The BLAST Spring 2021 Season is kicking off in a few days with teams seeking to kick off the season a high note. Once again the twelve partner teams enter the competition to get as much practice before IEM Katowice.
Here’s our group analysis and match predictions for the opening round of BLAST Premier Spring 2021.
© BLAST Premier
The 12 partner teams are split into three competitive groups of four and will play double-elimination matches to determine the two teams from each group advancing to the Spring Finals. However, no teams are eliminated in this event, as the losers advance to the Blast Spring Showdown for a second chance at making it into the final.
Group A consists of Astralis, NiP, BIG and OG. This is the most clear cut group of the three, as Astralis and OG seem in the best shape to move onward into the final. NiP will have an adjustment period of a few months with the recent benching of star player Simon “twist” Eliasson. BIG is also seeing a coaching change with Dustin “DuDe” Großmann stepping in for towb.
Group B features Vitality, G2, EG and Complexity. We will likely see Vitality advance forward, but the other finalist is hard to gouge. Between G2, EG and Complexity all three teams have good and bad days and its hard to predict which one will show up when. G2 is arguably the best of the three, but we’ve seen them lose 7 of their last 10 match ups in high level competition. EG and Complexity both had abysmal showings at cs_summit 7 and don’t show much improvement coming into 2021.
Group C has BLAST Premier Global Final winner Natus Vincere and teams Liquid, FaZe Clan and MIBR. Apart from NaVi, all three teams in this groups are struggling to kick off the new season. MIBR is the odd one out struggling to keep momentum with all the roster and coaching changes they witnessed in the past few months. Between FaZe Clan and Team Liquid its anyone’s game and we might witness one team take the opener while the other wins a potential Lower Bracket Final.
When it comes to BLAST Spring Groups betting, you could have a hard task in front of yourself. Trying to find a perfect selection could be tricky. If you do not want to do the research yourself, here are a couple of BLAST Spring Groups picks that hold value. Let’s get straight into it.
To kick things off, we will start with by far the safest pick out of all matches. From our point of view, Astralis is by far the best CSGO team in the world. On the other hand, NiP is close to hitting rock bottom and they are looking bad in the last couple of weeks. To put things in perspective for you, they have won only one match in their last 5.
They also can’t get close to the Astralis’ map pool and they will have a hard time with map veto. Betting sites acknowledged this hence why odds on outright match winner bet do not hold a lot of value for anyone.
In order to get better odds, we decided to opt-in for a 2-0 Astralis victory. From our perspective, there is a lot of value in this pick because NiP does not have the firepower nor strategy to compete against Astralis. On top of that, map veto is also pointing things towards a swift 2-0 victory.
Pick: Astralis to win 2-0
Odds: 1.53
Betting Site: GG.bet
In this EU vs NA bout, we will see two teams that struggled in the last couple of outings. Fallen has brought fresh energy to the Liquid side while Twistzz, as the latest addition to the FaZe roster, will look to capitalize against his former roster.
Map pool wise, both teams will get a comfortable pick for themselves. FaZe will probably end up picking Nuke while Inferno seems like a lock for Liquid. Right now, the odds on this match are nowhere near correct.
Betting sites are offering 1.35 on Liquid beating FaZe while odds on FaZe to win are roughly around 3.00. We believe that there is a lot of value if you bet on FaZe in this one. Liquid did not show that much during the last event they played. This match is definitely a coinflip, but if someone offered us such odds on a coinflip match, we would be crazy if we missed out on this bet.
Pick: FaZe to win
Odds: 3.00
Betting Site: Betway
This is going to be a really interesting match to watch. To be honest, we are clueless on who is going to win, but we found a perfect fit for this match. Let’s start with the basics. Both teams have incredible individuals that can win matches themselves.
It is also important to mention that neither OG nor BIG are looking good right now. These teams played against each other on 17 maps and every single one of those matches was a nail-biter. Given the fact that they have similar map pools, we are expecting the same once again.
Bookmakers are also unsure on who to favor. Right now, BIG is labeled as a small favorite in this one. As mentioned above, we do not even want to guess who is going to win this match, but we are positive in one thing, this is going to be a very close match hence why betting on total maps – over is the best pick for this match.
Pick: Total Maps Played – Over 2.5
Odds: 1.90
Betting Site: Unikrn
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