by The BLAST Premier Europe Spring Showdown will kick off on Wednesday, with eight teams battling it out for one of the last remaining places in the BLAST Premier Spring Final. Below you will find ESB’s best bets for Thursday’s quarterfinal matches – BIG vs Rare Atom, and Fnatic vs 9INE.
BIG vs RARE ATOM CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | BIG -250 at BetOnline | RA +175 at BetOnline |
| When: | March 30, 2023 | 16:30 CET |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/BLASTPremier) |
On Thursday, world no.18 BIG will face world no.26 Rare Atom, with the winner advancing to the semifinals and the loser exiting the tournament.
BIG enter this best-of-three series on a three-match losing streak, having fallen to Apeks, HEET, and GODSENT, all of who are more than 25 places lower than BIG in the world rankings. The Germans had a rough month in March, with only five series wins from 13 games played, including a group stage exit in ESL Pro League Season 17 at the start of the month. With their current ranking of no.18 in the world, they have dropped to their lowest position since April of 2022. With the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR, and IEM Rio all coming up, we could see BIG fall out of the top 20.
Rare Atom have risen quickly up the CS:GO world rankings in the last six months, climbing from no.153 in December to no.26 now. Since the beginning of the year, the Chinese team has dominated in Asia, winning six of the eight events in which it has competed, including the ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference Asia and the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR Closed Qualifier in China. Before their unsuccessful ESL Pro League 17 campaign, Rare Atom had a 10-match winning streak, which they extended to 11 with a 2-0 victory over Team Liquid in their first and only win of the event.
This series has the potential to be very good, as Rare Atom are clearly on the rise in the world rankings and BIG are on the decline. BIG are overwhelming favourites against their Asian opponents, but we expect Rare Atom to win at least one map in this series, so we’ll be betting on the overs in the total maps market.
Over 2.5 maps
FNATIC vs 9INE CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | FNATIC -250 at BetOnline | 9INE +175 at BetOnline |
| When: | March 30, 2023 | 19:30 CET |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/BLASTPremier) |
The second series of the day will pit Fnatic, the event’s second-highest ranked team, against 9INE, the event’s second-lowest ranked team. Both have shown flashes of really good Counter-Strike, but their inconsistencies have hurt them recently.
Fnatic will enter the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown as the world no.11 after a good but not great ESL Pro League 17 campaign in which they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The international squad has competed in nearly every S-Tier event this year, so their 50 percent win rate in the last three months may make their form appear worse than it is. Since February, Fnatic have lost seven series, three of which were against teams ranked in the top 10 in the world. When comparing their recent form to that of 9INE, it is clear that Fnatic are in better shape than the Polish squad.
9INE are currently ranked 28th in the world after placing second in the European ESL Challenger League Season 44 and first in the RES Western European Masters Spring, the latter of which qualified them for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. 9INE have performed admirably in the events in which they have competed, with a 76 percent win rate over the last three months. However, as we previously stated for Fnatic, statistics can be misleading, as 9INE have not competed in any S-Tier events in 2023, whereas their opponent Fnatic have participated in nearly all of them.
Many esports betting sites have Fnatic as the second favourite to win the BLAST Premier European Spring Showdown, so we expect a statement win over 9INE here. We will back Fnatic at the -1.5 map line.
