BIG vs. Movistar Riders, Preview & Prediction - Free 2/16 CS:GO

BIG is a firm favorite in this Best of 1 encounter when they face Movistar Riders in the Upper bracket round 1 of the IEM Katowice 2021 Play-In on Tuesday. The winner of this clash will advance to the Upper quarter-finals and meet a better side from the clash between Spirit and Cloud9, while the loser will drop down to the Lower bracket.

BIG Team Stats and Latest Results

BIG didn’t experience the best of starts in 2021, but they managed to defeat OG, Astralis, and NIP at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021. Those three victories helped them to win a ticket for the Spring Final and earn $25,000 for one of the first three places at the tournament. Prior to that tournament, the German team failed to impress at the DreamHack Open January 2021 Europe. BIG won ten of the previous 16 matches.

In the last three months, BIG was invincible on Vertigo (played ten times) and was excellent on Mirage (75.0% win rate), while they didn’t perform well on Dust2 (38.5%). Since November 2020, BIG is playing with the current lineup that appeared on 60 maps with a record of 36 wins and 24 losses. The team members are tabseN (1.05 rating), tiziaN (0.99), syrsoN (1.16), XANTARES (1.12), and k1to (0.96).

Movistar Riders Team Stats and Latest Results

Movistar Riders have been red-hot in 2021 as they finished three tournaments in 1st place and won 11 of 12 matches so far in the year. They secured a place at the IEM Katowice 2021 Play-In through the ESL European Championship Winter 2020 and wins over MAESTRO, Sprout, and Endpoint. After that, they won the One Tap League 2020 Finals and OMEN WGR European Challenge 2021, while they reached the playoffs at the European Development Championship 2 after defeating K23 and Izako Boars. Movistar Riders won 15 of the last 19 games.

During the last previous months, Movistar Riders displayed strong performances on Overpass (75.0%), Train (70.0%), Mirage (66.7%), and Vertigo (66.7%), while they were average on Inferno. Movistar Riders assembled their current lineup in January this year and appeared on 23 maps with a record of 20 wins and three losses. The team members are steel (1.02), alex (1.05), mopoz (1.16), smooya (1.38), and shokz (1.10).

BIG vs. Movistar Riders H2H Record

These rivals have met on three occasions before, and Movistar Riders won all three duels, including the most recent one at the Europe Minor Closed Qualifier - ESL One Rio 2020 in March 2020.

BIG vs. Movistar Riders Betting Preview

I will ignore the fact that BIG is a higher-ranked team and has more experience, while the odds are heavily on their side. Movistar Riders have been impressive lately and I simply cannot bet against them. I am not going for an upset here, but I am pretty sure the underdogs can make a lot of problems to BIG in this one. This clash will not finish quickly and we’re going to have a lot of rounds, so I am going with Over 26.5 as I expect Movistar Riders to win at least 11.

The Pick: Over 26.5 Rounds (-128 @GG.BET)