The Norwegian esports organization now has access to the benefits of being a Member Team of BLAST Premier, including a direct entry to BLAST’s events like Spring and Fall Groups.

Immortals Gaming Club, the owners of MIBR have sold their BLAST Premier Member Team slot to Heroic in what was described as a ‘highly competitive bidding process.’

BLAST shared that Immortals were looking to sell its slot and then a bidding process was set in place to ascertain what organization would get it.

A lot of interest was generated from numerous esports organizations looking to secure the slot but Heroic was victorious.

Despite selling off its slot, MIBR has confirmed it will still be a participant at the BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown 2022 event, which is scheduled to commence on April 29.

Prior to the infusion of Heroic, Berlin International Gaming (BIG) was the newest BLAST Premier Member Team, which joined in 2021.

MIBR had been a part of the original lineup of BLAST Premier Member Teams since its inception in 2020.

The Managing Director of BLAST Premier Charlotte Kenny commended the Made in Brazil esports organization for being a Member Team for the past two years.

He highlighted the role the MIBR’s fan base has continued to play within that period, even with the online-only direction the BLAST organization took in 2020 due to the pandemic.

“We thank MIBR for being one of our partners for the last two years. Their renowned and passionate Brazilian fanbase have ensured there’s never been a dull moment, even when we had to pivot to online-only shows in 2020.”

Kenny welcomed Heroic as the latest Member Team in the BLAST Premier and expressed his delight. He also complimented them on their good performances in the past years and certifies that they are indeed an elite Counter-Strike: Global Offensive organization.

“We’re delighted to welcome on board Heroic, they’ve proven through their performances on the server over the last few years, that they belong alongside the world’s elite of Counter-Strike. Their impressive showing at last year’s Fall Final in Copenhagen highlights what they will add to our tournaments.”

About Heroic

Heroic is an esports organization founded in Denmark in 2016 by the former team members of Team X. The organization is currently owned by a Norwegian gaming investment company, Omaken Sports. The acquisition was done on February 16, 2021, and the organization has garnered a total of $1,900,672.01 in prize money from various tournaments.

The team has had an almost perfect record since its formulation in 2016, from being the 2016 International Gaming League champions to winning the Games Clash Masters, Toyota Masters CS:GO Bangkok, DreamHack Open Atlanta ESL One: Cologne 2020 – Europe, and more recently the ESL Pro League Season 13 champion.

Their roster consists of In-Game Leader Casper “cadiaN” M?ller, Martin “stavn” Lund, René “TeSeS” Madsen, Ismail “refrezh” Ali, Rasmus “sjuush” Beck and coach Richard “Xizt” Landstr?m.

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?MiBR stunned Natus Vincere (16-12) in the first round of Group B last Saturday, but since then, the Brazilians haven’t achieved much. They lost their next two bouts against OG (9-16) and Astralis (9-16), proving their victory against the current Major champions was nothing more than a fluke.

MiBR had a much tougher group to fight through, but even with two losses against G2 Esports (12-16) and BIG (10-16), Complexity are viewed as the favourites to win this bout. That makes sense – not because Complexity are very good, but rather because MiBR are arguably the weakest team at the tournament.

Still, at the offered CS:GO betting odds, you have to consider backing MiBR to show up and offer some form of resistance. We wouldn’t side with them to win, nor are MiBR a good bet with a 2.5-round advantage, but they should pick up at least 11 rounds.

?Natus Vincere looked unstoppable in the latter part of 2021, but they slipped early in Group A with back-to-back defeats against MiBR (12-16) and Astralis (17-19). Despite the CIS juggernauts’ struggles, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and his crew are heavy favourites to take down Team Liquid on Thursday.

Team Liquid got off to a very disappointing start to the 2022 season and lost two close games against FaZe Clan (15-19, 17-19) on Sunday. Regardless, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella and co. played well in those outings, so you have to have some faith in them to put up a fight in the play-in stage.

At +374, Team Liquid’s implied probability of winning is only 21.1%, which is way too low. NaVi, while a much stronger team, have yet to shake off the rust, suggesting that there’s a chance we might see an upset. Liquid with a 4.5-round advantage is a safer bet, but you’ll find far more value with the North American side on the moneyline market.

