Next week, 16 of the best CS:GO teams in the world will converge on Dallas to take part in the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals. These teams will be playing for a $750,000 prize pool and bragging rights as to who the top team in the world is.
After winning DreamHack Marseille a few weeks ago, Astralis is the favorite coming into this event. However, FaZe is going to be a popular pick as well based on their dominance over the last year or so.
At BookMaker Sportsbook, our team of writers breaks down every betting matchup on the wagering board. eSports are exploding in popularity and we at BookMaker have you covered for all of your betting needs. From League of Legends to CS:GO, BookMaker has all of the eSports betting lines you can hope for. Open an account and get in on the action today!
2018 CS:GO ESL Pro League Betting Odds
Astralis +350
FaZe Clan +375
Ninjas in Pyjamas +650
Natus Vincere +650
Mousesports +650
SK Gaming +900
Team Liquid +1300
Space Soliders +1550
NRG +1550
Cloud9 +1550
Heroic +3200
OpTic Gaming +3200
Renegades +5500
Sharks +12000
Grayhound +12000
MVP PK +12000
Overview
There will be no pool play at this event. Instead, the 16 teams will be split into two groups in a double-elimination style format. Each group will have both a winner’s bracket and a loser’s bracket meaning a bad opening series will leave teams crawling out of the loser’s bracket for the rest of the tournament.
Additionally, some news broke on Wednesday that shook up the field a bit. HellRaisers was supposed to be one of the teams participating in Dallas, but the team ran into visa issues. Instead, Heroic will be taking their place.
The Favorites
Currently, Astralis top Gosu Gamers’ CS:GO rankings. Their last win was their first tournament victory with their new lineup after Magisk replaced Kjaerbye a few months ago and they finished runners-up to FaZe at IEM Sydney last week. They have a solid team and a great player in dev1ce, but this is a tough draw for them. Astralis are in the same side of the bracket as Ninjas in Pyjamas and SK Gaming, and two of those teams will be in the loser’s bracket quickly.
FaZe has a somewhat tough draw too. They draw a decent Cloud9 team in the first round and will likely be taking on mousesports in the next round. Cloud9 has won a major this year and Mousesports finished the regular season as the top team in Europe. Even though FaZe has arguably the best collection of talent in the world, they may be hard-pressed to get to the finals.
The Contenders
The team with the best draw at this event is Natus Vincere. Na’Vi will be playing MVP in their first-round matchup and will then take on either NRG or Heroic in the next round. That will likely lead to a spot in the upper bracket finals of Group A. They finished second to Astralis at DreamHack Marseille and finished third in Europe in the regular season.
SK Gaming are another side to watch too. They have struggled some since TACO left to join Team Liquid, and they are currently trying to work Stewie2K into the line-up. It’s been a tough transition as SK used to only have Brazilian players on the roster, and Stewie2K was added in spite of not knowing Portuguese. SK have yet to win a big competition this year despite dominating the CS:GO circuit in 2017.
Prediction
I’m going to back Natus Vincere to win the ESL Pro League Finals. Even though this team has yet to win a major this year, getting a good draw is crucial in this format. They have the easiest draw of any of the top teams and they have been peaking at the right time too.
At BookMaker Sportsbook, our team of writers breaks down every betting matchup on the wagering board. eSports are exploding in popularity and we at BookMaker have you covered for all of your betting needs. From League of Legends to CS:GO, BookMaker has all of the eSports betting lines you can hope for. Open an account and get in on the action today!
