It’s not just the sports betting world that is extremely busy at the moment with a host of top events taking place around the globe, it is the same in the world of esports. This weekend will see one of the highlight events of the Defense of the Ancients 2 (check out Dota 2 betting section) season take place as eight of the best teams from around the globe head to Germany for the ESL One Frankfurt 2016.
Three invited teams Alliance, OG and Team Liquid have been joined by five teams that qualified through a series of online qualifiers from all four corners of the globe to compete for a share of a guaranteed prize pool of $250,000.
There are plenty of familiar names in the five teams that have qualified for the offline finals in Frankfurt this weekend. The Chinese qualifiers were LGD Gaming, while compLexity qualified from the American qualifier and Fnatic were the team that made it through the Southeast Asian qualifying competition.
There were two places up for grabs in the European qualifier and it was Vega Squadron and Natus Vincere who claimed the final two spots.
Unfortunately for Chinese qualifiers LGD Gaming, due to ill health in their team, they were unable to make the trip to Frankfurt and so their place in the tournament was passed on to Virtus.pro instead.
The competition consists of two groups of four in the initial stage, with the top two teams in each group qualifying for the semi-finals. The winner of one group will play the runner up of the other in the semi’s with the two winning teams from those games going on to contest the Grand Final on Sunday in a best of five clash (all other games are best of three match ups).
Friday sees the opening three games in each group played, before the final two games in each group are played on Saturday. After this, the semi finalists will be known and the two semi finals plus the final will be played throughout Sunday.
The groups have been drawn as thus:
- Group A – Team Liquid, Alliance, Fnatic, Vega Squadron
- Group B – OG, compLexity Gaming, Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere
Kicking off the action on Friday are Team Liquid who take on Vega Squadron followed by Alliance against Fnatic in Group A.
This is then followed by OG vs. Natus Vincere and compLexity Gaming vs. Virtus.pro in Group B. The final game to be played on Friday in each group will be decided by the outcome of the first two games in the groups.
The last ESL One event in Manila saw Chinese team Wings Gaming claim the crown, but they are not here to try to win this event. However three teams that competed in the Philippines will also be in Frankfurt this weekend (Team Liquid, Fnatic and compLexity Gaming).
There’s plenty of betting to enjoy on this event and the esports bookmakers (like Bet365 esports) currently have OG as the narrow favourites at 6/4, just slightly ahead of Team Liquid, who are the 7/4 second favourites with the esports betting odds makers.
Outside these two clear front runners you can back Fnatic at 6/1, Natus Vincere at 8/1, Alliance at 12/1 and Virtus Pro at 25/1. The two outsiders are Vega Squadron at 28/1 and 33/1 shots compLexity Gaming.
You can enjoy plenty of betting on the tournament as a whole and on each individual match at Bet365 Sports across the weekend. Who is going to claim the next ESL major prize?
Who are the CS:GO favourites to win the DreamHack Zowie Open?
It’s not just in Frankfurt where all the top esports action is this weekend as in Jonkoping Sweden, the world’s finest Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams have convened to compete in one of the biggest events of the summer, the DreamHack Summer 2016 event.
After four qualifying events over the past few weeks, two teams Epsilon eSports and ENCE eSports have made it through a tough campaign to claim their place in the finals in Sweden alongside the six invited teams, Astralis, GODSENT, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Immortals (formerly Tempo Storm), Hellraisers and SK Gaming.
There is a $100,000 top prize for this premier level event and the maps in play on the game are Cache, Cobblestone, Dust II, Mirage, Nuke, Overpass, and Train.
The teams have been drawn into two groups of four, with only the top two teams making it through the group stage and into the knockout stage. The winner of each group will play the runner up of the other group in the semi-finals and the winner of this match will progress to the final.
All matches are best of three matches apart from the final, which will be played over the best of five.
The Groups have been drawn as follows:
- Group A – Astralis, Immortals, SK Gaming, Ence eSports
- Group B – Ninjas in Pyjamas, HellRaisers, GODSENT, Epsilon eSports
The first two games in Group A see Astralais face Ence and Immortals take on SK Gaming. In Group B, Ninjas in Pyjamas face Epsilon eSports while Godsent face off against Hellraisers. After the results of the first two matches are known, the remaining games in the Group will be scheduled.
The action starts on Saturday 18th June with the first six games in the group phase taking place, three per group. The final two group games will be contested on Sunday 19th June, with the Semi-Finals and Final taking place on Monday 20th June.
This is the last chance for teams to earn one of the biggest CS:GO titles this season and with the next DreamHack event in Cluj-Napoca, Romania not scheduled to take place until late October, this is the perfect opportunity for one of these teams to earn a top prize heading into second half of the year.
Keep your eyes peeled on your favorite esports betting site for all the latest odds on this big event in Sweden, which is always a huge hit with CSGO betting fans.
Image credit: muratart / Shutterstock.com
