FaZe Clan have terrorised the Counter-Strike esports scene since October 2023, but they’ve recently lost some of their potency. After a streak of placing top three in nine of 10 consecutive tournaments, FaZe finished ESL Pro League Season 19 and Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024 in fifth-eighth and fifth-sixth place, respectively.

In both events, FaZe were eliminated by the eventual finalists, so things aren’t that bad. And considering they are still 14-6 from their last 20 series, there’s no reason for panic.

SAW haven’t been attending many top-rated events since late last year, and even in the tournaments SAW have participated in, they’ve rarely made it further than the first stage. The Portuguese CS squad are also 2-5 from their last seven series, which include defeats against Sangal Esports, RUSH B, SINNERS Esports and Zero Tenacity.

FaZe Clan might not be as dangerous as they were a few months back, but they should crush SAW without any issues.

Natus Vincere haven’t shown much since their victory at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, with two early exits from ESL Pro League Season 19 and Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024.

NaVi’s form seems to be deteriorating, and their recent performances against Complexity, FaZe Clan, Team Spirit, and HEROIC make it very hard to believe they have a realistic chance to win in London.

Astralis found momentum after missing out on the Copenhagen Major, with three semifinal appearances at IEM Chengdu 2024, ESL Pro League Season 19, and CCT Season 1 Global Finals. But they did not look nearly as good at the recent YaLLa Compass 2024.

Astralis are priced as favourites with the best esports betting sites, which makes sense after what they’ve shown in recent tournaments. But the Danes overperformed in April and May, and they’re not that much better than Natus Vincere.

Team Vitality have emerged as one of the more consistent Counter-Strike teams in Europe. Since their semifinal run at the Major, Vitality have added two silver medals from ESL Pro League Season 19 and IEM Dallas 2024, proving they belong among the elite squads.

Virtus.pro have shown some improvement since April with promising runs at IEM Chengdu 2024, ESL Pro League Season 19, and BetBoom Dacha Belgrade. But in Dallas, they crumbled and headed home early.

Virtus.pro have had their moments over the last couple of months, but it’s tough to believe they’ll stand a chance against Team Vitality, who rarely struggle against lesser opponents.

G2 Esports accomplished the impossible and won Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024 despite playing with a stand-in. They are now in a similar position for BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024, as they’re without Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov.

Team Spirit have also found some success since March. They reached the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 playoffs, finished second at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024, and made it all the way to the semifinals in Dallas.

Form-wise, Team Spirit and G2 Esports look fairly equal, and even though G2 will travel to London without their star AWPer, it’s absurd to see a team with so much firepower priced as $4.50 underdogs. Even without m0NESY, G2 Esports should be priced closer to $3.00.

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The MongolZ left a statement at ESL Pro League Season 19, where they finished Group A in second place and came just a few rounds short of reaching the quarterfinals. In Malta, they beat Team Falcons and G2 Esports and nearly made it past Virtus.pro, which is nothing to sneeze at, but it could also be nothing more than a momentary flash of greatness.

HEROIC have also done well for themselves recently, with a semifinal run at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 and a top-six finish at Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024. However, over that stretch, HEROIC have also proven to be inconsistent.

Even though HEROIC should win on Thursday, they’re up against a capable squad in a best-of-one clash. That is reason enough to consider backing The MongolZ at outsider odds.

Fnatic enter YaLLa Compass 2024 with a lot to prove but also the potential to do well. Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, who joined Fnatic from Astralis last month, is a massive addition, and he has already left a positive mark in his first few appearances under a new flag.

However, this will also be Fnatic’s toughest challenge since the roster change and one that should show where they stand.

Complexity have done well over the last month, with a semifinal run at ESL Pro League Season 19 and an unfortunate early exit from IEM Dallas 2024. Over that stretch, Complexity had to play some tough teams and looked competitive, but we’re still talking about a small sample size.

Fnatic can surprise Complexity, but we haven’t seen enough from them yet to justify taking their side.

Ninjas in Pyjamas hit a new low last month when they exited RES European Series #4 in the group stage, continuing their streak of worrying results. Astralis are on the complete opposite trajectory.

Even though Astralis are still far from their former glory, the Danes have managed three consecutive semifinal appearances across IEM Chengdu 2024, ESL Pro League Season 19, and the CCT Season 1 Global Finals, where they competed against some of the top teams in the world and often came out ahead.

