After a highly competitive Challengers Stage, the FACEIT Major has now reached the Legends Stage where 16 of the best CS:GO teams will battle it out to reach the Champions Stage and a chance to win their share of the $1 million prize pool. Who will advance? What do the odds tell us? Read on to inform your FACEIT Major betting.
The inaugural CS:GO major to be hosted by gaming platform FACEIT is the second major Counter-Strike championship to be held this year after the Boston Major in January, attracting the best teams from across the globe. Team Cloud 9 were victorious in Boston after overcoming FaZe Clan in the final but they will face serious competition to retain the crown in London this time around.
The tournament is split into three stages; Challengers, Legends and the final Champions stage. The Challenger and Legend stages are a 16 team Swiss-system format where the top eight teams advance and the bottom eight are eliminated, whilst the final Champions stage is a single-elimination bracket under a Bo3 format.
Astralis are the current favourites in the FACIT Major: London 2018 odds with Liquid, MiBR and FaZe close behind. Below is a list of the outright odds for the tournament:
The ELEAGUE Boston Major champions Liquid (6.910*) and NiP (12.150*) both won all three of their group games in the first stage of the FACEIT London Major, with NiP claiming an impressive win against favourites Astralis (2.790*) in round three.
Astralis, compLexity Gaming (85.00*) and Hellraisers (31.85*) all won three out of four matches to progress to the next round, with BIG (22.01*), Vega Squadron (45.67*) and Tyloo (71.170*) all narrowly making it through to the Legends Stage with three wins and two losses each.
The teams eliminated at the Challengers Stage were North, Team Spirit, OpTic Gaming, Gambit Esports, Rouge, Rengages, Space Soldiers and Virtus.pro.
The first-round matchups for the Legends Stage are as follows:
Cloud9 vs. Vega Squadron
MIBR vs. TyLoo
FaZe vs. BIG
Natus Vincere vs. Astralis
G2 vs. HellRasiers
Fnatic vs. compLexity
Winstrike vs. Liquid
Mouseports vs. NiP
Natus Vincere vs. Astralis is certainly the highest profile match-up of the first round, as the two top ranked CS:GO teams will be looking to open their Legends Stage campaign with an win to create momentum for the rest of the tournament.
Astralis have the advantage of playing more recently in the Challengers Stage, whilst Na’Vi will be playing their first game of the tournament as they directly qualified for this stage. Astralis will be looking for revenge, as they were beaten by Na’Vi the last time they met at ESL One Cologne in a highly competitive contest.
Another intriguing match up features mousesports (13.80* in the FACEIT Major: London 2018 odds) coming up against NiP. Both are evenly matched in terms of their chances of coming away with a win in what is sure to be a close-run game. Like Na’Vi, this will be mouseport’s first game of the tournament, whilst NIP are coming into this match unbeaten from the Challengers Stage.
NIP suffered defeat the last time they came up against mouseports in June, but having already performed so well at the tournament thus far, they will be confident in adding another win to their record.
At the other end of the competitive spectrum in what looks to be a David vs. Goliath encounter, big outsiders Winstrike ranked 89th in the CS:GO rankings face Team Liquid. Winstrike are currently priced at 5.40* to win the match (around 16.67% implied probability) and a massive 197.340* to win the tournament outright.
Astralis will be looking for revenge, as they were beaten by Na’Vi the last time they met at ESL One Cologne in a highly competitive contest.
However, as ESL One Cologne proved, being big outsiders can act as motivation to cause an upset. Team BIG were priced at 80.240 before the tournament began and made it all the way to the final in a remarkable run before finally being defeated by Na’Vi. However, seeing Winstrike progress beyond the Legends Stage and win the FACEIT Major: London 2018 will be one of the biggest shocks in the history of CS:GO.
That performance at ESL One Cologne means the current odds of BIG winning the FACEIT Major have dropped dramatically in comparison but an opening round one match against FaZe could be a very difficult start for the German team.
Despite being one place above fnatic in the world rankings, team compLexity are also outsiders to make a mark at the tournament with odds of 85.00*, but an opening round win against the Swedish team could see their odds fall.
G2 vs. HellRaisers provides another competitive opening contest in a match that could go either way (Hellraisers slightly edge it according to the odds with a 51% chance of getting the win) whilst Cloud 9’s opener against Vega Squadron should be a routine victory for American based squad.
The final match of the Legends Stage pits MIBR vs. China based team TyLoo. MIBR are only ranked two places above TyLoo which could suggest that a match between the two teams may not be a full gone conclusion but the betting market gives MIBR a 70% chance of starting their Legends Stage off with a win.
If you are interested in reading more about CS:GO betting or want to keep up-to-date with the latest CS:GO events, go back to our eSports hub - the home of eSports betting.
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