BLAST Premier Global Finals to set the tone for the upcoming season

The first “big” CS:GO event of the season kicks off today and it is going to set the tone for the entire spring season coming ahead. The BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 is the pinnacle of a year long online grind that challenged an entire ecosystem and tested even the best athletes around the globe.

In order to bring you closer to this tournament, we decided to provide a quick recap and predictions for the games ahead.

© BLAST Premier

BLAST Premier Global Final quickfacts

Eight teams battle for $1,000,000 USD and the BLAST Premier trophy. The the participating teams are: Astralis, Natus Vincere, Team Liquid, FURIA, Complexity, Vitality, G2 Esports and Evil Geniuses.

The entire competition will be played between January 19th-24th.

Tuesday will be the first match played by Evil Geniuses since IEM Beijing-Haidian. The team has aquired a BLAST Premier spot back in .. and has been silent ever since.

Two teams will be playing without their full rosters. FURIA will be playing without Paytyn “⁠junior⁠” Johnson (Visa/Travel issues), while Complexity still awaits Valentin “poizon” Vasilev recovery. Lucas “honda” Honda will stand in for FURIA after being upgraded to the main team only a week ago, while Jakob “⁠JUGi⁠” Hansen will take over AWP duties in Complexity.

You can make individual outright bets on five teams at the same time (FURIA, Liquid, G2, EG and Complexity) and still have a two-fold return if any of them wins the event.

There are more then 200 betting markets and exotic bets to be made on each individual BLAST Premier match.

BLAST Premier Global Finals Predictions

Our first set of predictions will cover three of the four opening match ups at the BLAST Finals. After this we will theorize potential frag and KDA leaders and potential outrights.

Astralis vs Evil Geniuses

Is there really much to say about this match. On one side, we have Astralis who are playing on a high level. On top of that, all of their star players are back in action. The most important thing is, their IGL, gla1ve is finally back.

Evil Geniuses, however, are nowhere to be found right now. On paper, they are a squad filled with raw firepower, but Astralis is at their beast against guys that just want to duel. From our point of view, map pool is heavily favoring Astralis in this match and the chances of them losing are slim.

G2 vs FURIA

Before we start breaking down this match, it is important to mention that odds on G2 have declined a lot in the last few days. There is a reason for that.

FURIA is playing this event without their star player and main APWer, HEN1. He was benched and now there is a big gap to fill. The Brazilian-based franchise decided to bring in a youngster called junior, yet his plans were also burned by inability to travel, prompting FURIA to make yet a 3rd change and promote academy player . On paper, both new signers are solid players, but neither have never played against elite opponents. It will take time before the Brazilian team finds their footing again.

Map pool-wise, G2 has an advantage on all but one map, that being Inferno. NiKo and co. often struggle here and we believe that they will not be able to avoid it against FURIA. From our point of view, this will not be a problem for them since they have a deep map pool to lead them to victory.

Vitality vs Complexity

Vitality is a big contender here at BLAST Premier Global 2020. They have all the tools necessary to win the event and have a great start to 2021. ZywOo is playing on a high level right now and he is backed with a lot of experience and teammates who are willing to sacrifice themselves for victory.

Complexity, on the other hand, was definitely the most improved team in 2020, but all of the sudden, they stopped. Their young rifler dropping out did not help. To make things even worse, they will be without poizon in this event and Vitality should capitalize on that.

There is not a map where we would give Complexity an edge in this best of 3 series. This all leads to a simple conclusion. Playing without their primary AWPer against arguably the best CS:GO player in the world will do more harm than good. There is no doubt in our mind that Vitality will capitalize on that and get a 2-0 victory in their opener.

In summary, we have three matches with fairly low odds but definitely considered safe picks. An accumulator bet should turn you a decent profit.

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