by The BLAST.tv Paris Major is nearing its completion with only four more days and seven more matches to be played in the Champions Stage of the event. The remaining eight teams will battle it out in a single-elimination playoff bracket as they all strive to become the final CS:GO Major champion. Below you will find our preview and best bets for Thursday’s Heroic vs FaZe Clan and Team Vitality vs Into The Breach clashes, with odds courtesy of the best esports betting sites.
HEROIC vs FAZE CLAN CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | Heroic $1.66 at GG Bet | FaZe $2.10 at GG Bet |
| When: | May 18, 2023 | 15:00 BST |
| Watch Live: | BLAST Premier (https://www.twitch.tv/blastpremier) |
The opening series of the Champions Stage will be the best of any of the four matchups, where we will see world no.2 Heroic take on world no.5 FaZe Clan. These outfits clashed in the opening round of the Legends Stage, where Heroic thrashed FaZe 16-7 in a best-of-one series.
After winning their first three series of the Legends Stage, Heroic have earned a few days off to rest and prepare for this bout. On their way to the Champions Stage, the all-Danish squad disposed of FaZe Clan and Apeks in their opening one-map series before going on to beat Team Liquid 2-1 in their promotion match.
Heroic proved to everyone that they are one of the teams to beat at the Paris Major, alongside Team Vitality, as they were the first two teams to qualify for the playoffs. Heroic own their last two series against FaZe, including that Legends Stage thrashing, so they will go into this do-or-die clash as the favourite with the top Counter-Strike betting sites.
FaZe Clan are coming off one of their biggest wins in recent times, as they got the better of Natus Vincere in their elimination series of the Legends Stage. This FaZe squad have done things the hard way during their RMR, Challengers Stage and Legends Stage runs, dropping early matches to see them staring down the barrel of possible elimination early on at every stage.
To qualify for the playoffs, Finn “karrigan” Andersen and his teammates had to go through 9INE, Bad News Eagles and NaVi, which should see them in good stead for this series against one of the best teams in the world. Obviously, FaZe have to flip the script on their big loss to Heroic last time they met, but with a stirring win over NaVi in the back of their mind, we anticipate another strong performance from them.
This series will be the best clash of the quarterfinals, and we expect it to go the distance, so we will be backing the overs in the total maps market.
Over 2.5 total maps
TEAM VITALITY vs INTO THE BREACH CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS |
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| Best Odds: | Vitality $1.11 at GG Bet | ITB $6.00 at GG Bet |
| When: | May 18, 2023 | 19:00 BST |
| Watch Live: | BLAST Premier (https://www.twitch.tv/blastpremier) |
Newly crowned world no.1 Team Vitality will take on world no.28 Into The Breach in the second match of the day. This clash is expected to be much more one-sided than the previous series, due to Vitality’s impressive form and the significant difference in the teams’ respective rankings.
Team Vitality began their BLAST.tv Paris Major campaign on a six-match win streak having won their final six series of IEM Spring (IEM Rio 2023), where they were crowned champions. That streak has since been extended to nine after they defeated G2 Esports, ENCE and Monte en route to the Champions Stage. Vitality go into this clash at unbackable odds to win and set up a meeting with either Apeks or Team Liquid in the semifinals.
Into The Breach weren’t picked by many to make it through to the Champions Stage, and with their opening round loss to Apeks, you could have been excused for thinking that they would lose to FaZe Clan and drop into the 0-2 pool. However, ITB beat FaZe 16-12 and then proceeded to defeat ENCE 16-7, setting up a series with Team Liquid where they lost 0-2.
To make the playoffs, ITB had to play Fnatic in a best-of-three series. ITB lost the first map 12-16, but they then produced a huge series-levelling win on map two (16-8) before taking the third map 16-4 in fine style. Although these results for ITB are good, they are coming up against the most in-form CS:GO outfit in the world and will have to be at their very best to steal a map from them.
We anticipate a dominant Vitality victory, so we will be taking them at the rounds handicap of -11.5.
