IEM Rio European RMR A betting predictions – October 4, 2022

ESB brings you free Counter-Strike: Global Offensive betting picks for three Intel Extreme Masters Road to Rio 2022 European RMR A bouts on Tuesday, October 4. Here are our selections for Bad News Eagles vs Eternal Fire, Cloud9 vs B8, and Aurora vs Fnatic, with esports betting odds courtesy of BetOnline.


The IEM Rio European RMR A kicks off with a clash between Bad News Eagles and Eternal Fire, who last met during the Challengers Stage of Antwerp Major in May when Bad News Eagles won (16-14). The Kosovar squad finished the Major in 15th-16th place, while Eternal Fire had to settle for 20th-22nd with just one win against Renegades.

Bad News Eagles have since attended five tournaments and achieved some success, finishing REPUBLEAGUE Season 3 in third, Elisa Invitational Spring 2022 as runners-up, and winning Tipsport Cup Prague 2022 two weeks ago. But even though Bad News Eagles have been winning games, they haven’t faced any tough opponents.

Eternal Fire disappointed at ESL Pro League Season 16 last month when they finished the event in 17th-20th place, but the Turkish CS:GO superteam bounced back and won TWR Eastern European Masters Fall 2022 by beating the likes of MOUZ and SINNERS Esports. Moreover, EF recently won against Team Liquid, and they didn’t perform too poorly in their defeats against FURIA (1-2) and Cloud9 (0-2).

Comparing the two teams, there is no reason to have one favoured over the other. Bad News Eagles achieved a lot five months ago, but recently they have been struggling against teams weaker than Eternal Fire. At evens or better, Eternal Fire are a good bet.


Cloud9 are heavily favoured to defeat B8, and that’s fair. This is an elite team facing a tier-two squad which has never played against a squad ranked in the top 10. That might not mean much, knowing that even the best CS:GO teams can slip, but the chances of B8 outperforming Cloud9 are slim to none.

Cloud9 have yet to find the success they were hoping for, but that’s not to say that the ex-Gambit Esports roster hasn’t achieved a lot. In June they placed top four at Roobet Cup, then slipped at Intel Extreme Masters Cologne, but bounced back with a semifinals appearance at ESL Pro League Season 16.

But despite not winning a single gold medal, Cloud9 are still 14-5 since the start of June, and their only defeats in that run came against BIG (0-2), Astralis (0-2), and Team Liquid (0-2, 0-2, 1-2). Cloud9 are known to struggle on LAN, but the quality gap should be enough for a comfortable victory.


Aurora qualifying for European RMR A would indicate that this is a solid team, but realistically, they had it easy. During the first open qualifiers, Aurora defeated Anonymo Esports (16-12), Monte (22-20), and Astralis (16-11), showing a strange mix of results.

They struggled against Monte and needed overtime to edge out a win, yet Aurora defeated Astralis. Still, we have to note that Astralis, in their current state, aren’t the most consistent team, so it was more the Danes choking rather than Aurora showing anything remarkable.

Fnatic might not be an elite squad, but they have been playing better lately and have a realistic chance to qualify for the Rio Major. In September, they finished ESL Pro League Season 16 in 9th-12th place, which isn’t that bad considering their only defeats came against Natus Vincere (1-2) and the two ESL Pro League finalists in Team Vitality (1-2) and Team Liquid (1-2).

If you’re winning maps against some of the world’s top teams, then you have to be doing something right, but until Fnatic start collecting trophies, they will remain underrated. This is a best-of-one match, so anything can happen, but it is Fnatic’s to lose.


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