Group C at ESL Pro League Season 20 starts with a clash between Astralis and Fnatic, who have yet to face off this season. But even with no head-to-head fixtures, it is easy to see why Astralis are expected to win.

Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz and co. have not won a tournament this year and didn’t make it very far at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024 in August. However, Astralis have posted promising performances against the world’s elite teams over the last month, which gives hope they are slowly finding momentum.

Fnatic are 2-3 from their last five series, with those wins coming against Cloud9 and OG — hardly world-beaters. Nevertheless, they have shown improvement, and with the talent on this roster, they should be able to make some noise in Malta.

At $1.65 to take a map off Astralis, Fnatic are an obvious choice.

Imperial Esports are priced as slight favourites to defeat BIG, who have failed to find much success at the top level this year. On the other side, Imperial have not won any significant titles either, so it is not like the teams’ accomplishments are the main differentiating factor.

The Brazilians are in a much better spot in terms of map pools, with a better win rate on all maps except for Ancient, which is BIG’s second-best map, but it will likely get banned. Imperial also come out ahead on individual form, with all five players averaging a 1.04 performance rating or higher.

Despite all that, we have to consider that Imperial have been playing weaker opponents than BIG of late. Expect a close affair.

Team Liquid had an explosive start to IEM Cologne 2024 at the beginning of August but failed to make it past FaZe Clan (twice) and crashed out of the tournament in seventh-eighth place. Prior to that, Liquid won BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2024, and they did well at IEM Dallas 2024, so something is working for this lineup.

Since their former lineup fell apart, ENCE have not come close to winning a single big event. They’ve been particularly disappointing over the last month, with early exits from IEM Rio 2024, Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, and ThunderPick World Championship 2024 qualifiers.

As the latest Counter-Strike esports odds suggest, this should be a one-sided affair. Anything less than a 2-0 sweep would be a major disappointment for Team Liquid.

Complexity beat M80 16-14 in the second round of the Esports World Cup 2024 in July, and they are expected to do just as well on Tuesday. This is unsurprising considering Complexity’s solid performances over the next month, which includes competitive games against the world’s elite teams.

M80 have also shown excellent form throughout August, although most of their wins have come from ESL Challenger League Season 48: North America, where Elias “s1n” Stein and co. faced lesser regional opponents.

Complexity are a more proven team at the top level. However, clashes between regional rivals are often closer than expected, which makes M80 a solid pick to take at least one map.

RED Canids are one of the lowest-ranked Counter-Strike teams at ESL Pro League Season 20, and according to the top Counter-Strike betting sites, they are not expected to make it very far. At $4.15, RED Canids are given a 24.1% implied probability of winning, but they face a Virtus.pro outfit that is not in the best shape.

The Russians are 3-7 from their last 10 outings, with those wins coming against Zero Tenacity, BIG, and the struggling Team Falcons. While that run includes clashes with stronger teams than what RED Canids have had to face, it does not change the fact that Virtus.pro have not been playing well.

RED Canids are in stronger form and have a better win rate on six of the seven maps in the rotation. Even though VP are rightly the favourites, the underdogs should be good for one map.

Esports betting tips

?

Evil Geniuses might be one of the most exciting teams LoL Championship Series (LCS) has sent to an international tournament in years. They were phenomenal in the playoffs, and who could forget Kyle “Danny” Sakamaki’s individual performances?

But while Danny is the shining star of the team, EG biggest strength is their teamwork. They will take scrappy fights and almost always come out on top, and they’re excellent in getting objectives, but most of all, EG excel in funnelling resources into Danny to do his magic.

As an Oceanic team, ORDER are very easy to underestimate, knowing that they’re from a wildcard league that further dissolved into an even minor region in 2020. However, Oceanic LoL esports teams never fail to put up a fight and make their region proud, so with some luck and a lot of grit; they might surprise.

Still, ORDER are individually outmatched by Evil Geniuses and unless they cook up a unique strategy or an unconventional draft that will catch EG off guard, which should be a fairly straightforward win for the North American representatives.

