BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 is an upcoming CS:GO tournament scheduled to take place in Istanbul, Turkey between September 28th – 29th. The event is attended by 6 of the world’s best teams and offers a fairly decent prize pool: $250.000.
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 brings together 6 teams from Europe, South America and North America. These teams are the following: Astralis, Cloud9, MIBR, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Space Soldiers and Virtus.pro.
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 will be played in a format that’s rarely used in CS:GO. More specifically, each team will play one best of one (Bo1) match against every other team, so 5 games in total. At the end, the top 2 teams advance to the Grand Final.
Astralis is by far the strongest CS:GO team not only in this tournament but the world in general. Recently crowned champion of the FACEIT Major: London 2018, Astralis will go into BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 as the most likely competitor to claim the title and by far the safest team to bet on.
Astralis’ achievements over the past 5 months include 5 championship titles and 2 additional 2nd place results. Arguably, no other team in the history of CS:GO has been as dominant as this one, perhaps with the exception of NiP.
At this point, Astralis has a huge win rate on every map that it plays and in some cases it is undefeated. So if anyone at this tournament makes the mistake of not banning Nuke against them, that’s an instant loss for that team, because Astralis is currently 19 W – 0 L on it. At the recent FACEIT Major, both Team Liquid (in the Semifinals) and Natus Vincere (in the Grand Final) made that mistake and found out that no amount of preparation or counter-strating will work against this CS:GO machine.
Considering the 6 teams that are about to compete in BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018, Astralis should have a field day and feel like a lion among sheep. Apart from MIBR and maybe Ninjas in Pyjamas to some degree, none of the other competitors has the slightest chance of winning against them.
Ever since it managed to win that ELEAGUE Major at the start of this year, Cloud9 struggled to maintain its good form. First it lost its momentum and started to play worse and worse at LANs, then it started to lose its star players. Both Stewie2K and tarik moved to MIBR and their replacements, Golden and STYKO, did not manage to fill in the void they left behind. Very recently, due to Fnatic’s performance issues, one of its long-standing members, flusha, was transferred to Cloud9 and as a result the team sent STYKO back to mousesports.
Over the past several months, Cloud9 had a number of average results in competitions such as ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals (9th – 12th place), Esports Championship Series Season 5 Finals (7th – 8th), ESL One: Cologne 2018 (9th – 12th), ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018 (7th – 8th) and FACEIT Major: London 2018 (12th – 14th).
We’ve yet to see how the new version of Cloud9 stacks up against some of the world’s strongest teams at BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018, but to some degree the result is predictable. Whenever a team that’s facing world-class competition changes its roster right before a big event, the fluency of the line-up suffers a great deal and tactical cracks start to appear in its playstyle. Top teams usually spot the weaknesses right away and punish them without mercy.
Ever since tarik and YNk joined the team, MIBR has been playing better and better, slowly regaining its former strength. In its last two tournaments, MIBR claimed a title at ZOTAC Cup Masters 2018 and got a 3rd – 4th place at the recent FACEIT Major, showing that it can hold its own against top opponents such as mousesports, G2 Esports, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Natus Vincere.
Going into BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018, I expect MIBR to qualify for the Grand Final and finish 2nd.
Like MIBR, NiP has shown great signs of improvement in recent months, which culminated in a participation at the FACEIT Major: London 2018. GeT_RiGhT’s tears after qualifying for this event showed just how much it meant for him and his team to finally qualify for a Major after a very long period of poor performances. Unfortunately for him and NiP, the team did not manage to advance into The New Champions Stage of that tournament, but the squad’s presence at the tournament and its performance during The New Legends Stage were definitely a positive sign of life.
Going into BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018, NiP is the 3rd strongest team of the 6, at least on paper. Astralis and MIBR are likely to win against it, but the matches could be much closer than most people expect.
When it was announced that ngiN, one of Space Soldier’s players, would not be able to attend the FACEIT Major, everyone felt bad for the team, knowing that wasn’t going to be easy for it to play with its coach as its 5th man. And indeed, Space Soldiers went 0 W – 3 L in The New Challengers Stage of the tournament and was practically eliminated right from the start, in spite of showing a high level of individual skill.
Now that the 5th player has returned, Space Soldiers will be at full strength again and eager prove themselves. What will happen is unclear at this point, but I regard this team as the 4th out of the 6 competitors in terms of strength. Apart from Virtus.pro and possibly Cloud9, I don’t see Space Soldiers beating anyone else at BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018.
There aren’t too many positive things to be said about Virtus.pro at this point, and the team’s presence at important events is quite surprising under the current circumstances. I mean, this is an obvious case of “what’s dead may never die” I guess. The only reason why VP is here is that several teams had to withdraw due to calendar conflicts and were replaced with others, one of which is Virtus.pro.
Over the past few months VP’s performance went from bad to worse and as a result, the team is now below the tier 1 level. At the recent FACEIT Major, Virtus.pro finished 23rd – 24th out of 24 teams.
Going into BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018, VP will probably finish 5th or 6th, as I don’t see how this team could beat anyone except Space Soldiers.
These are the top CS:GO betting opportunities for this event:
Betway puts the odds for this match at 1.25 – 3.55 in favor of MIBR, as the skill and form balance heavily swings in the Brazilians’ favor. Stewie2K and tarik will no doubt feel some nostalgia playing against their former teammates, so it will be a bittersweet victory for them.
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 betting prediction: MIBR to win.
Betway puts the odds for this match at 2.75 – 1.40 in favor of NiP, regarding the Swedes as the clear favorites.
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 betting prediction: Ninjas in Pyjamas to win.
Betway puts the odds for this match at 5.75 – 1.10 in favor of Astralis and this is practically free money to be made. The likelihood of an upset here is around 1%.
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 betting prediction: Astralis to win.
Betway puts the odds for this match at 4.75 – 1.15 in favor of Astralis. This is another match with an overwhelmingly likely outcome so the risk is almost inexistent.
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 betting prediction: Astralis to win.
Betway puts the odds for this match at 3.20 – 1.30 in favor of MIBR. This is likely an accurate assessment, but make sure you check Space Soldiers’ results prior to this match. If the team somehow wins against NiP, then its strength is considerably higher than what people expect. Theoretically it shouldn’t be able to do that, but make sure you check.
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 betting prediction: MIBR to win.
Betway puts the odds for this match at 1.20 – 4.00 in favor of MIBR and I would actually put the odds even lower on MIBR’s side, simply because VP is a complete mess right now. Nevertheless, we will find out if some kind of miracle has happened over the last few weeks in the team’s second match, against Cloud9. If that match is win by Virtus.pro, regard this one as slightly risky. If not, the risk level is almost 0.
BLAST Pro Series: Istanbul 2018 betting prediction: MIBR to win.
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