigy vs NAVI Junior
Wednesday, July 21 – 20:00 CEST
I feel for VP.Prodigy; I really do. They played well against Young Ninjas in their tournament opener to reach 14-15, just to lose the last round and watch Young Ninjas walk away with a W. However, it is fair to say that the Ninjas were the better team that day!
As for their loss against Fnatic Rising, VP.Prodigy were up 14-7 at one point, and the match seemed like a done deal; however, Fnatic Rising’s young Romanian AWPer Iulian “regali” Harjău had other plans.
He put the whole Fnatic Rising roster on his back, and singlehandedly tied the map at 15-15 to force overtime. So yeah, VP.Prodigy choked.
NAVI Junior enter their third match of the tournament following an impressive 16-11 win against Young Ninjas, who they smacked around on Mirage. As mentioned above, NAVI Junior changed up their playstyle for that match, and thank god they did it!
The Ukrainian side tried playing a very complex style (like their main Natus Vincere roster) early into the tournament, but the issue is that they don’t have Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and lack the experience to make it work. So instead, they switched to a more open and fast playstyle, which by the looks of it, suits them more! NAVI Junior have great players, and a while ago, there were also some rumors about Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov’s promotion to the main roster.
NAVI Junior are priced as 1.45 favorites to win the match, while VP.Prodigy are priced around 2.60, and I don’t really have a problem with that. But on the other hand, these are all players from the same region, and I am sure they have played scrims and pugs against each other multiple times, so we might be in for a closer match than the odds suggest.
Prediction: NAVI Junior to win by 2-5 Rounds – 2.87 at Bet365 (0.50 Units)
Alternative: Over 26.50 Rounds – 1.85 at Unibet
Fnatic Rising vs. FURIA Academy
Wednesday, July 21 – 21:00 CEST
Fnatic Rising’s current squad has not been together for a very long time – some say one week, others claim this lineup has been playing together for two. So far, they have suffered a very close loss against mouz NXT (18-22 on Vertigo) and claimed a close and underserved win against VP.Prodigy (19.17 on Vertigo).
Perhaps saying that it was undeserved isn’t fair, however, VP.Prodigy held a 14-7 lead at one point and still managed to lose, which wasn’t supposed to happen. Much of Fnatic Rising’s success that day was due to their AWPer regali, who had a massive impact on the game with 38 frags, 91.3 ADR, and 1.51 HLTV rating!
Regali has also had a solid performance against mouz NXT, where he secured 29 frags and ended the match with a 1.09 HLTV rating, so he is clearly the star player on the team. The main question for this match is whether he will manage to keep up with his performances.
AN ACE FOR @regalicsgo TO KEEP US IN IT!!! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6uYKlYrHPV
— FNATIC (@FNATIC) July 20, 2021
If the answer is yes, Fnatic Rising will likely win. The problem is that regali will need to be just as good as he was in his last two outings since his teammates all look very mediocre – but on the other hand, this is a new team, and it is not really fair to criticize them so early!
FURIA Academy won both of their matches; 16-10 against Astralis Talent on Vertigo and 16-12 against the tournament favourites mouz NXT on Inferno. If we look at their last game against mouz NXT, FURIA Academy played very well on CT side, and while the final score (16-12) looks close, FURIA Academy were the deserved winner. They are still a little shaky at times, but I haven’t noticed any significant flaws so far.
FURIA Academy are priced at around 1.50 on Pinnacle, and Fnatic Rising are around 2.30, which seems fair. Apart from regali’s heroic performances, Fnatic Rising looked pretty flat, which won’t do them any favours against the in-form FURIA Academy.
Fnatic Rising also have a way more limited map pool than FURIA, so this should be another advantage for the Brazilians, who should win the match reasonably comfortably as long as they can prevent regali from having another outstanding performance. Bet on FURIA Academy to make it 3-0!
Prediction: FURIA Academy to win, 1.68 at Unibet, 1.66 at Bet365
Alternative: FURIA Academy -2.50 Rounds, 1.925 at Pinnacle
We will return tomorrow with more Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting picks and predictions for the fourth day of play at the WePlay Academy League! Check back later today for our betting preview of the fifth day of the 2021 PDC World Matchplay, which will get posted on our website with tips and predictions that we have sent out to our premium members.
