The BLAST Premier Global Final madness is all over, guys! Natus Vincere demolished Astralis in the grand finals and took the hefty $600,000 in prize money! Now, the CSGO betting community is slowly turning its attention to the next notable event, CS_Summit 7. Twelve teams, $200,000 in total prize money, and several outright favorites that could bring forth massive value!
The conclusion of BLAST Premier Global Final caused several changes in the top 10.
Most notably, Liquid move into the top 5 after a 4th place finish at the event while FURIA drop to #9 after finishing in 7-8th.
đź”— https://t.co/XuKqgLtfOu pic.twitter.com/Iv30YxNEBG
— HLTVorg (@HLTVorg) January 25, 2021
Unsurprisingly, FURIA and Virtus.pro have won their opening-round matches. In fact, we’ve covered VP’s adventure against NiP and correctly guessed the outcome. The return wasn’t that massive, but it was a fine way to start off our CS_Summit 7 betting experience, that’s for sure.
Virtus.pro vs. FURIA Predictions
What about this one? What about our Virtus.pro vs. FURIA predictions? Well, the winners’ round matches are always tricky to nail down. It’s not just because of the winning momentum which, contrary to popular belief, does mean a lot… but because the bookmakers often skew the odds with no real logic behind the numbers.
Unfortunately, these numbers (value-wise) don’t look good for this one, but we’ll do our best and try to find optimal betting odds to suit both single and accumulator wagers!
Expectations
Even though they’ve come into this event following a debacle on BLAST Premier Global Final, FURIA are still considered among the main favorites to take this one. Not even the fact that they don’t have their whole starting roster failed to stop them from beating Cloud9 in the opening round.
As for Virtus.pro, they’re among the favorites too, but perhaps people don’t expect that much from them as they do from, let’s say, Heroic or FURIA. Still, with in-form Jame and always dangerous YEKINDAR, Virtus.pro will fancy their chances of qualifying for the playoffs against FURIA.
Form-wise not much separates these two. FURIA’s 2020 was a breakthrough year, to say the least. With the absence of Liquid and the fact they mostly participated in NA events with EG as their biggest contenders, it’s safe to say FURIA had a solid year.
Virtus.pro are still living the dream following their Flashpoint S2 triumph last December. Heck, they closed the year off with another win (DH Open December), further establishing themselves as an up-and-coming behemoth.
Map Pool Stats
Let’s address the elephant in the room first – FURIA doesn’t have a single map on which they could claim superiority against Virtus.pro. Jame and the boys are one of the most well-versed European teams out there, meaning FURIA doesn’t stand a chance in the banning phase.
Whether we’re talking about Vertigo, Overpass, or Inferno, VP is the dominant side here with over 70% win rate over the last three months of competitive play. Their stats extend to Dust 2, Mirage, and Train, but they’re slightly lower (still above 60%).
As for FURIA, they’ll fancy their chances on Inferno, though that’s the only map I can see them stealing from VP. If Jame and the boys do their calculations correctly, they might even ban Inferno right off the bat despite it being their strongest map… just to force FURIA to battle someplace else
Roster Strength and Readiness
As some of you may know, FURIA doesn’t have their newest arrival, junior, on this event; he’s out of the equation due to documentation issues. Honda, FURIA’s academy level prospect, is his replacement and let’s just say he didn’t have a good time against Cloud9. The same is to be expected against Virtus.pro, meaning FURIA will be in an uphill struggle right from the first round.
On the other hand, Virtus.pro Jame had an excellent outing against NiP… and we all know what a powerhouse he can become if he starts snowballing like this. As stated earlier, YEKINDAR (VP’s key player) was MIA against NiP, though it’s very unlikely he’ll have another poor performance against FURIA.
Everything points to the direction of VP, which is why our Virtus.pro vs. FURIA picks are as follows.
Odds are courtesy of BetOnline. You can check out our BetOnline review here. And for users outside the United States check out Betway for odds.
I just have to go with Virtus.pro here. The fact that they have a superior map pool, a complete roster, and key in-form players should be more than enough to push them through FURIA. Remember, the Brazilians had a fair share of issues against weak Cloud9, and Virtus.pro is the kind of team that can and will exploit those issues.
YEKINDAR wasn’t at his best in the opening match. NiP targeted him from the first round and effectively blocked his round-to-round contribution. FURIA is not keen on selecting individual players – they do their thing and hope for the best… which means we’re likely to see YEKINDAR shine today.
As for our Virtus.pro vs. FURIA predictions, I suggest going with a match-winner on VP. At -250, it offers a good balance between risk and return. Medium stake single is what I’m going with, you should too!
