BIG vs. Astralis, Preview & Prediction - Free 12/13 CS:GO
Only one team can go to the Grand final of the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Finals when BIG and Astralis meet in the Consolidation final on Sunday. The winning team will get a chance to fight with Vitality for a grand prize of $225,000 and a ticket for the prestigious BLAST Premier Global Finals 2020, while the losing side will have to settle with 3rd place and $40,000.
BIG Team Stats and Latest Results
BIG won the title at the Merkur Masters Season 2 thanks to victories over Unicorns of Love and ALTERNATE aTTax and was rewarded with $23,793 for 1st place. They didn’t have a lot of luck at the Flashpoint 2, where they finished in 5th position and with $35,000 of prize money. The German side opened the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Finals with a couple of wins over OG and G2, but Vitality stopped them in the Upper final despite the fact that BIG won the first map. They won miserable three rounds in the next two maps as Vitality destroyed them. BIG won ten of the previous 15 matches.
In the last three months, BIG was dominant on Mirage (80.0% win rate), while they were below average on Vertigo (45.5%) and Inferno (47.1%). Since September this year, BIG is playing with the same squad that appeared on 86 maps with a record of 48 wins and 38 losses. The lineup is made of tabseN (1.01 rating), tiziaN (1.00), syrsoN (1.13), XANTARES (1.12), and k1to (0.96).
Astralis Team Stats and Latest Results
The second best-ranked team in the CS:GO standings is a big favorite to reach the Grand final here and face Vitality for the big prize. Astralis came at this tournament after winning the DreamHack Masters Winter 2020 Europe with a 3-1 victory over mousesports in the Grand final, for which they received $60,000. At the BLAST Premier Fall 2020 Finals, Astralis lost the opening match to Natus Vincere even though they won the first map. However, the Danish team responded with wins over mousesports, G2, and Natus Vincere, without losing a single map along the way. Astralis won ten of the last 13 games.
When it comes to the maps in the previous three months, Astralis displayed strong performances on Inferno (80.0%) and Vertigo (80.0%), while they were average only on Dust2. Astralis is playing with a relatively new lineup that was assembled in November 2020 and appeared on 35 maps with a record of 24 wins and 11 losses. The team members are Xyp9x (1.03), dupreeh (1.12), gla1ve (1.02), device (1.19), and Magisk (1.09).
BIG vs. Astralis H2H Record
These rivals have met on three occasions before, and Astralis won all three duels, including the most recent one at the ECS Season 8 Europe Week 4 in October 2019. Interestingly, they haven’t met this year yet.
BIG vs. Astralis Betting Preview
I am not going that H2H record into consideration for predicting the game as the rivals haven’t met for more than a year. Astralis is in a better form, but we cannot say that BIG is not playing well, despite the disastrous showing on the last two maps in a loss to Vitality. The bookies are giving a big favorite role to Astralis, and I think these odds are very low and can be easily ignored. That’s why I have no intention of backing Astralis to win. In fact, I am going to back BIG to win one map and cover the +1.5 spread. On the other hand, the odds on Over 2.5 maps are higher, and I am going with that pick in the end. After all, we’re talking about the No. 5 team in the world that can take a map to any other side in the CS:GO.
The Pick: Over 2.5 Maps (+140 @GG.BET)