Saigon Buffalo shouldn’t even be travelling to Korea because they did not initially qualify for the event. But because GAM Esports are participating in SEA Games instead, the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS) sent Buffalo to carry the region’s flag in Busan.

Buffalo might be the second-best team from the VCS, but they’re a steep drop from GAM Esports. Admittedly, Vietnamese teams are always scary in international events, but we would tame our expectations about Saigon Buffalo.

DetonatioN FocusMe made a splash at the 2021 LoL World Championship, where they won Group B Play-In, and even though they ended up going 0-6 in the group stage, they proved that they could compete with the best. Since these two teams have never met before, it’s tough to say how this match will go, but if we go purely off what we’ve seen from them during the regular season, DetonatioN FocusMe are rightly priced as the favourites with the top betting sites.

Turkish Championship League (TCL) is viewed as a powerful region, but Turkish LoL esports teams have failed to achieve much in international events over the last few years. However, on a more positive note, Istanbul Wildcats dominated their playoffs this year and enter the 2022 MSI as the best team from their region.

Wildcats averaged 100% First Blood rate, win rate, and Baron control. Moreover, they averaged a 2.9 K/D and held a + 3.2k gold advantage at 15 minutes. With such numbers, it’s tough to ignore the Turkish champions, even though their chances of winning the trophy are slim.

RED Canids made it to Korea, but they had to drag themselves through the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBLoL) 2022 Spring playoffs. Moreover, Brazil has not shown much in international events for years.

They have a very low damage per minute (1889 DPM), a horrendous gold difference at 15 minutes (-455) and a fairly concerning first turret percentage (38.1%). We don’t have a problem with esports betting sites pricing RED Canids as underdogs, but we would argue that $2.10 is too low.

?More esports betting tips

This ends nak’s 10-month stint with RED Canids, who he joined in August 2019 after two years with Sharks Esports. Despite his strong showings with Sharks, with whom he finished fourth at Americas Minor Championship – Berlin 2019, the 32-year-old esports veteran had limited success in his time with RED Canids.

During his stay there, nak averaged a poor 0.96 rating. His only notable results were a second-place finish at CLUTCH BR League Season 1 in December 2019 and fourth at ESL One: Road to Rio – South America in April this year.

Despite his lack of success in recent months, nak is likely to find another team to continue his career as a player or coach, considering he is one of the most experienced still-active Counter-Strike esports players in the world. Nak began his esports journey in early 2004 during the era of CS: 1.6 and went on to play for top-tier teams such as MiBR, compLexity Gaming and Luminosity Gaming.

Although he has not won a Major, nak has amassed an impressive list of accolades, most of which he earned throughout 2006-2008. He also coached Luminosity to a silver medal at ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2 – North America and a top-eight finish at Intel Extreme Masters X – San Jose in 2015.

The removal of nak and fnx leaves RED Canids with only three active members in Gabriel “nython” Lino, Bruno “latto” Rebelatto and Lucas “DeStiNy” Bullo. Although the Brazilian organisation have yet to make a comment about the future of the roster, it’s likely they will be looking to rejuvenate their lineup with two younger players.

The departure of nak and fnx will also set RED Canids back in their journey to the Rio Major. The team held 1,300 Regional Major Ranking (RMR) points after ESL One: Road to Rio – South America, but they are now left with only 780 due to the 40% penalty that follows the removal of two players. RED Canids now sit last in the South American RMR standings behind BOOM Esports on 1,600 points, Isurus with 1,500 and Imperial e-Sports with 1,400.

The ESL One: Rio Major will mark the 16th Valve-sponsored CS:GO Major Championship and the first Major of the year. It was originally scheduled to take place from May 11-24 but was postponed to autumn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Rio Major is now slated to take place from November 9-22 and will feature a US $2 million prize pool, which is the largest kitty ever seen in a single CS:GO event.