?Evil Geniuses lost both Group C matches against Team Vitality (3-16) and Team Liquid (17-19), which isn’t great, but not that much worse than BIG. The German squad can have their moments, but they have yet to produce anything noteworthy with a 16-10 victory against Complexity and two defeats against Ninjas in Pyjamas (12-16, 9-16).

If we look at the individual performance numbers this tournament, all players on BIG, except for Nils “k1to” Gruhne, have a +1.00 performance rating. On the other side, William “RUSH” Wierzba (1.00) is the only player on EG with a positive rating. Still, EG have had to face much tougher teams, so they deserve some slack.

We favour BIG slightly for this bout, but not enough to bet on them at -200. As weak as Evil Geniuses have been, their odds should be much closer to even money. At +155, we have to back EG to take down the German squad.

The post BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022 betting picks – Thursday, February 3 appeared first on Esport Bet.

?As the latest CS:GO betting odds suggest, Natus Vincere should defeat MiBR convincingly, and we have no reason to argue with that. But this is still NaVi’s first official match since December 19, when they won BLAST Premier World Final 2021, so some ring rust is expected.

MiBR shouldn’t come even close to beating NaVi, and since the Brazilian squad will also miss Marcelo “chelo” Cespedes due to COVID, their chances to cause an upset are even slimmer. But that doesn’t mean MiBR can’t put up a fight and win at least a few rounds.

The esports betting sites offer +100 on MiBR with a +4.5 handicap in the first-half betting markets, which seems a bit too generous. Admittedly, NaVi should come out ahead with plenty of rounds to spare, but the long break, combined with the fact that NaVi will likely underestimate MiBR, could see the Brazilians collect at least six rounds.

?Astralis field one of the most stacked rosters in the European CS:GO scene, but the Danish esports organisation had this exact lineup since November, and yet they failed to achieve much. Most recently, Astralis attended Funspark ULTI 2021, where they lost to K23 (1-2) and Entropiq (1-2), which is hardly inspiring.

OG enter the 2022 season without their star in-game leader Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, who swapped places with Nemanja “nexa” Isakovi?. We don’t know how this switch will work out, but it shouldn’t weaken OG.

Astralis are rightly the favourites for this match, but they don’t deserve to be priced at such odds. Value is with OG on the moneyline market.

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?G2 Esports enter the 2022 season with a new AWPer in Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, a new in-game leader in Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen, and a new coach in Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam, which forms a very scary roster that should continue where G2 left off last year. But with so many changes – and in such influential positions – it’s fair to ask whether G2 have had enough time to form a strong game plan and synergy.

Complexity are in a similar spot. The Texas-based organisation replaced its entire CS:GO esports roster by signing Michael “Grim” Wince from Team Liquid, Paytyn “junior” Johnson from FURIA, and the former Extra Salt trio in Johnny “JT” Theodosiou, Justin “FaNg” Coakley, and Ricky “floppy” Kemery.

Talent-wise, G2 Esports are miles ahead of Complexity and should be competing for Major titles this year. Still, while G2 have a very high ceiling, we don’t expect them to crush Complexity on Friday.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are without their star player and in-game leader Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, who is out with an injury and won’t be able to help his side at the opening BLAST event of 2022. In his place, the Swedish CS:GO esports squad will field academy AWPer Love “phzy” Smidebrant.

Without dev1ce, NiP’s chances to make a deep run at BLAST Premier are slim to none, but they should do reasonably well against the German squad. BIG have made only one roster change this offseason, signing Josef “faveN” Baumann from Sprout to replace Nicklas “gade” Gade, who hasn’t delivered since his arrival in July.

On paper, faveN is quite an upgrade from gade, and he also comes into a German-speaking team that fields two of his former teammates in Florian “syrsoN” Rische and Nils “k1to” Gruhne, so he should fit in perfectly. The esports betting sites have BIG and NiP priced very close, which seems fair, but we prefer BIG in this matchup.

BIG to win at -116.28 is a decent bet, but we’ll take the Germans with a -1.5 handicap for a slight odds boost.