Astralis are not untouchable, and they’ve had some close games against weaker opponents lately. But you have to have a very good reason to back Ninjas in Pyjamas, who have, even against second-division teams, looked powerless.

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The opening round of YaLLa Compass 2024 Group A will feature the Danish derby between Astralis and HEROIC. These two last met during PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 European RMR B, when Astralis won 13-7. It was their third consecutive head-to-head victory, which explains the odds.

Still, HEROIC have looked much improved over the last month. They reached the BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024 semifinals and placed top six at Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024 last week. Meanwhile, Astralis reached the semifinals at IEM Chengdu 2024, ESL Pro League Season 19, and the CCT Season 1 Global Finals.

Results-wise, HEROIC and Astralis look even, and the eye test suggests there is not much to set them apart. Since this is a best-of-one match, taking HEROIC at outsider odds is a very inviting choice.

Complexity made a huge splash at the start of May by reaching the semifinal of ESL Pro League Season 19, then crashed out of Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024 in 13th-16th place. In both events, Complexity were eliminated by MOUZ — the top Counter-Strike team in the world.

Eternal Fire, like Complexity, enjoyed a bit of a resurgence last month by winning the CCT Season 1 Global Finals — their first title since June 2023. But that success comes with an asterisk, as the Turkish side didn’t have to face any great teams.

Complexity are priced as slight underdogs with esports betting sites, which doesn’t make much sense. They’ve shown promising performances over the last month and have beaten teams stronger than Eternal Fire.

Despite parting ways with their long-time head coach Fatih “gob b” Dayik, BIG haven’t lost any traction. In fact, they produced their best tournament run of the season last week, placing top eight at Intel Extreme Masters Dallas 2024.

It could be that it was just a honeymoon phase under a new coach, but BIG have shown better performances under a new strategist. FURIA Esports, on the other side, continue to struggle.

The Brazilians have not won a tournament this season, and their most notable accomplishment of 2024 was finishing second at a B-Tier event — CCT Season 2 European Series #4. Something is not clicking in this team, and YaLLa Compass 2024 might be their last chance to show something before the inevitable roster revamp.

BIG are rightly priced as favourites, but even at $1.71 with GG Bet, they’re a bit underrated.

Following a long streak of disappointing results, Fnatic decided on a change and brought in Benjamin “blameF” Bremer from Astralis to help stabilise the roster. Since joining Fnatic, BlameF has played in two tournaments and posted promising numbers, with a 1.27 rating across 13 maps played.

Fnatic still have a long way to go, but they have found a lot more success with the Danish CS veteran. BetBoom Team are also on an upwards trajectory, recently reaching no.17 spot on the global CS ladder.

They have not won a tournament since April but secured top-eight placements at both the CCT Season 1 Global Finals and Season 2 European Series #3. Despite the promising results, BetBoom have not beaten any great teams over the last few weeks, which explains the offered esports betting odds.

This looks like a 50-50 match between two teams slowly getting back on their feet. Expect a close series.

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Sashi Esports put together a new all-Danish Counter-Strike roster last month and have since won ComeOn Nordic Showdown, YaLLa Compass Spring 2024, and HellCup #9. They carried that form into the Elisa Invitational 2024 Spring main stage, beating ENTERPRISE (2-1), ex-Preasy Esports (2-1), and Gaimin Gladiators (2-0).

ENDPOINT haven’t been nearly as successful so far this tournament. They barely made it through the Contenders stage and were just as shaky in the previous stage, ending it with a 3-2 record. However, since the final match of the main stage, ENDPOINT have won three of six games played, beating MOUZ NXT, Sampi, and PARIVISION.

Sashi Esports’ explosive form explains why they’re expected to win on Wednesday, but it’s tough to argue they’re that much stronger than ENDPOINT. At $3.00 with esports betting sites, ENDPOINT are the obvious choice.

BLEED Esports added Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad and Tim “nawwk” Jonasson to their Counter-Strike roster last weekend, marking a significant upgrade on Vladan “VLDN” Radevi? and Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov. While there is still a question of synergy, BLEED Esports look far better with the new additions.

Gaimin Gladiators are in decent form, having won six of their last eight series, yet most of those victories came against lesser teams. It is an improvement for the Gladiators, who had a rough start after the roster came together in April, but they still have a lot to work on.

