ECS S7 Finals Betting Preview

ECS S7 Finals is a CS:GO event of tremendous importance for the professional scene of this great esport, bringing together eight teams and offering them a massive prize pool of half a million dollars.

The Esports Championship Series Season 7 Finals are scheduled to take place between June 6th – 9th in London, UK. But even though it provides only four days of competition, ECS Championship is still an unmissable tournament for anyone with an interest in CS:GO betting. Which is why we’re providing you with this ECS Championship betting preview. What you’ll find in it is very simple: information about the event itself, a brief analysis of some of the most important teams and how good they are, as well as a series of CS:GO betting opportunities related to the initial four matches.

ECS S7 Finals Format

ECS Championship has a very common format, similar to that of most CS:GO tournaments. It starts with a Group Stage and the best teams from that stage advance to the Playoffs.

Group Stage

The Group Stage of ECS S7 Finals consists of two groups of four teams. Each of these groups will be played in a double-elimination format. The initial matches are Bo1. The rest of the matches are Bo3. The top two teams from every group advance to the Playoffs.

Playoffs Stage

This stage of ECS S7 Finals is very basic, consisting of two Semifinals and one Grand Final. All matches are Bo3.

ECS S7 Finals Groups

ECS S7 Finals features eight teams. These teams will be divided into groups as follows:

In Group A of ECS S7 Finals, the clear favorite is Astralis. The remaining three teams, however, are very close to each other in terms of skill, so the matches will be fierce. Most likely, the tournament form will decide who advances into the next stage. NiP is the most likely competitor to advance forward, simply because their initial matchup is fairly accessible and their chances of winning it are above 50%. They will, of course, get crushed by Astralis in their second match, but then they’ll get either a rematch with their first opponent or a match with FURIA. Both teams are quite strong at the moment, but NiP is still slightly favorite.

In Group B of ECS S7 Finals, Team Vitality and MIBR are expected to easily dominate their opponents. In particular, Vitality is a top-five team at the moment so they are likely to win the group. MIBR will need to prove themselves because their results over the last couple of months have been poor. However, due to the fact that North and Complexity Gaming isn’t exactly world-class opponents, we do expect the Brazilian squad to be successful and advance to the Playoffs of ECS S7 Finals.

ECS S7 Finals Betting Odds

These are the odds for the first four matches of ECS S7 Finals:

Astralis vs. FURIA: 1.20 – 4.17* NiP vs. NRG: 2.12 – 1.66* Complexity vs. Vitality: 3.57 – 1.26* MIBR vs. North: 1.51 – 2.44*

Note that in the NiP vs. NRG match, NRG is regarded as the favorite simply because they’ve had some pretty good results lately, while NiP messed up completely. However, NiP’s failures came mostly as a consequence of not playing with their standard roster and having to use replacements. In their standard formation, we believe they are stronger than NRG and FURIA. But we’ll have to see what they can do at ECS S7 Finals.

ECS S7 Finals Team Analysis

Here’s a brief analysis of the most important competitors at ECS S7 Finals.

Astralis

To Win Group A – 1.22* To Reach Finals – 1.08* To Win ECS S7 Finals – 1.5*

For Astralis, this next event is absolutely crucial if they are to stay on top. Right now, they’re still regarded as the best team in the world. But the community’s perception of them is quickly changing. In recent months, they showed that they can bleed and some of the competitors at ECS S7 Finals actually mopped the floor with them. At one of the BLAST Pro Series events, MIBR beat them 16 – 2 on Overpass.

Astralis can and should play in the Grand Final of ECS S7 Finals, where they’ll most likely meet MIBR or Team Vitality. Even if they lose that match, it’s not a total disaster. However, if they fail to reach that stage of ECS S7 Finals, then their era of dominance is practically over. Because think about it: they need to win an event with only eight teams in it. And their biggest rivals are missing: Liquid, ENCE, Natus Vincere, FaZe Clan. Even the likes of mousesports and Fnatic aren’t around to contest them on their path to glory.

NiP

To Win Group A – 11* To Reach Finals – 6* To Win ECS S7 Finals – 16*

As we’ve said before, NiP may have had a rough time at their last few events. But they can still play at the highest level. And keep in mind that NiP won the European qualifier for ECS S7 Finals. That is no small feat considering the fact that Vitality, OpTic Gaming, Astralis, FaZe Clan, Fnatic, mousesports and G2 Esports were there as well.

In 2019, NiP’s best performance came at the beginning of March, exactly three months ago, when they finished 5th – 8th at IEM Katowice Major. Apart from that success, they also had a 3rd place finish at BLAST Pro Series Madrid 2019 and a 5th – 8th place finish at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7.

Going into ECS S7 Finals, we expect NiP to perform well and most likely play in the Semifinals.

Team Vitality

To Win Group B – 2.2* To Reach Finals – 2.2* To Win ECS S7 Finals – 5.5*

Vitality is now the best French team in CS:GO. In recent weeks, they defeated Team Liquid and won the title at cs_summit 4. Their latest tournament was slightly disappointing, simply because we were expecting them to beat FURIA in the Quarterfinals and compete against Liquid again in the Semifinals. But it wasn’t to be, as the Brazilians proved to be an amazing opponent at the event.

Vitality’s rise to the heights of professional CS:GO has been lightning fast. In only six months, they went from being around 50th in the global rankings to being a top-five competitor that’s fully capable of beating anyone.

Going into ECS S7 Finals, we view Vitality as the second strongest team in the tournament. On a good day, they could even beat Astralis if they continue to play in the disorganized manner they displayed at the last few events.

MIBR

To Win Group B – 2.2* To Reach Finals – 2.2* To Win ECS S7 Finals – 5*

Like Astralis, but for different reasons and in a completely different situation, MIBR needs to perform. Otherwise their dream of a unified Brazilian roster is doomed. Five months ago, TACO and zews reunited with their former teammates in the hope that FalleN, coldzera, and fer will take advantage of this situation and start playing again the way they used to.

MIBR used to be the best team in the world around two years ago, doing things that few could imagine them do these days. In 2019, their most important result came at IEM Katowice Major, where they finished 3rd – 4th after a very tough Semifinal against Astralis. However, as soon as they achieved this important result not long after they had reunited, MIBR started to lose badly and get terrible placements at events. Now they’ve had enough time to adjust and prepare so we’re waiting to see them get at least a 3rd – 4th place at ECS S7 Finals.

Conclusion

Rember that you can check current odds for the top CSGO tournaments: ESL One, Intel Extreme Masters, DreamHack and ESL Pro League.

*Odds subject to change