by Thursday, June 6 – 11:00 CEST
Astralis and FURIA will do battle this Thursday in the opening match of the Esports Championship Series Season 7.
Astralis have not been especially active in the past three months as they have only attended the BLAST Pro Series events, with their only win coming in São Paulo. Their absence from the more prestigious tournaments has earned them the nickname ‘Blastralis’ and as a bonus Team Liquid managed to surpass them in the HLTV rankings as the number one team in CS:GO esports, which surely won’t do wonders for morale at Astralis.
Team members have said they are not attending more events due to overwork and illness, but the truth is that they have a contract with the BLAST organisers which forces them into attending these sub-standard tournaments.
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The last event Astralis played at was the BLAST event in Madrid. They played a total of five BO1 matches, winning against Ninjas in Pyjamas, Giants, Natus Vincere and Cloud9 while losing only to ENCE. Four wins were enough for them to qualify for the grand finals, where they once again faced ENCE, but this time in BO3 type of match. ENCE shocked the world, winning 16-9 on Nuke and 16-13 on Train to take the trophy in straight sets.
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FURIA, meanwhile, have enjoyed plenty of success in the last three months. They reached the finals on their home soil at the DreamHack Open Rio 2019, but the pressure got to them and they lost 2-1 to AVANGAR. They were quite successful at the recent DreamHack Masters Dallas 2019 as well, beating teams like NRG, Fnatic and Vitality while losing to the eventual finalists ENCE and Team Liquid. They also took a map off ENCE, which is an achievement in itself. In the end, they took fourth place overall and $22,000 prize money.
Astralis vs FURIA ECS7 betting predictions
FURIA come into this match in great form and in good spirits, so they should fancy their chances against a team that may be quite rusty.
The odds on FURIA are around +300, which is way over par. This is the first encounter between these two teams and a BO1 format is perfect for a first-round upset.
FURIA are clearly in better form and they have enough LAN experience to beat a team that has been out of the game for some time.
Prediction: FURIA to win – Best odds at BetOnline
