The final week in the 17th season of the ESL Pro League will kick off on Tuesday with four best-of-three playoff series. Below you will find our best bets for FURIA vs Fnatic, Natus Vincere vs 00Nation, paiN Gaming vs Team Liquid and G2 Esports vs Movistar Riders, with odds provided by Betway.
FURIA vs FNATIC CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | FURIA $1.66 at Betway | Fnatic $2.10 at Betway |
| When: | March 21, 2023 | 15:30 CET |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_csgo) |
The third-place finisher from Group B, FURIA, will face the fourth-place finisher from Group A, Fnatic, in the first series of the day, with the winner advancing to face FaZe Clan in the second round of the playoffs.
FURIA only lost one series in the group stage, to MOUZ in the upper-bracket semifinal, before dropping to the lower bracket and defeating Movistar Riders and BIG to finish third in the group. With the likes of Kiake “KSCERATO” Cerato and Rafael “saffee” Costa performing well, the world number 13 should be considered a smoky to win the ESL Pro League Season 17 title. FURIA can beat anyone on their day, and if they play well on Tuesday, they can easily win this series 2-0 over Fnatic.
Fnatic finishing fourth in Group A after losing to Outsiders and G2 Esports would have to be seen as a pass mark, as they were the third-ranked team in the group and took G2 to all three maps in the lower-bracket final. They did, however, struggle to get past Eternal Fire and IHC to eventually qualify, so their form is a little shaky heading into the playoffs.
Both FURIA and Fnatic are solid teams on their day, so with so much at stake in this series, we expect a close battle that goes all the way to three maps.
Over 2.5 maps
NATUS VINCERE vs 00 NATION CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | NaVi $1.07 at Betway | 00 $7.50 at Betway |
| When: | March 21, 2023 | 15:30 CET |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_csgo) |
World number five Natus Vincere will face the 00Nation, ranked 30th, with these two teams meeting for the first time.
Natus Vincere were one of the surprise losers in Group D’s first round, losing 1-2 to FORZE and dropping into the lower bracket. From there, NaVi won three games in a row over Astralis, Rare Atom, and Team Spirit to qualify in third place. At $1.07 on esports betting sites, NaVi are expected to win this series easily.
00Nation were one of the surprise packages to emerge from the group stage, defeating Ninjas in Pyjamas in the fourth-place decider to advance from Group C. However, with a massive task ahead of them in the first round of the playoffs, this series appears to be the end of their run.
Natus Vincere are heavy favourites in this series, and there is no doubt that they deserve to be, but they are too short to bet on the moneyline. As such, we will be taking the favourites at the rounds line of -12.5.
NaVi -13.5 rounds
PAIN GAMING vs TEAM LIQUID CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | paiN $3.75 at Betway | Liquid $1.25 at Betway |
| When: | March 21, 2023 | 19:00 CET |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_csgo) |
The third series of the day will feature paiN Gaming, an all-Brazilian team, taking on Team Liquid, a mostly North American team. With paiN ranked 25th in the world and Liquid ranked third, we have two of the best teams from the Americas competing in this series.
paiN Gaming lost their first-round match against Ninjas in Pyjamas before winning three straight games to finish third in Group C, defeating Rooster, OG, and Grayhound. The Brazilians will enter this series against Team Liquid with confidence, having defeated them at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown in April 2022.
Team Liquid are among the most inconsistent sides on the Counter-Strike professional scene, and their run in the group stage proves it. They lost to Rare Atom in the first round before falling to Team Spirit in the second, sending TL straight to the last chance stage. With their backs against the wall, Liquid managed to win four straight maps in back-to-back series over Rare Atom and Astralis to secure the final spot in the playoffs.
This is shaping up to be one of the better series in the first round of the playoffs, so we can expect a three-map thriller between these two rivals from the Americas.
Over 2.5 maps
G2 ESPORTS vs MOVISTAR RIDERS CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | G2 $1.05 at Betway | MR $8.50 at Betway |
| When: | March 21, 2023 | 19:00 CET |
| Watch Live: | Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/esl_csgo) |
The final series of the day will pit world number one G2 Esports against world number 24 Movistar Riders, with the winner meeting ENCE in the second round of the playoffs.
G2 Esports started ESL Pro League S17 as the betting favourite to win Group A and the title, but they were defeated by a rampant Cloud9 in the upper-bracket semifinal and dropped to the lower bracket. That defeat to Cloud9 ended their 16-match winning streak, which began with the BLAST Premier World Final at the end of 2022 and included their unbeaten run at IEM Katowice 2023. G2 may have needed that loss to bring them back down to earth, and now that they’ve had time to practise and work on their flaws, they should be at their best in this series.
Movistar Riders struggled in Group B, losing to Heroic in the opening round and Movistar Riders in the lower-bracket semis. The Spanish team struggled with consistency, and they were easily defeated by two teams ranked higher than them. Movistar are not competing at the same level as G2 and they look to have a huge task on their hands to even win a map against the world’s best.
G2 will be looking to make a statement in this series, so we’ll take them at the -13.5 rounds handicap.
G2 Esports -13.5 rounds
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