?Natus Vincere and forZe last met in April 2022, during the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 European RMR A, when NaVi secured a comfortable 2-0 win en route to the Major finals. But the Ukrainian team was much stronger back then.

After a rough patch, we saw a bit of a resurgence from NaVi earlier this year when they reached the semifinals of Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2023. However, they need to show more to convince anyone of their ESL Pro League title credentials.

Natus Vincere have better players than forZe, but they’re not the same beast they were in 2021 or early into 2022. Moreover, NaVi haven’t played an official match in over a month and are notorious for starting tournaments slowly.

At the offered CS:GO betting odds, forZe to win one map makes the most sense. They can be competitive in big events such as the ESL Pro League, and facing a rusty NaVi – who are still finding their new identity – will give them a perfect chance to prove it.

?Team Spirit enter this match as +110 underdogs with esports betting sites, which is interesting to see – not necessarily because Spirit are very strong, but rather because Astralis aren’t. Even though Astralis are still highly respected, the Danes are not playing at their best.

Astralis are 9-1 over their last 10 outings, with just two notable wins against OG (2-1) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (2-1). Still, even those minor achievements are overshadowed by unconvincing victories against EYEBALLERS (2-1), Aurora (2-1), and SAW (2-1).

In terms of tournament results, Team Spirit are in a similar spot; they’ve won two events since the start of 2022 and haven’t beaten any strong teams recently. So even though Spirit are not stronger than Astralis, they’re not that much worse.

This should be a close series between two struggling teams, so we’ll put our money on over 2.5 maps.

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?In an online tournament such as ESL Pro League Season 14, you can’t go wrong with backing Gambit Esports. They’re one of the strongest teams in the world, are very efficient online, and are competing in one of the weakest groups of the competition.

On Saturday, Gambit will clash with another CIS squad, Entropiq, who they last met with during EPIC CIS League Spring 2021 at the end of May and won 2-1. Entropiq did well to force Gambit to three maps; however, that’s hardly worth celebrating since regional derbies are usually very close.

Gambit have since drastically improved, and we don’t believe Alexey “NickelBack” Trofimov and his crew will be as successful as they were three months back. Gambit Esports should get it done in two maps as they look to build momentum ahead of the playoffs.

?FURIA Esports edged past Team One, on Thursday, with 16-14 on Mirage and 22-19 on Inferno. Although you would expect FURIA to show a bit more against a world no.44 team, we have to keep in mind that this was a match between two regional rivals who know each other very well.

As a result, we shouldn’t overvalue FURIA’s win, nor should we praise Team One too much for keeping the series close. FURIA’s real challenge begins on Friday when they take on Gambit Esports, and if they don’t deliver on the day, their bout against Ninjas in Pyjamas will likely decide their fate in the tournament.

Ninjas in Pyjamas have managed a 1-1 record from their opening two bouts. They lost to Team Liquid on Wednesday (0-2) and won against Entropiq (2-0) on Thursday, which are decent results, but NiP are capable of much more.

Not only are FURIA playing with their coach as a stand-in, but NiP are also a far better team individually. Admittedly, their results on the season have not been particularly impressive, but NiP have done well in online tournaments before and should not struggle on Saturday.

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