The ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals LAN event is starting today and as a result, this week will be filled to the brim with top CS:GO matches and excellent CS:GO betting opportunities. A total of 16 teams will be participating in the tournament and they\u2019ll be fighting for a 750,000 dollars prize pool.<\/p>\n
ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals brings together 16 of the world\u2019s best teams. These teams will be split initially into two groups of 8.<\/p>\n
Both groups will be played in a GSL format (double-elimination bracket). The initial matches will be Bo1. All the other matches will be Bo3. The winner of each group qualifies for the Semifinals. The 2nd and 3rd best teams from each group qualify for the Quarterfinals.<\/p>\n The Playoffs will be played in a single-elimination bracket format. All of its matches will be Bo3, with the exception of the Grand Final (Bo5).<\/p>\n The $750,000 prize pool will be shared among the 16 teams in the following way: Natus Vincere has had three top 4 finishes this year, having placed 3rd \u2013 4th at the ELEAGUE Major and also having played in two Grand Finals: at StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018. Na\u2019Vi lost both of these Grand Finals (one against mousesports and one against Astralis) but still remains one of the best teams in the world (top 5 for sure).<\/p>\n Na\u2019Vi\u2019s main weakness is also it\u2019s most important strength: s1mple. This player is without a doubt the most skilled in the world right now and in the best shape of his career. As long as s1mple keeps on playing the way he\u2019s played this year, Na\u2019Vi will continue to get top placements in spite of having many weaknesses and several average players as a team.<\/p>\n Going into this tournament, I expect Na\u2019Vi to qualify for the Playoffs. It\u2019s not clear yet whether or not the CIS team can make it to the Semifinals or even the Grand Final, but s1mple\u2019s form will be decisive in whatever they achieve.<\/p>\n In spite of losing to FaZe Clan in the Grand Final of Intel Extreme Masters Sydney, Astralis is still the strongest team in the world right now and its performance over the last few months clearly proves it: a 2nd place finish at IEM Sydney, a 1st place finish at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 and a 3rd \u2013 4th place finish at IEM XII World Championship.<\/p>\n Going into this event, Astralis is the team with the highest chance of claiming the trophy.<\/p>\n After around 2 months of weaker results, FaZe Clan struck back at the recent IEM Sydney tournament, defeating Astralis in the Grand Final and claiming the title. It was a shocking result for everyone, not least because FaZe Clan did it without dropping a single map, but it showed that you should never discard this team in the fierce battle for trophies, no matter how overpowered its opponent may seem.<\/p>\n With this latest tournament title, FaZe Clan proved that Xizt has been successfully integrated in its lineup and that the team is now playing at maximum capacity again. It wasn\u2019t easy for FaZe to get over olofmeister\u2019s loss, but it looks like things have finally worked out for them.<\/p>\n For me, FaZe Clan is the second strongest team at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals. I wouldn\u2019t count of it to win the entire event, but it certainly has all the right ingredients to make it at least to the Semifinals.<\/p>\n After the acquisition of NAF and TACO, Team Liquid finally got a world class roster that can compete with any opponent. However, the results haven\u2019t been great in the last 2 months, simply because the team needs more time to fully integrate its newest members and achieve perfect fluency in all of its strategies. The potential to get top placements is definitely there, but we\u2019ll have to see if Team Liquid has managed to train enough to remove all of its internal gameplay problems.<\/p>\n So far this season, Team Liquid got 3 top 4 finishes. The team won cs_summit 2, placed 3rd at StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and then 3rd \u2013 4th at IEM XII World Championship.<\/p>\n Going into ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, Team Liquid should qualify for the Playoffs. Especially because it has an easy road through the brackets in Group B, as long as it can win against much weaker opponents.<\/p>\n Mousesports is a top 4 team in CS:GO right now and has had an exceptional season so far. The team won StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4, V4 Future Sports Festival Budapest 2018, as well as the regional stage of ESL Pro League Season 7, qualifying for this LAN event by placing first in the European region (18 W \u2013 8 L). At the latest tournament it participated in (IEM XIII Sydney), mousesports placed 4th, after losing to a formidable Astralis in the Semifinals (score 1 \u2013 2).<\/p>\n Overall, mousesports is playing great CS right now and has a big advantage over most of the teams present at this event: they haven\u2019t had a roster change in over 9 months. This gives them excellent cohesion and a wide array of tactics and strategies.<\/p>\n After replacing Xizt with dennis and THREAT with pita (new coach), NiP regained much of its former strength and started to play like a tier 1 team again. Of course, there\u2019s still a long way to go until we can expect NiP to win a big trophy, but the team has what it takes to get deep runs in tournaments like this one.