BLEED Esports are a bit of an enigma with two new members, but they boast far more quality than Gaimin Gladiators, and it should show on Wednesday.

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GamerLegion will clash with ENCE for the second time in 2024, with the Finnish side winning 16-14 in the second round of PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 European RMR B in February. GamerLegion have since produced mixed results and made a couple of roster changes, adding Henrich “sl3nd” Hevesi and Andreas “aNdu” Maasing to the active lineup.

Even with the fresh blood, GamerLegion have won only three of their last seven series — and those wins were against lesser opposition in MOUZ NXT, Copenhagen Wolves, and GUN5. ENCE, meanwhile, are 2-5 from their last seven outings, with concerning defeats against FORZE Esports, OG, AMKAL, FURIA Esports, and paiN Gaming.

ENCE placed top six at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2024, but they’ve not shown much since. This looks like a 50-50 match, making it hard to pass on GamerLegion at outsider odds.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are in a difficult spot ahead of their first ESL Pro League Season 19 match, as they’ll have to compete with two stand-ins. Maoz “BluePho3nix” Paz will fill the final missing spot on the roster, while Kacper “xKacpersky” Gabara will replace Fredrik “REZ” Sterner, who was unable to fly out to Malta.

HEROIC field a complete roster but enter the tournament in shaky form. At the start of the month, HEROIC secured a respectable top-eight finish at IEM Chengdu 2024, but they later added a round-one exit from the Esports World Cup 2024 European Open Qualifier with a loss against Brazylijski luz.

Inconsistency has been the theme of this team since the turn of the year, so while HEROIC have the talent to do well, they rarely show what they’re capable of. For this reason alone, backing Ninjas in Pyjamas to win a map makes more sense.

After finishing in fifth-sixth place at Skyesports Masters 2024, FORZE Esports added Aleksey “NickelBack” Trofimov and Owen “smooya” Butterfield to the active lineup. And while the new-look roster looks solid, they have yet to play an official match together.

Monte haven’t made any roster changes since March, yet their results over the last two months leave a lot to be desired. With just one tournament title from RES Eastern European Masters Spring 2024, Monte look like vulnerable favourites for this match.

FORZE’s questionable synergy is a big reason to doubt their chances of winning on Tuesday. Still, they field a better lineup, and they’re against Monte, who’ve recently struggled against lesser squads.

FURIA Esports last met with Team Liquid in the second round of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 American RMR, where they won 13-10. Since then, FURIA have played 15 series and lost all but five, with four of those defeats coming in their last five outings.

On the other side, Team Liquid are 5-1 across their last six series; however, they’ve beaten just two notable teams over that stretch: Legacy and M80.

Liquid should be priced as favourites with the top esports betting sites, but $1.45 is way too short for a team that has been anything but consistent over the last four months.

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After qualifying through one of the Europe A, Europe B, Americas, or Asia RMRs, 24 teams will take their place in Copenhagen; however, eight squads have been directly invited to the elimination stage, while the remaining 16 must go through the opening stage of the US$1.25 million event.

Esports betting sites have their outright markets focused around three teams, with Team Spirit ($3.25), Team Vitality ($3.50) and FaZe Clan ($3.75) at the top end. Outside those three, Virtus.pro ($7.00), G2 Esports ($9.00), MOUZ ($11.00) and Natus Vincere ($11.00) are all given a good chance to claim the opening Major of 2024.

Here is our PGL Major Copenhagen betting preview and outright picks, with odds courtesy of the top Counter-Strike betting sites in Hong Kong.

G2 Esports

With the likes of Nikola “NiKo” Kovac, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, and Nemanja “hunter-“ Kovac headlining their five-man Counter-Strike roster, G2 Esports have as much firepower as any of the rivals they will face during PGL Major Copenhagen. Much like many teams at the Major, G2 have not been seen on a public server since their third and final victory at the Europe RMR A, where they defeated FaZe Clan 2-0.

Over the last three months, m0NESY has been the second-highest-rated player (1.30) in the Counter-Strike scene, only sitting behind Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (1.43) from Team Vitality. With their star AWPer playing at a very high level while NiKo and huNter- rarely have an off day, G2 have all the ingredients to win the organisation’s first Counter-Strike Major.

