ESL Pro League Finals Betting Preview and Favorites

ESL Pro League Finals has just begun. This is one of the most important CS:GO tournaments of the year, having 16 world-class participants and offering $600,000 in prizes. The event takes place in Odense, Denmark between December 3^rd – 8^th and provides numerous esports betting chances for those who want to bet on CS:GO.

ESL Pro League Finals Participants and Format

ESL Pro League Finals brings together 16 teams. For the Group Stage, these teams will be divided into two groups:

Group A

• Natus Vincere
• TYLOO
• FaZe Clan
• MIBR
• Heroic
• 100 Thieves
• Fnatic
• Evil Geniuses

This is a very tough group, with Na’Vi, FaZe, Evil Geniuses, Fnatic and MIBR having good chances of qualifying. In principle, it should be FaZe, EG and Na’Vi that qualify for the Playoffs. But it will come down to tournament form. It’s perfectly possible that one of these teams will play worse than people expect and leave room for the others.

Group B

• Astralis
• Grayhound
• G2 Esports
• Sharks Esports
• Mousesports
• ATK
• North
• Team Liquid

In Group B, the big favorites are Astralis, Team Liquid and mousesports. G2 and North also have a remote chance to advance to the Playoffs, but it’s going to be very difficult for them to do anything against these three opponents. Arguably, Astralis and Team Liquid are the best teams in the world at the moment and they will likely have an easy tournament until the Playoffs Stage. So the only real question is: who will take 3^rd place? And the statistics clearly indicate that mousesports is by far the most likely candidate for that.

ESL Pro League Finals Prize Distribution

ESL Pro League Finals offers $600,000 in prizes. The money will be distributed among the 16 teams in the following way:

• 1^st place: $250,000
• 2^nd place: $80,000
• 3^rd – 4^th place: $40,000
• 5^th – 6^th place: $20,000
• 7^th – 8^th place: $17,000
• 9^th – 12^th place: $15,000
• 13^th – 16^th place: $14,000

ESL Pro League Finals Favorites

The big favorites for winning ESL Pro League Finals are Astralis, Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses.

Astralis

Astralis is currently the best team in the world. They’re also the winners of two big tournaments that took place over the last four weeks: IEM XIV Beijing and ECS Season 8 Finals. Going into ESL Pro League Finals, Astralis is expected to at least reach the Grand Final.

Team Liquid

Team Liquid is the second best team in the world, even though Evil Geniuses is sitting at number 2 in the global rankings. Their roster has remained unchanged for an entire year and that gives them a lot of confidence in tournaments. Because they know exactly how to approach each situation as a team. At their latest tournament, ECS Season 8 Finals, Liquid lost in the Grand Final to Astralis (1 – 2). Overall, they played in 11 Grand Finals this season and won 6 of them. Going into ESL Pro League Finals, Liquid is expected to finish in the top 4.

Evil Geniuses

Evil Geniuses is a team with a very high ceiling but also a very low floor. Sometimes they win, other times they mess up quite badly. Over the last six weeks, they won a big title at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8 and finished 5^th – 6^th, 5^th – 6^th and 3^rd – 4^th at three other big events. This shows consistency but not necessarily in a good way. They’re no doubt an excellent team, but they seem to be out of shape. Going into ESL Pro League Finals, I expect them to finish 3^rd – 4^th.