THE CS:GO Blast Premier World Final in Denmark appears to be a one-horse race according to the gambling firms.
The event runs from December 14 through to December 19 and kicks off with a clash between the red-hot favorites, Natus Vincere, and outsiders Team Liquid, with the second match-up pairing Gambit with Heroic.
Natus Vincere’s challenge will be spearheaded by s1mple, better known to those closest to the 24-year-old as Oleksandr Kostyliev, who heads into the finals on the back of picking up yet another award – he was voted best Esports athlete with Natus Vincere, NAVI, winning the best Esports team prize at the The Game awards.
With a team rated the best in the world and boasting arguably the best player in the world, it’s perhaps easy to understand why they’re odds on to take home the $500,000 first prize from Copenhagen. Bookies have NAVI at 8/13 (-162.50) to lift the tile – bet $13 on Natus Vincere and get $21 back if they win.
Gambit is 10/3 (+333) second favorites with Team Vitality 8/1 (+800), and G2 Esports at 11/1 (+1100). Heroic and Astralis are both currently trading with the bet365 promotional offer code at around 15/1 (+1500 odds), with Ninjas in Pyjamas available at 18/1 (+1800) with bonus. The big outsiders are Team Liquid at 50/1 (+5000).
The opening match-up appears a very one-sided affair with bookies offering 11/2 (+550) odds for Team Liquid to pull off an upset and beat NAVI, who are 1/10 (-1000) to open up with a win. If you’re really keen on Team Liquid playing better than the odds suggest it might be worth checking out the handicap bets available on the outsiders.
While the odds on NAVI in their opening clash are far from attractive, the second match-up between Gambit and Heroic looks a lot closer; Gambit are 4/7 (-175) to open with a win while Heroic are 5/4 (+125).
While victory in the World Final will be another feather in NAVI’s cap, Kostyliev is looking at the team to keep challenging themselves to stay at the top of the rankings for an extended period of time. They broke the Astralis record for the most prize money won in a calendar year, and it’s the Danish 2018 team that s1mple wants to emulate.
The Astralis team of three years ago were No.1 in HLTV.org’s world rankings for 406 days, a target the Kyiv king wants to beat.
“If you compare it to Astralis (2018) we need to stay at the top for at least three, four, five months more to start a strong era like Astralis did,” said Kostyliev, who started playing Counter-Strike as a four-year-old in his home city. They won a lot of tournaments. We have been top one in the world for the last five months in HLTV’s ranking but I want more. Five months is not a long period if you compare it to Astralis.”
While staying top of the rankings is important, NAVI’s more immediate challenge in Denmark is likely to come in the shape of majority Russian outfit Gambit, who have shown in the past they can compete with and beat their more illustrious opponents.
They are ranked second in the world, and in June showed why they can be a match for NAVI, despite the World Final betting suggesting otherwise. In the BLAST Spring Finals, the two teams met on two occasions, including the Grand Final, Gambit winning both with the young upstarts keeping a tight rein on s1mple, limiting his effectiveness in the two games played on successive days.
But NAVI are a much tougher outfit at present, and Gambit will go into a potential clash with the best team in the world as very much the underdogs.
The tournament is the culmination of the BLAST Premier 2021 series, and will be played on LAN without a crowd due to the current Covid-19 pandemic. It is a double-elimination bracket with all matches best-of-three.
