Best Teams To Bet On Cs Go
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO)
If you’re into first-person shooters, you know all about Counter-Strike. The game has been the top FPS game in the Esports scene for the last decade, and it has been immensely popular since the first Counter-Strike game was created back in November 2000. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is the most recent game in the series, and CS:GO has been played competitively since its launch in 2012. This is one of the most bet on Esports worldwide due to the number of leagues and tournaments running concurrently, and it is rare that you go a day without seeing CS:GO being played competitively somewhere.
What is CS:GO?
While CS:GO has multiple game types, the only one that is played competitively is Search and Destroy. In Search and Destroy, two teams of five players are split into opposing sides. One team is the Terrorists, and they are looking to detonate a bomb on one of two bomb sites. The other team is the Counter Terrorists, and they are looking to keep the other team from detonating the bomb.
The Terrorists have one minute and 55 seconds to detonate the bomb in order to win the round. For the Counter Terrorists to win the round, they can either defuse the bomb or kill all members of the opposing team. Each game is scheduled for 30 rounds with each team playing 15 rounds as the Counter Terrorists and 15 rounds as the Terrorists. The first team to win 16 rounds wins the game, so a game could end 16-3 in 19 rounds. However, in a twist taken from the basketball court, you must win by two to win the game. That means if a game is tied at 15 rounds apiece, they continually swap sides every round until one of the teams wins by two.
It’s good to take a quick look at the recent performance of both teams before betting on a series because in Counterstrike a team’s current form is extremely important. Betting on a CS: GO Event Winner/Futures. When you’re looking at making a bet on a team to outright win a tournament there are some important things to keep in mind. Back in the days, CSGOLounge was the biggest CS:GO Betting Site, but today CSGOEmpire took over and is now the biggest site. You deposit your skins to the site and get coins for them. You can use your coins to bet on professional CS:GO matches. For example if you bet on Astralis to win a match and the odds for Astralis to win are 1.5, you would win 5 coins, if you bet 10.
Understanding CS:GO Odds
Types of Bets
- Moneyline
- Round Spreads
- Totals
The most popular bet in CS:GO is the moneyline bet. With a moneyline bet, you are simply betting on which team will win either the game or the series. Teams only play one game when they square off most of the time, but best-of-three series are becoming increasingly popular. In these series, there is spread betting where you can bet on the favored team -1.5 games or the underdog +1.5 games in the best-of-three series. Best-of-five series are almost exclusively reserved for Grand Finals of major tournaments.
There are two other major types of bets when it comes to betting on CS:GO, round spreads and totals. When you are betting on round spreads, you are betting on a team to win a game by a certain number of rounds or for a team to stay within the margin if they are the underdog. For instance, if Astralis is favored by 3.5 rounds over Natus Vincere, Astralis would need to win by a margin of 16-12 or more to cover the spread. Natus Vincere would cover if they lost by two or three rounds or if they won the game outright.
Betting a total is even simpler. With this type of bet, you are simply betting on the total number of rounds to be played in each game. This number is always in the 20s, and it is typically seen somewhere between 24.5 and 27.5.
How to Bet CS:GO
Since CS:GO is played around the world, there are numerous opportunities to bet on this game. There are always competitions going on, and it is best to focus on a smaller league or competition when you are first dipping your toe in the water. While the limits are not as high as they are for majors, the lines are much softer and easier to beat on a consistent basis.
It is important to check Twitter and other social media outlets before betting on CS:GO. It’s not uncommon to see teams tinker with their roster from one event to the next, and they could bring in a player on a trial basis or replace a veteran with a young up-and-comer. The CS:GO odds shift drastically win a change is announced, as it affects the chemistry teams need to have in this game.
Where do I bet on CS:GO?
Esports are so prevalent these days that you can bet on them at any online sportsbook. Some books will have their own Esports section that is a standalone site, while others will have it in the main sportsbook with the more usual offerings. You will find DotA 2, League of Legends, Call of Duty, Rocket League, and other Esports options there as well.
CS:GO Betting and Schedule
There are several CS:GO leagues and dozens of CS:GO tournaments held throughout the course of the year, so it is not hard to find a game to watch or wager on. Developer and publisher Valve has also classified events into different tiers based on the prize money awarded, so you can have an idea of which competitions are the most important.
Majors are the biggest events in CS:GO because they all have a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million. That has been the standard in order to be classified as a major since 2016, and there are typically only two events that classify as majors each year. These also fall under the category of S-Tier Tournaments, and these competitions are where you will find the best teams in the world.
Other S-Tier Tournaments have prize polls of at least $100,000. There are a couple dozen of these events annually, but they are not as big as the majors and sometimes run concurrently. These competitions are sometimes international and sometimes continental in terms of the teams invited. You will see tournaments with a mix of teams from different regions about as often as you see tournaments that are exclusively for teams from either North America, Europe, or Asia, but the general rule of thumb is that international tournaments are a bit more prestigious.
In 2018, Intel added some more cash to the pot when they announced the creation of the Intel Grand Slam. Any team that wins four ESL or DreamHack Masters events in a span of 10 consecutive events will be awarded an additional $1 million by the company and be declared that season’s winner. Astralis won the very first Intel Grand Slam in December 2018, and Team Liquid responded by claiming the $1 million prize in July 2019.
