DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 Preview

DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 is a premier Counter-Strike: Global Offensive event scheduled to take place in Marseille, France between April 18th – 22nd. The tournament is organized by DreamHack, brings together 16 of the world’s best teams and has a prize pool of 250,000 dollars.

With so many great teams attending it and so many matches to be played, DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 is a CS:GO bettor’s dream and offers plenty of excellent betting opportunities.

Participants

DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018 features 16 teams from across the globe:

Gambit Esports
G2 Esports
Team Liquid
mousesports
Astralis
Fnatic
Natus Vincere
Ninjas in Pyjamas
SK Gaming
Renegades
TyLoo
Team EnVyUs
FaZe Clan
Valiance
Space Soldiers
Cloud9

Tournament format

Initially, the teams will be divided into 4 groups of 4. Each group is played in a GSL format (double-elimination bracket). The top 2 teams from every group advance to the Playoffs. This second stage of the competition will be played in a single-elimination bracket format.

In the Group Stage, opening and elimination matches are Bo1. All other matches, including the Playoffs ones, are Bo3.

Prize pool distribution

The $250,000 prize pool will be divided among participating teams in the following way:

1^st place: $100,000
2^nd place: $50,000
3^rd – 4^th place: $22,000
5^th – 8^th place: $10,000
9^th – 12^th place: $2,000
13^th – 16^th place: $2,000

Betting predictions

FaZe Clan vs. Team EnVyUs

Odds: 1.30 – 3.20

In the last few months, FaZe Clan got important results at the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 (2^nd place), StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 (4^th place), Intel Extreme Masters Season XII World Championship (2^nd place) and V4 Future Sports Festival Budapest 2018 (3^rd – 4^th place). Overall, FaZe Clan is definitely one of the strongest teams in CS:GO and should be regarded as a top contender at any event.

Team EnVyUs is nowhere near top 10 at this point and has not achieved a single notable result this year.

Both teams have recently undergone roster changes and are in the process of rebuilding their playstyle. FaZe Clan has temporarily replaced olofmeister with Xizt while Team EnVyUs has replaced xms and SIXER with kioShiMa and hAdji. However, FaZe Clan is simply one class above Team EnVyUs and should easily win this duel.

Betway puts the odds at 1.30 – 3.20 in favor of FaZe Clan, anticipating a fairly easy victory for karrigan’s squad.

Final prediction: FaZe Clan to win.

mousesports vs. Valiance

Odds: 1.20 – 4.00

The German organization mousesports has one of the best teams in CS:GO at the moment and will likely have a deep run at this tournament. Mousesports already has two championship titles this year (StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4 and V4 Future Sports Festival Budapest 2018) and is looking to get a third at DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018.

Their opponent, Valiance, is a complete outsider to the world of big Counter-Strike and will likely get demolished by everyone else.

Betway puts the odds at 1.20 – 4.00 in mousesports favor. All things considered, these odds are absolutely huge on mousesports side, who will almost certainly win this match in a very dominant fashion.

Final prediction: mousesports to win.

SK Gaming vs. Ninjas in Pyjamas

Odds: 1.55 – 2.30

After two years of domination, SK Gaming is now trying to get back to its glory days. And it will take a while for the Brazilians to get there. After several months of failures, SK ultimately decided to part ways with TACO (who has joined Team Liquid) and bring in Stewie2K from Cloud9. A new version of SK Gaming is being forged but the process will last for at least a few months. Until its completion, we’re likely going to see a lot of inconsistency from Fallen and his teammates, so it’s best to avoid betting on this team. In fact, you would be wise to bet against them at this point.

Ninjas in Pyjamas is also in a rough place for the time being, having changed its roster and working on a new way of playing CS. However, the addition of dennis has certainly made them much stronger than before. And based on both teams’ recent results, I’m actually expecting NiP to produce an upset in this match.

Betway puts the odds at 1.55 – 2.30 in SK Gaming’s favor, but the likelihood of an upset is absolutely huge.

Final prediction: Ninjas in Pyjamas to win.

Team Liquid vs. Gambit Esports

Odds: 1.35 – 2.95
After its latest acquisition (TACO from SK Gaming), Team Liquid is looking like a world-class team capable of taking on any opponent. Their recent performances have been great (8W – 2L in their last 10 matches) and the entire roster seems ready to take over the world.

This year, Team Liquid won a tournament title at cs_summit 2 and achieved 3 additional top 4 results at high-level CS:GO events. On the other side, Gambit Esports has been struggling for the last 3 months and does not look capable of defeating opponents of Liquid’s caliber.

Betway puts the odds at 1.35 – 2.95 in Team Liquid’s favor, which is more than reasonable considering Liquid’s chance of winning.

Final betting prediction: Team Liquid to win.

Fnatic vs. TyLoo

Odds: 1.20 – 4.00

Fnatic is for sure a top 3 team at the moment, so this match should be a very one-sided affair. This year, Fnatic won two championship titles: World Electronic Sports Games and Intel Extreme Masters Season XII World Championship. Following these successes, there were rumors that Golden was going to be released from the team, but ultimately nothing happened and the roster stayed the same. As a result, Fnatic had nothing to do over the last month except to train as usual and perfect its strategies.

On the other side, TyLoo is a team from one of the weakest CS:GO regions in the world, Asia. TyLoo only has a few notable results in high-level tournaments. Its highest achievement came at StarLadder & ImbaTV Invitational Chongquing 2018, where it won the title.

Overall, the skill difference between these two teams is enormous, so I don’t really see how TyLoo could upset Fnatic in this match.

Betway puts the odds at 1.20 – 4.00 in favor of the European team, as the result of this match is almost predetermined.

Final betting prediction: Fnatic to win.

Cloud9 vs. G2 Esports

Odds: 2.05 – 1.70
Both Cloud9 and G2 Esports are going through a period of transition, after making roster changes and having to integrate the new members. Cloud9 acquired FNS from compLexity Gaming in order to replace Stewie2K, while G2 Esports replaced both their coach (SmithZz) and one of their players (shox). Their replacements were NiaK (new coach) and mixwell, who is currently on a trial period. Arguably, both teams downgraded their rosters with these transfers and are now facing the consequences. However, Cloud9 is still the stronger side, having the same 4 player core that won the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 just a few months ago.

Betway puts the odds at 2.05 – 1.70 in favor of G2 Esports, anticipating a close match that’s slightly G2 Esports favored. However, having watched these two teams in action, I think that Cloud9 has a significant advantage going into this confrontation.

Final betting prediction: Cloud9 to win.

Natus Vincere vs. Renegades

Odds: 1.40 – 2.75
Following TACO’s departure from SK Gaming, Natus Vincere came very close to losing its star player s1mple and possibly even flamie. Ultimately, the rumors did not materialize and Na’Vi is still whole and unchanged, still a strong team but one that’s heavily dependent on s1mple’s ability to pretty much win games on his own.

On the other side, Renegades is a very good team with an Australian core (3 out of 5 players), but unfortunately, they haven’t had a notable result in a very long time. And since they’re going up against one of the top 6 teams in the world, I don’t see how they could possibly succeed here.

Betway puts the odds at 1.40 – 2.75 in favor of Natus Vincere, giving Renegades a lot of credit considering how little they’ve achieved this year.