MOUZ

One of the forgotten squads in the lead-up to PGL Major Copenhagen is MOUZ. The number four team in the Counter-Strike world rankings has been nothing short of impressive in the last 12 months. Post the BLAST.tv Paris Major, MOUZ have finished in the top four in seven of their last nine S-Tier events, including their victory at ESL Pro League Season 18 as well as two runner-up finishes at IEM Dallas 2023 and CS2 Asia Championship 2023.

Coming off taking GamerLegion to the grand final at the previous Major in 2023, Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek will lead this MOUZ roster in Copenhagen, joined by the likes of ádám “torzsi” Torzsás and Jimi “Jimpphat” Salo. If this young, up-and-coming squad can perform similarly to how they did at IEM Katowice 2024, where they finished in third-fourth place, MOUZ can surprise a few at double-figure odds by lifting the PGL Major Copenhagen trophy.

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After losing their key players to Heroic and Team Falcons at the end of 2023, ENCE rebuilt their Counter-Strike lineup with the former 9INE core. Despite not signing any world-class players, ENCE have made the new project work.

Going against all odds, ENCE beat Astralis, Team Vitality, and G2 Esports convincingly in the group stage. Now they have their eyes set on the new-look Team Falcons, who showed immense improvement following a rough start.

Team Falcons have looked just as good with their wins against Rebels Gaming, Complexity, and Natus Vincere, but their road to the final six was less challenging. Still, esports betting sites have Falcons priced as favourites for this match.

Individually, the Falcons are the better team, but we must respect what ENCE have shown so far in this tournament. At the offered CS betting odds, ENCE at even money or better are an obvious choice.

The IEM Katowice 2024 quarterfinals will conclude with a clash between two of the world’s strongest Counter-Strike teams: FaZe Clan and G2 Esports. The two titans last met in the second round of BLAST Premier World Final 2023 in December, when FaZe Clan won 2-1, and they are expected to come out ahead again.

FaZe haven’t looked amazing so far this tournament, with a 2-0 win against Rebels Gaming, a close 2-1 victory against Eternal Fire, and a rough 0-2 loss against Team Spirit. G2 Esports are in the same boat, although they managed to stop Monte and Heroic in the lower bracket of Group B.

Considering how shaky Nikola “NiKo” Kova? and Nemanja “nexa” Isakovi? looked early into the tournament, it can be tough trusting G2 Esports. However, the cousins found their stride in the final two rounds og the group phase, averaging 1.49 and 1.11 ratings respectively. And if they fall short, there’s always Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, the second-highest-rated player at IEM Katowice 2024.

FaZe Clan should be slightly favoured as they’re a more stable team and less likely to make huge errors, but at $2.25 with GG Bet, it’s hard to pass on G2 Esports.

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The new Copenhagen Wolves Counter-Strike division has slowly come together over the last week. But it wasn’t until Tuesday, January 2, that it got finalised with the signing of trace as a new head coach.

As one of the more experienced CS coaches, trace will be in charge of leading a lineup headlined by Hubert “szejn” ?wiat?y, and work closely with Copenhagen Wolves’ in-game leader Victor “vigg0” Bisgaard, whom trace will reunite with from his time at Astralis Talent.

Trace is a retired Counter-Strike player who started his esports career in 2007. Over the next 14 years, the Dane has played for several high-profile Counter-Strike squads, including SK Gaming and Fnatic, before transitioning to coaching with Team Singularity in 2021.

Following a short stint with Singularity, trace joined Lyngby Vikings and spent the last month of 2021 as a head coach of ECSTATIC before joining Astralis’ academy division. In March 2022, trace got promoted to the main lineup as a replacement for Alexander “ave” Holdt and, after a rough start, found some success at the top level.

With Astralis, trace claimed silver medals from BLAST Premier: Spring European Showdown 2022 and Pinnacle Cup Championship and made the semifinals of Roobet Cup 2022 and Intel Extreme Masters XVII – Cologne. Unfortunately, internal turmoil and disappointing results in the second half of 2022 led to trace’s departure from Astralis.

The Danish coach found a new home with Into the Breach in August 2023 but left two months later by mutual agreement.

Trace joins the iconic Danish esports brand, which was revived by Jared “Outback” Habib in late December. While the team doesn’t have an official match on their schedule yet, the Copenhagen Wolves are expected to debut in the upcoming European Open Qualifiers for the Copenhagen Regional Major Rankings tournament, set to kick off on January 8.