<\/p>\n In 2018, Ninjas in Pyjamas got 4 top 8 finishes: at cs_summit 2, Intel Extreme Masters XII World Championship, DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 and Esports Championship Series Season 5 Europe.<\/p>\n Going into ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, NiP has a very good chance of qualifying for the Playoffs, as long as it can beat of its main group rivals, SK Gaming.<\/p>\n This is by far the most unpredictable match of the 8 that were mentioned and that\u2019s because it\u2019s not yet clear how strong SK Gaming is. The team hasn\u2019t looked great after its recent roster change, but since coldzera became the new in-game leader things have started to shift a little bit in its favor. SK\u2019s last two matches against Team Liquid (both Bo1) ended with 2 victories in its favor.<\/p>\n On the other hand, NiP is a very strong team right now so I don\u2019t really think that SK has what it takes to win this match. The Brazilians still need a lot of practice to integrate Stewie2K into their lineup.<\/p>\n Bovada puts the odds for this match at -115 \/ -110 or around 1.87 \u2013 1.91 in favor of NiP, which is much more likely to win at this point.<\/p>\n Betting prediction:<\/strong>Ninjas in Pyjamas to win, paying -120.48 at BetOnline<\/a>.<\/p>\n FaZe Clan is much stronger than Cloud9 at this point, so it should have no problem winning this match. Last time these two teams met (in the Group Stage of Intel Extreme Masters XIII Sydney), FaZe Clan won pretty decisively with a score of 2 \u2013 0.<\/p>\n Bovada puts the odds for this match at -225 \/ +175 or around 1.44 \u2013 2.75 in favor of FaZe Clan, giving Cloud9 quite a bit of respect but still anticipating a clear victory for the Europeans.<\/p>\n Betting prediction:<\/strong>FaZe Clan to win, paying -227.27 at BetOnline<\/a>.<\/p>\n Heroic has been on a steep decline lately, while NRG Esports has been on the rise. This contrast has led everyone to believe that NRG is the slight favorite in this dispute, although not by much.<\/p>\n Bovada puts the odds for this match at -170 \/ +130 or around 1.59 \u2013 2.30 in favor of NRG Esports and at these odds, a bet on a victory in their favor is definitely worthwhile.<\/p>\n Betting prediction:<\/strong>NRG Esports to win, paying -163.93 at BetOnline<\/a>.<\/p>\n MVP PK has had some pretty good results recently, winning the CS:GO Asia Summit event and placing 9th \u2013 12th at IEM XIII Sydney. Still, the team is at least 1 tier below Na\u2019Vi, so I can\u2019t imagine the CIS team losing this battle.<\/p>\n Bovada puts the odds for this match at -475 \/ +350 or around 1.21 \u2013 4.50 in favor of Natus Vincere and its assessment is absolutely correct. <\/p>\n Betting prediction:<\/strong>Natus Vincere to win, paying -714.29 at BetOnline<\/a>.<\/p>\n Given the massive skill and experience difference between these two teams, anything except a crushing victory in favor of mousesports would be a huge upset. Personally, I don\u2019t think that Sharks Esports can take more than 10 rounds off mousesports in this match, so even if you bet on the Europeans using a -4.5 or even -5.5 rounds handicap option you should still be perfectly fine.<\/p>\n Bovada puts the odds for this match at -700 \/ +450 or around 1.14 \u2013 5.50 in favor of mousesports, and this is practically free money to be made.<\/p>\n Betting prediction:<\/strong>mousesports to win, paying -1000 at BetOnline<\/a>.<\/p>\n In spite of not performing at its full potential and having problems against the strongest teams in the world, Team Liquid is still way better than Grayhound and should easily win this dispute without dropping more than 8-10 maps.<\/p>\n Bovada puts the odds for this match at -325 \/ +260 or around 1.31 \u2013 3.60, giving Grayhound way too much respect for that victory against SK Gaming from IEM XIII Sydney.<\/p>\n Betting prediction:<\/strong>Team Liquid to win, paying -357.14 at BetOnline<\/a>.<\/p>\n This should be a close match all things considered but based on Space Soldiers\u2019 poor recent form and Renegades\u2019 exceptional recent form, Renegades should win in the end. If Nifty can play half as well as he did at IEM XIII Sydney, his team will completely crush Space Soldiers in this battle.<\/p>\n Bovada puts the odds for this match at +105 \/ -130 or around 2.05 \u2013 1.77, anticipating a close fight. I myself don\u2019t think that will be the case, as the Australians look much stronger at this point.<\/p>\n
\n\u2022\tCloud9
\n\u2022\tNRG Esports
\n\u2022\tHeroic
\n\u2022\tNatus Vincere
\n\u2022\tMVP PK
\n\u2022\tmousesports
\n\u2022\tSharks Esports
\n\u2022\tFaZe Clan<\/strong><\/p>\nGroup B:<\/h3>\n
\n\u2022\tOpTic Gaming
\n\u2022\tAstralis
\n\u2022\tNinjas in Pyjamas
\n\u2022\tSK Gaming
\n\u2022\tTeam Liquid
\n\u2022\tGrayhound
\n\u2022\tSpace Soldiers
\n\u2022\tRenegades<\/strong><\/p>\nPrize pool distribution<\/h2>\n
\n\u2022\t1st place: $250,000
\n\u2022\t2nd place: $110,000
\n\u2022\t3rd – 4th place: $55,000
\n\u2022\t5th \u2013 6th place: $32,000
\n\u2022\t7th \u2013 8th place: $24,000
\n\u2022\t9th \u2013 12th place: $22,000
\n\u2022\t13th \u2013 16th place: $20,000<\/p>\nTop teams<\/h2>\n
Natus Vincere<\/h3>\n
Astralis<\/h3>\n
FaZe Clan<\/h3>\n
Team Liquid<\/h3>\n
Mousesports<\/h3>\n
Ninjas in Pyjamas<\/h3>\n
Betting predictions<\/h2>\n
Ninjas in Pyjamas vs. SK Gaming<\/h3>\n
FaZe Clan vs. Cloud9<\/h3>\n
NRG Esports vs. Heroic<\/h3>\n
Natus Vincere vs. MVP PK<\/h3>\n
mousesports vs. Sharks Esports<\/h3>\n
Team Liquid vs. Grayhound<\/h3>\n
Space Soldiers vs. Renegades<\/h3>\n