BIG vs. NiP Pick – Thursday, August 20th, 2020

After losing their respective opening fixtures at the ESL One: Cologne event CS:GO forces BIG and Ninjas in Pyjamas are going head-to-head to determine who will be exiting the tournament early.

The Ninjas have been quite successful against the Germans in the past but haven’t met them since they moved up to the number one spot in the world rankings.

It promises to be a thrilling matchup and in this post, I provide my BIG vs. NiP free betting pick which is based on the latest odds and thorough analysis of the teams’ current form.

I start off with the prices and here is how things look like for the most popular markets:

These odds are courtesy of 10Bet and I believe they represent a realistic picture of what’s to come. If you feel like you want to approach this tie differently, you can check out the additional markets they have on offer.

And for an in-depth look at the full range of their services and features, just head on over to our full review of 10Bet.

Let us now proceed with my analysis section and I then wrap up things with my final betting pick.

The Germans didn’t have to wait too long for another title as they dominated the recent DreamHack Open event and crushed Heroic with a 2:0 scoreline in the Grand Final.

It was expected they will carry the same form to the ESL One: Cologne but were surprised by an inspired performance from their fellow countrymen Sprout.

It was BIG’s first loss in a long while and I believe it came at the right time as captain tabseN and his team needed a slap like this in order to really bring out the best out of this roster again.

There were a couple of shaky performances at the DreamHack which weren’t punished and now that Sprout has thrown them to the losers’ bracket, I expect to see a highly organized performance from BIG and this could spell trouble for the Ninjas.

In-game leader hampus and his teammates started their ESL One campaign the way they ended the cs_summit 6 event.

OG proved to be too much of an obstacle as the Ninjas couldn’t really make their CT rounds count on Inferno and Mirage.

It’s evident that the team is still a bit rusty from the hiatus and facing BIG who have built up momentum will be a very tough challenge for them.

They did win on Train against OG but they are definitely not getting the chance to compete on this map as this is the Germans’ usual ban pick.

A big performance is needed from Plopski, naawk, and REZ, and Twist will have to get creative on the entry kills if the Ninjas don’t want to pack their bags early here.

I believe this is the perfect opportunity to bank on the high odds for a 2:0 win for BIG.

The betting sites have upped the price for the favorites on account of their loss against Sprout but the Germans remain the deadliest force on the European scene right now.

The defeat will most certainly motivate the players and I expect they will come out all guns blazing now that they are pushed against the wall.

NiP has been poor for a while and their opening fixture against OG gave us more of the same. They won’t be getting their favorite map and BIG has as an advantage on all six of the remaining options, so it’s hard not to go with the +147 odds for a handicap win.