With the 2021 season rapidly approaching, many teams have made changes to their squads, for better and worse. This article sees us look at a few of the teams that, in our opinion, made the best roster moves of 2020.
BIG’s new German talent
BIG were the team many noted as having adapted the best to the online era of CS:GO, cemented by their lifting of the DreamHack Masters Spring Europe title in June. But this good form had started earlier in the year, partially helped by the additions of two new German players, Florian 'syrsoN' Rische and Nils 'k1to' Gruhne, at the start of 2020.
It’s safe to note that the changes Virtus.pro made in the middle of the year were some of the most successful this year
After a poor end to 2019, BIG came out of the gates running at one of the only offline events of the year, DreamHack Open Leipzig, taking down the likes of Virtus.pro, Renegades, and Heroic to win the tournament title. They then managed to qualify for the inaugural Flashpoint season (before withdrawing to accept a place in the ESL Pro League) before the online era of the game commenced.
While BIG didn’t manage to attain any other online S-Tier titles after the DreamHack Masters competition, they still posted a number of exceptionally strong results. Back-to-back victories at the cs_summit 6 Regional Major Ranking (RMR) event and DreamHack Open Summer tournament came after a string of cup victories. These were then followed by back-to-back fifth-place finishes in the ESL Pro League, IEM New York and DreamHack Open RMR events, where they were eliminated by the eventual winners in the latter two events - keeping up their claim of being a team to be reckoned with.
- Read: The impact of moving to online CS:GO
The year ended with them being eliminated in 5-6th place by eventual runners up OG in Flashpoint, before two third-place finishes at BLAST Premier Fall and the IEM Global Challenge, falling to the eventual finalists on both occasions. BIG had a breakout year in 2020, and their goal for 2021 will be to prove that they can keep it up. If not, 2020 will be another false dawn akin to that of 2018.
MIBR Mutiny and restructure
In September, Brazilian squad MIBR underwent a near-complete change. Out went the historic, Major-winning core of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Epitácio “TACO” de Melo, Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, after the organisation benched and sacked coach Ricardo “dead” Sinigaglia for his role in the coaches’ spectator bug fiasco.
The only two players to remain were the two newest additions, Vito 'kNgV-' Giuseppe and Alencar 'trk' Rossato. The playing roster saw Vinicius 'v$m' Moreira, Leonardo 'leo_drk' Oliveira and former MIBR player Lucas 'LUCAS1' Teles all join, and were set to be coached by Brazilian CS 1.6 legend Raphael 'cogu' Camargo.
Overall results weren’t immediately improved by this change, which shouldn’t be a surprise with a wholesale overhaul. What made this change good is two-part. Firstly, it indicated a true changing of the guard in Brazilian CS:GO. For the first time since the Luminosity line-up arrived in 2016, a Brazilian roster didn’t feature “FalleN”.
Secondly, MIBR appeared to be competitive. Whether or not it was down to them being new and unpredictable, or the five being naturally good together, the team posted some impressive results. They won map victories against the likes of Astralis and G2, and series victories against compatriots FURIA and European super squad FaZe. This was all capped off by a fourth place finish at Flashpoint 2, where they were eliminated after a narrow defeat to OG, despite beating them earlier in the playoffs.
However, the potential this roster showed may be in jeopardy. At the time of writing MIBR have not re-signed the three players that returned to the team, with “LUCAS1” stating that after the initial three month term, renegotiations were unsuccessful. The reason why they remain on this list leading up in to 2021, is that, as per a report from Roque Marques, the full team intend to move forward as a single unit under a new organisation. Time will tell.
YEKINDAR moves to Virtus.pro
Virtus.pro ended 2020 much stronger than they started it, and the assistance offered by Latvian Mareks 'YEKINDAR' Gaļinskis after his mid-year addition cannot be understated. Initially joining in place of Timur 'buster' Tulepov, he eventually lined-up alongside the Kazakhstani player after the departure of Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev, with Dzhami 'Jame' Ali taking up IGL duties.
BIG were the team many noted as having adapted the best to the online era of CS:GO, cemented by their lifting of the DreamHack Masters Spring Europe title.
The change between the two versions of the team was almost immediate. They went from a series of embarrassing exits in HomeSweetHome cups and online qualifiers, to posting a victory in the BLAST Premier CIS cup, taking out forZe who had started to establish themselves as the leading squad in the CIS region, and a third-place finish in the RMR WePlay! Clutch Island event.
They then pushed forward on these results and continued to improve, taking the IEM New York CIS RMR Event, before lifting the Flashpoint Season 2 title having journeyed all the way from the tournament’s open qualifier. That Flashpoint title was no joke, with the team overcoming Fnatic, BIG, OG, and the highly rated new Cloud9 roster on the way to the win.
- Read: Rugby, and the future of CS:GO and VALORANT
Best Teams To Bet On Cs Going
Finishing the year off with the DreamHack Open December title as well, overcoming regional rivals Gambit and forZe to reassert themselves at the top of the CIS region, it’s safe to note that the changes Virtus.pro made in the middle of the year were some of the most successful this year.