The world of esports has just barely gotten started. With each passing year, more and more stadiums come out, more leagues pop up and more esports betting opportunities arrive on the scene. This week, esports bettors can look forward to the Fnatic vs Astralis Counter-Strike match. Fnatic, commonly abbreviated as FNC, is a world leader in multiple games and will be looking to get a strong start to the group stage of the ESL One: Cologne 2020 tournament. Let’s take a look at each team’s roster before breaking down the sports betting odds.
ESL One: Cologne 2020 Online Tournament
The ESL One: Cologne 2020 Tournament will be an online, European Division tournament put together by ESL. The Electronic Sports League (ESL) was launched in 2000 as an expansion of the Deutsche ClanLiga league. They rose to the prominence they enjoy today by hosting a series of online leagues as well as the online magazine ESLGaming.com. This tournament was originally scheduled to be held at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, Germany. However, the pandemic forced the cancellation of the original event, leaving us with this online tournament.
Tournament Format
The tournament will be broken up into two stages, the group stage followed by the playoffs. The Group Stage will be two double-elimination format (GSL) Groups. GSL format means there will be a winners’ bracket and a losers’ bracket. Two wins will get you into the playoff stage and two losses will result in elimination.
Each group will consist of 8 teams and matches will be best of three. The top 4 teams from each group advance to the playoffs. The group stage will take place from August 23rd – 27th, 2020.
The playoff stage will be a single-elimination bracket. All matches will be best of three, excluding the Grand Final – which will be a best of five. The playoffs will begin on August 28th and conclude on August 30th.
Esports betting fans looking to catch the stream can do so at the ESL CSGO twitch page.
There is a $325,000 prize pool to be spread amongst the winning teams.
Groups |
|
|---|---|
Group A |
Group B |
| BIG | Team Vitality |
| Sprout | Team Heretics |
| OG | Fnatic |
| Ninjas in Pyjamas | Astralis |
| Natus Vincere | FaZe Clan |
| Mousesports | Heroic |
| Complexity | MIBR |
| MAD Lions | G2 Esports |
Group B Upper Bracket Round 1: Fnatic vs Astralis
Below we’ll be taking a deeper look at each side in this Fnatic vs Astralis matchup before mulching over the sportsbook odds for this contest.
Fnatic
Longtime esports fans are more than familiar with Fnatic. They’re undoubtedly a household name in this arena and in League of Legends as well. Let’s take a look at Fnatic’s roster ahead of their ESL One match versus Astralis.
Fnatic Roster |
||
|---|---|---|
ID |
Name |
Join Date |
| KRIMZ | Freddy Johansson | 10-24-16 |
| JW | Jesper Wecksell | 02-04-2017 |
| Brollan | Ludvig Brolin | 10-17-2018 |
| flusha | Robin Ronnquist | 09-16-2019 |
| Golden | Maikil Selim | 01-17-2020 |
| Samuelsson (Coach) | Andreas Samuelsson | 09-03-2019 |
The team’s most recent outing was at the cs_summit 6 Online tournament, an A-Tier event. There, Fnatic was paired up against BIG and lost 0:2, they faced Heroic and lost 1:2 and ended up losing to GOD 1:2 as well. Now the team is hopeful they can deliver a better outing in this S-Tier tournament.
Astralis
Astralis is a Danish esports organization that burst onto the scene back in 2016. Looking over the current CS:GO world rankings, it’s clear Fnatic has a leg up over Astralis. Heading into this ESL One event, Fnatic is ranked 6th in the world with 499 points while Astralis is ranked 11th with 385 points. Let’s take a look at the roster Astralis will be sporting in the upcoming tournament.
Astralis Roster |
||
|---|---|---|
ID |
Name |
Join Date |
| dev1ce | Nicolai Hvilshoj Reedtz | 01-18-2016 |
| dupreeh | Peter Rothmann Rasmussen | 01-18-2016 |
| Magisk | Emil Hoffman Reif | 02-07-2018 |
| es3teg | Patrick Hansen | 01-07-2020 |
| Bubzkji | Lucas Andersen | 07-31-2020 |
| zonic (Coach) | Danny Sorensen | 01-18-2016 |
Their most recent outing was at the DreamHack Masters Spring 2020: Europe, where they suffered an early exit. Matched up against NiP, Astralis succumbed to them 1:2. Now the club is hopeful they can get the best of the higher-ranked Fnatic in their upcoming match. Let’s check out the esports odds for this match.
Fnatic vs Astralis Esports Odds
Fnatic -125
Astralis -115
The odds are favoring Fnatic but it’s ever so slight. In fact, these odds are some of the more even-sided betting lines from the first-round of matches out of this ESL One Cologne tournament. Ultimately, this means fans are getting a top-level matchup early on. Furthermore, the even-sided odds mean you can find great value on either side.
