Esport betting tips & odds – Wednesday, 16 December 2020

Esportbet.com returns with another set of free esports betting predictions for Wednesday, where we look at two Dota 2 tournaments – WCAA Winter Challenge Cup 2020 and BTS Pro Series Season 4: Europe/CIS – as well as an Intel Extreme Masters Season XV Global Challenge clash between Team Liquid and Heroic.

Intel Extreme Masters Season XV Global Challenge

Heroic enter this match as the no.3 CS:GO team in the world, but recent results bely that high ranking. The Danes have appeared in only two official games this month, and while they had no real difficulties sweeping Spirit, they did not live up to the expectations in their 1-2 loss against GODSENT in the first week of December.

Team Liquid have not been too active this month either, with only one game against Astralis (0-2) on their record. They previously also lost against mousesports (0-2) and FURIA (1-2).

The CS:GO betting odds heavily favour Heroic for this match. However, due to the lack of playtime on both sides, we expect a scrappy match with all three maps played.

WCAA Winter Challenge Cup 2020

Phoenix Gaming left a lot to be desired in the first week of the competition when they dropped the ball against CDEC Gaming and iG.Vitality, but they’ve seemingly found their stride this week and bested Void (2-1) and Team MagMa (2-0). Access, meanwhile, have yet to play a single match at the WCAA Winter Challenge Cup outside of their perfect run through the qualifiers.

These two teams’ only previous meeting came in the Artisan Dota League group stage, where Access won 2-0. It was a fairly impressive performance from Pan “yChen” Shuaifang and his crew, but we still struggle to accept Access as such heavy favourites.

The odds for Phoenix to win at least one map are quite generous considering they possess a similar level of quality as Access.

In their second fixture of the day, Phoenix Gaming will clash with Team Sirius. It will mark their third meeting of the year and the first since last Friday, when Phoenix swept Sirius 2-0.

Sirius have since played three games, beating iG.Vitality (2-1) and Team Falcon (2-0) but losing to LBZS (1-2). Phoenix played out nine games during that time and won all but four, which were against Invictus Gaming (0-2), CDEC Gaming (0-2), INK ICE (0-2) and Team MagMa (1-1).

Even though Phoenix should win, we don’t believe this match will end in a 2-0 sweep. Sirius have the tools to make something happen and should be able to force a tight series.

BTS Pro Series Season 4: Europe/CIS

There is no real reason to have Live to Win priced as such big favourites over Spider Pigzs. Even though LtW won in their most recent head-to-head fixture three weeks ago, the match was very close and could have ended either way.

Since then, Spider Pigzs have won eight out of 13 outings, which is comparable to Live to Win’s 7-2 record given that SP had to face tough opponents. Even though LtW should win this match more times than not, Spider Pigzs are in good form and should steal at least one map.

Brame enter this match off a three-week hiatus from the Dota 2 esports scene, which won’t do them any favours when facing a Cascade Esports outfit who have been fairly active this month. Since this is also an online match between two sides that have never met before, it’s hard to justify backing the favourites.

We like Cascade at the outsider odds – not only because we expect Brame to be a bit ring rusty, but also due to Cascade’s solid form. They have won all of their last four fixtures, beating Imperial Pro Gaming, 5Comrades, ChillOut and EXTREMUM. If those results are any indication, Cascade have a solid shot at upsetting their Swiss opponents.

Esports multi bet tips for Wednesday, December 16