Fnatic vs. Astralis Pick – Tuesday, August 18th, 2020

After the conclusion of the 2020 DreamHack event, the top European CS:GO forces start their ESL One journey and one of the most intriguing opening matches sees Swedish outfit Fnatic take on Danes Astralis.

The battle between these two organizations has been relentless in recent meetings but there are a lot of changes in the Astralis camp and we can’t really rely too much on past stats here.

In this post, I analyze the current status of the teams and what we can expect from them and base my Fnatic vs. Astralis pick on the odds and the value they carry.

I’ve gone with 10Bet’s sportsbook for this one and here is what they have on offer for the main markets:

As you can see, the Swedes are given a slight nod here but the odds suggest that 10Bet are expecting a very close tie.

Will that be the case and what is the best option here?

I try to answer these questions in my analysis section below and then proceed to my final prediction and betting pick.

Captain Golden and his team were last involved in the cs_summit 6 event where they couldn’t really get going.

They lost heavily to BIG at the start and a subsequent defeat at the hands of Heroic booted them out of the tournament early.

Fnatic went on to lose the 5th place decider match against fellow countrymen GODSENT so the break definitely came at the right time for them.

Since winning the ESL Pro League 11, this roster hasn’t been able to hold down any kind of consistency and the upcoming event is a great opportunity for them to get back in the mix.

Facing the wounded Astralis team in the opener can be a big boost but JW, KRIMZ, and Brollan will need to come up with the goods.

Let’s see if this Fnatic team has used their time away wisely.

The organization has completely crumbled in recent months after their in-game leader gla1ve and support player Xy9px decided to take an extended break.

Astralis moved to secure the services of JUGI and Snappi, both very talented young players, but their adaptation into the roster didn’t go as planned.

There’s no telling when their two stars will be coming back and it might be a while, since the Danes have acquired two new pieces for the upcoming ESL One event.

Player es3tag’s transfer was finally secured and they’ve also brought in Bubzkji from MAD Lions.

Core players device, dupreeh, and the new captain Magisk are still on the roster but I don’t think these guys have had a lot of time to practice together with their new teammates and the organization might be in for another disappointing tournament with all the top competition gunning for the title.

It’s hard to predict how these teams will look like today after more than a month of hiatus but I feel Fnatic has a bigger edge than the odds suggest.

I don’t want to rely on past head-to-head records too much but the Swedes did get the best out of Astralis in their last two meetings before gla1ve and Xy9px decided to step down.

They’ve had a lot of time to mull over tactical mistakes that condemned them to an early exit at the cs_summit and key pieces JW, KRIMZ, and Brollan should be itching to get a good start here given how unstable things in the Astralis camp are at present.

The Danes may not look as hopeless as they did before the break but there is so much uncertainty around the organization right now and they are bound to feel the pressure today.

Fnatic at -125 is a terrific value bet in my view and that’s what I’m going with here.