Only one team from South America will qualify for the Major as Contenders, meaning RED Canids have a lot of catching up to do in the summer and autumn series.

DETONA GAMING VS RED CANIDS CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

DETONA GAMING VS RED CANIDS CLUTCH SEASON 2 BETTING PREVIEW

The race for a ticket to Moche XL Esports 2020 and R$65,000 (~ US $14,000) continues with Round 3 of CLUTCH Season 2, where we will see DETONA Gaming and RED Canids duke it out on the battlefield in a bid to keep their unbeaten streaks alive.

DETONA got off to a strong start at CLUTCH Season 2, with a commanding win against Soberano in the opening contest of the season. The match was expected to be fairly one-sided, however André “tiburci0” Rossetto and co. went above and beyond all expectations and completely trashed their adversaries with 16-3 on Nuke and 16-4 on Train. Unfortunately, DETONA failed to carry the momentum over into Round 2, where they produced a rather underwhelming stalemate (1-1) against Alma, who clinched a point with a 19-17 overtime win on Train.

Since their draw with Alma, DETONA made an appearance at FLASHPOINT Season 1: LAN Qualifier, but failed to see much success, as they were ineffective in their climb out of the group stage. Although DETONA started strong with a 16-11 win over BIG, they had to admit defeat to Pujan “FNS” Mehta’s stack Orgless and later suffered a 0-2 loss in their rematch with the German squad in the decider match, thus crashed out from the event at fifth-sixth place.

Following their unsuccessful attempt at securing a spot at FLASHPOINT, DETONA will seek comfort with a win over their rivals RED Canids, who unlike DETONA enjoyed a much more fruitful schedule in March.

SEE ALSO: BEST CS:GO BETTING SITES

RED Canids began their venture into CLUTCH Season 2 with a stalemate against Keyd Stars, who started the series by handing Canids a upset 14-16 loss on Vertigo. Keyd Stars, however, were unable to seal the deal, as they suffered a blowout loss on Train (2-16), which allowed Canids to secure their first point of the season.

With a somewhat underwhelming draw under their belt, Renato “nak” Nakano and his squad made sure to bounce back with a 2-0 win over Isurus in Round 2 thanks Bruno “latto” Rebelatto who put up an impressive 1.43 rating across the series with +20 KD.

RED Canids carried their momentum over to Americas Minor South America Closed Qualifier – ESL One Rio 2020 where they looked strong right out of the gates and secured a convincing 2-0 win over W7M Gaming. Canids continued with their dominance in semi-finals, where they eliminated Team One and repeated their success from CLUTCH with another 2-0 win over Isurus to secure a ticket for Rio 2020 Americas Minor Championship.

Latto once again proved his worth during America Closed Qualifier – ESL One Rio 2020, with 1.41 rating and +24 KD against Team One, followed by 1.68 rating and +18 KD against Isurus.

DETONA GAMING VS RED CANIDS CLUTCH SEASON 2 BETTING PREDICTIONS

DETONA will enter Round 3 of CLUTCH Season 2 with a 1-1-3 record in their last five fixtures, meanwhile, RED Canids are holding onto a perfect 5-0 record. Although DETONA played much stronger teams, namely BIG and Orgless, the momentum is on Canids’ side, and that alone should give them an edge over their adversaries.

As for players’ ratings throughout the opening two rounds of CLUTCH Season 2, DETONA are averaging 1.276 rating, which is 0.202 higher compared to their player’s average since January. RED Canids’ members, on the other side, averaged 1.174 rating in their opening two fixtures, which is only 0.072 higher compared to their average since the turn of the year.

When it comes to the map pool, however, Canids look better, with their 6-0 record on Mirage and 6-2 on Train, compared to DETONA’s 4-3 record on Dust II and 3-1 on Vertigo, as their two best maps.

It’s hard to separate the teams, however, due to their better map pool and superior form, RED Canids seem like the safer bet. Latto and co. are priced at $1.89 to defeat DETONA which is very generous and makes backing them here a very appealing betting choice.