The post BLAST Premier Spring Groups betting picks – 28/1/2022 appeared first on Esport Bet.

?Natus Vincere recently won ESL Pro League Season 14 and with that collected the prestigious Intel Grand Slam golden bars, $1,000,000 in prize winnings, and solidified themselves as the best team in the world. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense for NaVi to be priced as the CS:GO betting favourites to win their BLAST Premier group.

Although you can’t deny NaVi’s quality, we have to remember that Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and co. are known for slow tournament starts. You could also question NaVi’s motivation to perform since they have already qualified for BLAST Premier World Final 2021 and it’s unlikely that they care too much about the $25,000 winner’s share.

OG are a darkhorse entering the BLAST Premier like they were at the ESL Pro League. They might not be one of the top-five teams globally, but OG have the talent to take on anyone and are not a squad you would want to bet against.

NaVi should still win since they are head and shoulders above everyone in the scene currently, but due to questionable motivation and their tendency to underperform in tournament openers, we will instead take OG with a map handicap.

?On paper, FaZe Clan are a much stronger team, but we’re not as bullish on them as some might be. FaZe have an incredibly stacked squad and one of the best in-game leaders in the world in Finn “karrigan” Andersen, but you wouldn’t be able to tell that by looking at their results.

The problem with FaZe Clan’s squads is that it was built to do well on LAN. Online matches, however, are a completely different story. They placed top-four at Intel Extreme Masters XVI Cologne (LAN) but only 13th-16th at ESL Pro League Season 14 (online).

Complexity are by no means a perfect team, and it doesn’t help that they’re without their star Kristian “k0nfig” Wienecke. However, as his replacement they have acquired Marcelo “coldzera” David, who is an excellent player and former member of FaZe Clan.

Complexity were priced as high as +120 last week and are now at only -107.53, which makes sense. They’re better suited to online matches and should be considered as the favourites for Friday’s bout.

The post BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2021 betting tips – Friday, September 24 appeared first on Esport Bet.

?G2 Esports have had an up and down year, but they’ve been playing fairly well of late. A top-two finish at the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2021, followed by a semi-final appearance at DreamHack Masters Spring 2021, a bronze medal from Flashpoint Season 3, and a third-fourth finish at the IEM Summer have helped G2 become the no.4 CS:GO team in the world.

BIG have not been nearly as successful in top-tier tournaments, albeit they’ve managed a semi-finals appearance at Pinnacle Cup, a gold medal at Funspark ULTI 2020, and a finals appearance at the second iteration of Spring Sweet Spring.

BIG traditionally do well against G2, but we don’t believe they’ll be as successful this time out. With the form G2 have been showing for the past two months, they should be more than capable of securing a clean sweep here.

?Natus Vincere enter the BLAST Premier Spring Finals as the reigning DreamHack Masters Spring 2021 champions and no.2 team in the world. The Ukrainian-Russian side has managed a 10-4 record since the first-round exit at ESL Pro League Season 13, which is quite impressive. NaVi’s only four losses during that stretch came against world no.1 Gambit Esports, the up-and-coming Entropiq, the resilient Team Spirit, and Akuma, who have been accused of cheating (with solid evidence to support that claim).

FaZe Clan have put together a championship lineup that has proven to be anything but that. Instead, they have plummeted to 23rd in the world rankings – the worst in the organisation’s history. Months of underwhelming results led to the benching of Marcelo “coldzera” David, with the North American organisation yet to announce his replacement.

NaVi are priced as a -294.12 favourites to win, which seems about right. They’re in the best shape they’ve been this year and will clash with a struggling team that is now out of the world top 20. A clean sweep victory for Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and his crew seems highly likely.

The post BLAST Premier Spring Finals betting picks – Wednesday, June 6 appeared first on Esport Bet.

?It’s difficult to make a case for Extra Salt here, and not least because Team Spirit have been playing extremely well for the past month. Extra Salt are essentially the former Cloud9 core plus Edgar “MarKE” Maldonado, formerly of Chaos Esports Club.

