StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 Betting Preview

StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 is the second CS:GO Major of the season. Scheduled to take place in the capital of Germany between August 23rd – September 8th, the event provides numerous esports betting opportunities for those who like to bet on CS:GO. And while we’re waiting for the tournament to start, we would like to give you our StarLadder Berlin betting preview with everything you need to know about what some have called the bi-annual CS:GO World Championship.

StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 Competitive Format

StarLadder Berlin will be played in the usual Major format, which consists of three stages.

The New Challengers Stage

This first stage of StarLadder Berlin Major will take place between August 23rd – 26th. A total of 16 teams will take part in it and the competitive format that will be used is the Swiss System. This basically means that every team plays until they’ve accumulated either three wins or three losses. The matches always take place between teams with identical scores (same number of wins and losses) and are Bo1, apart from the elimination and advancement matches, which are Bo3. In the end, eight of the 16 participants advance to the second stage of StarLadder Berlin Major 2019.

These are the teams that will take part in the first stage of StarLadder Berlin:

Team Vitality AVANGAR HellRaisers G2 Esports Complexity Gaming mousesports NRG Esports forZe Grayhound Gaming CR4ZY FURIA Esports Syman Gaming TYLOO North INTZ eSports DreamEaters

The New Legends Stage

This stage lasts from August 28th until September 1st and is identical to the first, having 16 participants and taking place in the Swiss System Format. The eight qualified teams from the first stage of StarLadder Berlin are joined by the current legends or the competitors that finished in the top eight at the previous Major. These are the following:

Astralis ENCE Natus Vincere MIBR FaZe Clan Team Liquid Renegades Ninjas in Pyjamas

When the second stage of StarLadder Berlin Major ends, the top eight teams advance once again to the third and final stage of the tournament.

The New Champions Stage

Unlike the first two stages, the third will be played in the Single-Elimination Format, which consists of four Quarterfinals, two Semifinals, and one Grand Final. Every match is Bo3. This stage is scheduled to take place between September 5th – 8th and will be the only one to be held in front of a live audience. Practically, this is the Main Event of StarLadder Berlin Major 2019.

StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 Prizes

StarLadder Berlin offers a massive prize pool of one million dollars. However, apart from the top eight teams, everyone else gets very little or absolutely nothing. The amount will be split like this:

1st place: $500.000 2nd place: $150.000 3rd – 4th place: $70.000 5th – 8th place: $35.000 9th – 16th place: $8.750 17th – 24th place: 0

This way of splitting the rewards puts a lot of pressure on the teams and forces them to give everything they got. Valve only uses this approach for CS:GO, although their way of offering more than three times as much money to the winner than to the runner-up is used in the World Championship of Dota 2 as well. The International, as it’s called, will offer this year around $15 million to the champion and only some $4,5 million to the runner-up.

StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 Betting Favorites

Because it’s a Major, StarLadder Berlin pretty much features the best CS:GO teams in the world. Apart from Heroic, Fnatic and a few others, everyone that you’d expect to be here is here. And since we have 24 participants in total, the question naturally arises: which are the best teams?

As someone who would like to delve into CS:GO betting, you want to know who to follow and who can provide the most reliable opportunities. And while upsets can certainly happen, some teams are just considerably stronger than others.

Betting Favorites for The New Challengers Stage

For the first stage of StarLadder Berlin, we regard the following eight teams as the most likely to succeed:

1 . Team Vitality 2 . mousesports 3 . NRG Esports 4 . FURIA Esports 5. G2 Esports 6. CR4ZY 7. AVANGAR 8. INTZ eSports

Every one of these teams is quite strong and the first three or four names on the list are actually among the favorites overall. These competitors are likely to not just advance to the second stage of StarLadder Berlin, but the third one as well. In fact, when it comes to Team Vitality, we expect them to get at least a top-four result in their current form.

Betting Favorites for The New Legends Stage

Assuming that the eight teams listed above will make it to the second stage of StarLadder Berlin, the question is: who are the favorites of this new set of 16 competitors? And this is a much tougher question because a lot of these teams are quite close to each other in terms of skill. This would be our list though:

1 . Team Liquid 2 . Astralis 3 . ENCE 4 . Natus Vincere 5. Team Vitality 6. mousesports 7. NRG Esports 8. FaZe Clan

Betting Favorites for The New Champions Stage

At this point, it’s even harder to say who will win, because much depends on the seeding. If Astralis has to beat Team Liquid in their Quarterfinals match, they will likely lose. But if they’re allowed to play against a much weaker opponent, they’ll probably win and get a deeper run.

No doubt, all eyes will be on Liquid, Vitality, ENCE, and Astralis at this point, assuming of course that all four of them will qualify for the final stage of StarLadder Berlin. And by far, the most likely team to succeed and win the title is Team Liquid. They’ve been the number one team in the world for the last three months and their position at the top has been consolidated over almost two years.

Liquid’s success did not come overnight. The organization had a lot of patience and has made only a few roster moves over the last 18 months. Everything was steadily built with extreme precision and while others tried to get more than they could chew and ultimately failed, Liquid was contempt to make gradual improvements with the players they knew well and simply give them the chance to master their roles within the team.

Apart from Liquid, three other teams are fully capable of reaching the Grand Final: Team Vitality, ENCE, and Astralis. All three of them are very strong at the moment and even though Astralis has fallen from grace to some degree, they’re still a giant of CS:GO and should be regarded as a competitor that could come back to their former strength at any moment. A short while ago, nobody would dare take a bet against the Danes. Times have changed of course but it’s still wiser to bet on them rather than against them unless they’re playing against Team Liquid.

StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 Betting Odds

At Vulkanbet, we will keep you updated with the best StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 betting odds and markets. As the tournament draws near, we’ll start to offer betting coverage for every match. So stay tuned, and check our event pages for betting on IEM and ESL One tournaments!