K23 vs. Team Spirit Pick – Monday, August 24th, 2020

CIS organizations K23 and Team Spirit will go head-to-head in the late semi-final of Week 8 at the CS:GO Malta Vibes Cup.

Spirit was successful in both of the previous meetings at the Home Sweet Home Cup back in April but captain neaLaN and his teammates have been on a roll since bringing back the famous K23 tag.

In this post, I try to figure out how this latest bout between these two teams will pan out by looking at the odds and sharing an overview of their most recent exploits.

Be sure to stay until the end, though, as I lay out my K23 vs. Team Spirit free betting pick.

The prices are taken from BetOnline and here is what one of the leading US esports betting sites has in store for us:

Spirit holds the higher ranking and history is on their side but can the newly-rebranded team mount a serious challenge here?

I do feel we might be in for a closer matchup than the top rated CS:GO betting sites suggest but let’s first go through my analysis section and I then share my final betting prediction.

If you haven’t followed the competitive CS:GO scene this month, you are probably wondering who K23 are.

The organization decided to bring back the tag associated with the Kazakhstani scene but the players are practically the same roster that competed for Syman Gaming.

The team has been doing quite well as of late and they are currently sitting on a four-game winning streak which includes some great performances against HellRaisers, FATE, and CR4ZY.

They are the definite underdog against Spirit but captain neaLaN’s shrewd tactics and the form main gunman n0rb3r7 is in makes them a threat to any organization in this tier.

After navigating through their group with ease, Spirit took down fierce rivals forZe yesterday with an inspired performance on Inferno and Overpass.

They had to dig in deep after losing a first-round tiebreak on their map pick Dust 2 and the squad didn’t disappoint.

Key piece mir was once again at the forefront of the comeback but he had ample support from top marksman iDISBALANCE, and in-game leader chopper.

The team’s positive run has put them in the Top 20 bracket but there are still things to iron out as this roster can’t consistently dominate lower-ranked opposition and are prone to the odd tactical mistake and chaotic buying.

Spirit should be able to wrap this up in the end but it won’t be an easy outing for them.

The rebranding has seemingly injected some confidence in K23’s group and despite the fact they haven’t met Top 20 opposition in a while, they won’t simply lie down.

Their records on Mirage, Train, and Dust II are very respectable and it will be interesting to see which of those will be left on the table.

In any case, I back the underdogs to take at least a map here and the odds of +119 make for a great value bet.