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On Tuesday, January 2, Counter-Strike 2 players spotted another bug revolving around the interaction between smoke grenades and Molotov fire.

Besides being a useful tactical item to create openings and smoke off enemies’ vision, smoke grenades in Counter-Strike can also be used to extinguish the fire caused by Molotov grenades. This purpose is still present in the latest instalment of CS; however, it doesn’t always work as intended.

As shown by a player in a short clip posted on Reddit, a smoke grenade didn’t extinguish the flames instantly when it hit the flames – as it should. It instead bounced off the blazing ground, leaving the helpless players to die in fire.

Others pointed out that the Molotov bug has different variations. Sometimes the smoke grenade will extinguish the fire, however, with a delay, leaving the players to take additional damage regardless of how quickly they react.

This, unfortunately, isn’t a new bug but a problem that has been in the game for quite some time. And yet, there is no fix in sight.

Counter-Strike 2 was released in September 2023 as one of the most anticipated games of the year. With success Counter-Strike: Global Offensive enjoyed over the last decade, CS2 was expected to modernise the 11-year-old game and elevate the Counter-Strike esports scene.

Four months after, this has not been the case.

Valve did a fine job transitioning the CS esports scene to Counter-Strike 2, hosting several big events on CS2 without any major game-breaking issues.
However, two months ahead of the first CS2 Major – PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 – the game still has a lot of problems.

Most major bugs, such as the “Michael Jackson lean,” visual and weapon problems, and wonky movement, have been addressed. But as seen by the community’s outcries, the game needs a lot more work to be up to par with its predecessor.

The numerous bugs also contributed to the steady decline in the Counter-Strike playerbase. While the average player count sits at just under 800,000, the peak player count has dropped from over 1.5 million in September to just over 1.1 million at the start of January.

Bugs are prevalent with new game releases, and even Counter-Strike: Global Offensive had its fair share of problems at launch. So, while CS2 needs more work, Valve has experience fixing games that don’t work as intended.

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GamerLegion will attend ESL Challenger Atlanta with Andreas “aNdu” Maasing as a stand-in for Sebastian “volt” Malo?. While this isn’t necessarily a big blow quality-wise, the last-minute change definitely won’t benefit them.

Apeks have their full roster ready for Atlanta, where they will chase their first tournament title since Elisa Invitational Spring 2023. While Apeks haven’t won any tournaments in six months, they placed second at Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 at the start of December.

With GamerLegion winning only one of their last five matches, Counter-Strike betting sites have Apeks priced as $1.40 favourites. However, Apeks have produced some stinkers recently, with defeats against 3DMAX and FORZE, making it though to trust them at the offered price.

Monte having been making some noice in recent months. They ran top four in both ESL Pro League Season 18 and Thunderpick World Championship 2023, finished second at Roobet Cup 2023, and won ESL Challenger at DreamHack Winter 2023. The only concern heading to Atlanta is that Monte haven’t played a game in three weeks.

Since BESTIA came together in February, they have mainly competed in regional tournaments. They placed second at Copa BetBoom 2023 last month and then made the semifinals of the CBCS Invitational 2023. However, BESTIA have not beaten a team ranked in the top 10 this season, and they will have to play this event with two stand-ins — Roberto “reversive” Themtham and Nicolás “NikoM” Miozzi.

While the outsiders are bound to struggle, this is a best-of-one series and the round line is set at a 7.5, which is an absurd number. As weak as BESTIA might seem, they should be good for six rounds.

M80 have recently found momentum with four straight event victories, including ESEA Cash Cup North America Autumn 2023 #6 and ESL Challenger League Season 46 North America. While those weren’t big tournaments, M80 travel to Georgia World Congress Center in impressive form with just one defeat over their last 21 games.

Virtus.pro broke into the top 10 in the Counter-Strike world rankings following a stretch of impressive tournament runs. They placed second at Dunav Party LAN in August, added a gold medal from Roobet Cup 2023 at the start of November, and have since placed second at Thunderpick World Championship 2023 and BetBoom Dacha.

While Virtus.pro’s win percentage isn’t as high as M80’s, they have won nine of their last 13 series — mainly bouts against top-20 squads. VP rarely lose against weaker opponents, so backing them to cover the round line is a solid play.

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