Extra Salt enter this match with a 30-3 record since late January, which should catch anyone’s attention, but most of their wins have come against weaker sides at ESEA events and the DreamHack Open. On the other side, Team Spirit are 13-3 since late January, and that record includes wins against some of the best European sides.

Extra Salt field capable players who were relatively successful while playing under Cloud9, but it’s been a while since they last faced a top-20 team, let alone the no.7 side in the world. Team Spirit are just too good at the moment, so we are backing them to cover the map line.

?Going from one mismatch to another, we have NASR Esports taking on Gambit Esports in the second fixture of the day. A quick look at the odds reveals just how one-sided this match should be, with esports bookmakers giving NASR only a 6% chance to defeat the reigning IEM Katowice champions.

The betting odds don’t surprise us, considering NASR are a UAE squad featuring four unknown players and former Budapest Five in-game leader Atif “gejmzilla” Mustafa as their captain. What’s more, NASR have yet to face a top-tier team since World Electronic Sports Games 2018, where they fielded a completely different squad.

Betting on Gambit to win 2-0 at -625 offers no value, but we are happy to take a shot with NASR at the +1.5 map handicap. This is a complete long shot, but the odds make it worth a stab for two reasons.

Firstly, Gambit might not take this match too seriously and could be overconfident, which could turn around and bite them. Secondly, NASR are an unknown opponent for Gambit, whereas the underdogs have more than enough film to analyse and figure out how to play this one. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen, but at +381, we are ready to pull the trigger on NASR getting on the board.

?Once a Classico of the LATAM CS:GO scene, this fixture is now regarded as more of a warm-up match for FURIA. The latest CS:GO betting odds don’t seem too wrong at first, but we have to consider that this is still a match between two local rivals who know each other well.

It’s no secret FURIA overtook MiBR as the best Brazilian CS:GO team last year, but we are reluctant to believe Andrei “arT” Piovezan and his crew will walk away with a clean sweep. That is despite their 2-0 win against MiBR at ESL Pro League Season 13 last month.

These Brazilian derbies can be quite volatile, which is a good enough reason for us to believe MiBR can make something happen. The outsiders have a better win rate on Dust II, Mirage and Overpass, and as long as Raphael “exit” Lacerda can continue playing as well as he has for the past month, MiBR should be able to make FURIA sweat.

The post BLAST Premier Spring Showdown tips – Wednesday, April 14 appeared first on Esport Bet.

Astralis enter this tournament off a disastrous run at ESL Pro League Season 13, where they lost against Gambit Esports (0-2) and FURIA (0-2) to finish in fifth-sixth place. It marked Astralis’ third consecutive tournament of the year where they finished outside of the top four, after running seventh-ninth at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2021 and fifth-sixth at IEM Katowice.

OG were even less convincing at the ESL Pro League, where they crashed out of the group stage and ended in 13th-16th place. Their only notable tournament placement of the year so far came in February when they won a SteelSeries Invitational Showmatch, which is not exactly something to write home about.

OG recently decided to freshen up their roster by signing Shahar “flameZ” Shushan as a replacement for Issa “ISSAA” Murad. It remains to be seen how much of an impact he will have, but he will definitely add some much-needed firepower to this team.

Astralis haven’t been playing like themselves of late, so you have to believe OG can cause some damage despite their own lack of form. A win for the underdogs is not entirely unlikely, but we are satisfied with the betting odds on OG with a +1.5 map handicap.

We would have considered taking a shot on Endpoint had this match been played a few weeks back, but the departure of flameZ to OG makes the British squad look far less appealing. Not only was the 17-year-old one of their best players, Endpoint have yet to announce a replacement and so may have to field their coach, Ross “RossR” Rooney, for this bout.

We aren’t too excited about teams that play with their coaches, and we don’t believe RossR will improve Endpoint’s chances to cause an upset here. He wasn’t exactly a top-tier player during his career, so it’s highly unlikely he will bring much to the table as a stand-in.

G2 Esports are just a better team overall, and while they have been very hit-or-miss for the past month, their star-studded roster should have no issues against opponents like Endpoint.

We don’t need to analyse this match too much to establish that Team Liquid are a better team than Dignitas – the latest CS:GO betting odds do that job for us.

