CS Asia Championships Betting Preview

CS2 is going to get its first glimpse of competition in China with some of the best teams in the world! S-Tier competition isn’t all that familiar to the region, but just two months after full release, teams will play in Shanghai for a stake in the $500,000 prize pool.

For anyone who follows Counter-Strike and has been living under a rock, many of the best teams in the world have imploded. Heroic has benched the core of their roster, Liquid are under rebuild, Falcons are poaching players and Ninjas in Pyjamas have a new General Manager. This has meant that some of the original teams attending CS Asia Championships 2023 have had to drop out. Team Liquid and G2 were originally set to play instead of Ninjas in Pyjamas and Wings Up. These changes do slightly lower the quality of teams attending the event, as G2 are ranked first in the world (by HLTV), whilst their replacement Wings Up are outside of the top 100. Whilst this is disappointing for many viewers, it gives the tournament another home team who can try make it to playoffs.

Road to Finals

ENCE (3.980*), MOUZ (3.290*) and FaZe (2.830*) make up the three teams attending CS Asia Championships who are in the current top five. FaZe, whilst being ranked the lowest of the three, have had the best start by winning IEM Sydney 2023. Achieving victory at the first S-Tier CS2 LAN event, after months of results many would deem disappointing for a team of FaZe’s calibre, is the most FaZe Clan thing that could’ve happened for the squad. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows for FaZe, as the recent acquisition by Complexity’s parent company, GameSquare, has caused many questions to be raised around just how much we’ll see FaZe in the future. Due to GameSquare now owning both FaZe and Complexity, there’s a clear conflict on interest that could take place when both teams appear in the same event. It just so happened that the first event under this acquisition had a final in which both teams took on one another.

It isn’t just the new ownership that has FaZe under question, but rumours circulating of interest in Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken from multiple teams. The primary link is to Liquid, his previous team. Many of these rumours circulated before they took to the stage in Sydney, as the likes of Vitality and Falcons were allegedly interested in acquiring the player. It would be naive to say this wouldn’t have any effect on FaZe and their chances of winning this event, but they are comprised of some of the most decorated players in Counter-Strike; for this reason, their professionalism should be able to overcome the potential departure of one of their comrades.

MOUZ are an interesting team, as we didn’t get to see them play with Jimi "Jimpphat" Salo at IEM Sydney. Given they were without the Finn, they were able to win their group and finish in 3-4th place. This is extremely impressive for a team with a stand-in and should be a sign of how they’ll continue to play going forward. “Jimpphat” was a crucial part of their ESL Pro League Season 18 win, so it should be expected they’ll achieve a similar, if not better, finish in Shanghai.

ENCE are the highest ranked team at the event, but finished the lowest of these three teams at IEM Sydney. They’re another team that have rumours linking their IGL, Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, to Falcons. Whilst the team has an incredible cast of talent, they will struggle with instability in the leadership roles of the team. It’ll be a great test for ENCE in China and an even better opportunity for them to win the event, where they’re surely favourites.

Upset Potential

Astralis (6.350*) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (10.580*) are the other two European teams at the event. Astralis are currently ranked at number nine, but are yet another team in the speculation of roster changes. Recent drama surrounding Heroic has revealed players Martin "stavn" Lund and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard may be joining Astralis at some point in the future. This would be a fantastic move for Astralis, regardless of how they’ve approached it. In the meanwhile, Victor "Staehr" Staehr, Johannes "b0RUP" Borup and Christian Møss "Buzz" Andersen will need to do whatever they can to maintain their position in the squad, as it’s almost certain two of these three will be the replacement options.

Astralis have recently been playing the Roobet Cup and were unable to achieve a series win, resulting in them finishing the tournament 13-16th. This isn’t a confidence filler going into CS Asia Championships 2023. Ninjas in Pyjamas have also been competing in the Roobet Cup and Thunderpick World Championship, where they benched Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin not long before their first match. This comes off the back of a rebuild under Björn "THREAT" Pers, who returns to Ninjas in Pyjamas as their General Manager. This rebuild is still very much in the works, as Patrick "es3tag" Hansen is temporarily taking on duties as the IGL until another candidate is available. Due to these changes, TYLOO have overtaken them in the world rankings which puts Ninjas in Pyjamas in an opening match against FaZe. For the Ninjas, a realistic aim is for them to make playoffs.

Home Teams

TYLOO (59.430*), Lynn Vision (80.500*) and Wings Up (158.560*) get the chance to play in a big event on home soil. This is something that can have a psychological impact on a team, especially as teams they play against should be expected to receive minimal support from the crowds. It’s still unknown as to whether the Group Stage will be played in front of an audience, so it may require these teams to make it to Playoffs to even activate this advantage. TYLOO and Lynn Vision qualified for the event through the Perfect World Arena Premier League Season 5. The players of TYLOO were known as 5yclone during this league, having recently been signed in early October.

TYLOO are the best of the three, having recently achieved qualification for ESL Challenger Jönköping 2023, where they defeated Wings Up. They also competed in ESL Pro League Season 18 (as 5yclone) and came very close to qualifying for Playoffs, achieving wins over M80 and Imperial. Whilst they are the best team in Asia, it’ll be a tough fight for them against the European competition traveling to China. With the groups as they are, TYLOO should be China’s representation in Playoffs. Sorry Lynn Vision fans!

*Odds subject to change.