Team Liquid enter this match off a somewhat disappointing ninth-12th place finish in the ESL Pro League, where they looked very good during the group stage (4-1) but fell short against G2 (1-2) in the first round of playoffs. On the other side, Dignitas haven’t attended a single high-profile tournament since cs_summit 7 in January and haven’t faced any tough opponents since the Snow Sweet Snow #3 playoffs, where they lost to Evil Geniuses (1-2).

Dignitas are nothing more than a mediocre second-tier team, whereas Liquid are no.5 in the global CS:GO rankings. Anything less than a 2-0 sweep would be a massive disappointment for the North American side.

The post BLAST Premier Spring Showdown betting tips – Tuesday, April 13 appeared first on Esport Bet.

?MiBR’s attempt to start from scratch by signing the ex-BOOM Esports core has yet to earn them any notable results. The Brazilians recently participated at cs_summit 7, where they took down the shaky FaZe Clan (2-1) but were unable to overcome Cloud9 (1-2) and Heroic (0-2 and 1-2).

Natus Vincere enter this match just two weeks after winning the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020. There, the Ukrainian outfit swept aside some of the strongest CS:GO esports teams in Europe, including Complexity, G2 Esports, Team Liquid, Team Vitality and Astralis, so it’s fair to say they’re in great form.

Even though NaVi are known for poor performances early in tournaments, the quality gap here is far too big for us to consider siding with the underdogs – even with a map handicap. We expect an authoritative performance from NaVi, who shouldn’t drop more than 10 rounds per map.

FaZe Clan have already signed the ex-Team Liquid star Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken and are now in the process of acquiring mousesports’ in-game leader Finn “karrigan” Andersen to form a super team that will be more than capable of competing for the organisation’s first major title. As it stands now, however, they are hardly capable of holding their own in A-Tier events.

It’s hard to say what is causing FaZe to struggle as much as they do, but it’s fair to assume the morale in the team is not particularly high due to the ongoing roster changes and Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson’s lack of motivation to continue competing. FaZe enter this match with a 1-2 record since the turn of the year that includes losses against MiBR (1-2) and OG (0-2) and only one win against Nordavind (16-11).

Team Liquid left quite a positive impression at the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 . Although they only managed fourth place, they still played well and came very close to eliminating the eventual champions, NaVi, who bested them 16-13, 16-14 in the lower bracket semi-finals. There is a world where FaZe look better with Twistzz on the team, but we cannot ignore the odds on Liquid to win 2-0.

The post BLAST Premier Spring Groups betting predictions – Friday 12/2/21 appeared first on Esport Bet.

?Astralis and Ninjas in Pyjamas will clash on Thursday in the opening Group A fixture of BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021. It will mark their first meeting since September when Astralis swept their north-eastern neighbours 2-0.

SEE ALSO: BEST COUNTER-STRIKE BETTING SITES

Astralis enter this match as massive favourites, which doesn’t surprise us. The Danes have won three out of the last five tournaments they have attended and claimed a silver medal in the remaining two, including last year’s BLAST Premier Global Final. NiP have not been nearly as successful of late, having finished only fifth-eighth at cs_summit 7 last week.

Besides the massive quality gap, NiP will also play without Simon “twist” Eliasson, who has been benched and will be replaced with rookie Erik “ztr” Gustafsson. Anything less than a 2-0 sweep for Astralis would be a massive shock.

?Both of these teams have attended one tournament in 2021, with BIG finishing second at ESL Meisterschaft Autumn and OG running fifth-eighth at cs_summit 7. Considering the quality of the opponents these teams had to face in their respective events, we can rank their achievements equally.

OG and BIG last met in December 2020 when BIG won 2-0 with 16-12 on Dust II and 16-4 on Inferno. Only five days prior, however, it was OG who swept the German squad with 16-10 on Inferno and 19-17 on Dust II.

There is not much to separate these two teams, and their head-to-head record – which shows 9-2-8 in favour of BIG – proves that. Hence, we are placing our money on over 2.5 maps.

The post BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021 betting predictions – 4/2/2021 appeared first on Esport Bet.