On Thursday, world no.18 BIG will face world no.26 Rare Atom, with the winner advancing to the semifinals and the loser exiting the tournament.

BIG enter this best-of-three series on a three-match losing streak, having fallen to Apeks, HEET, and GODSENT, all of who are more than 25 places lower than BIG in the world rankings. The Germans had a rough month in March, with only five series wins from 13 games played, including a group stage exit in ESL Pro League Season 17 at the start of the month. With their current ranking of no.18 in the world, they have dropped to their lowest position since April of 2022. With the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR, and IEM Rio all coming up, we could see BIG fall out of the top 20.

Rare Atom have risen quickly up the CS:GO world rankings in the last six months, climbing from no.153 in December to no.26 now. Since the beginning of the year, the Chinese team has dominated in Asia, winning six of the eight events in which it has competed, including the ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference Asia and the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR Closed Qualifier in China. Before their unsuccessful ESL Pro League 17 campaign, Rare Atom had a 10-match winning streak, which they extended to 11 with a 2-0 victory over Team Liquid in their first and only win of the event.

This series has the potential to be very good, as Rare Atom are clearly on the rise in the world rankings and BIG are on the decline. BIG are overwhelming favourites against their Asian opponents, but we expect Rare Atom to win at least one map in this series, so we’ll be betting on the overs in the total maps market.

The second series of the day will pit Fnatic, the event’s second-highest ranked team, against 9INE, the event’s second-lowest ranked team. Both have shown flashes of really good Counter-Strike, but their inconsistencies have hurt them recently.

Fnatic will enter the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown as the world no.11 after a good but not great ESL Pro League 17 campaign in which they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The international squad has competed in nearly every S-Tier event this year, so their 50 percent win rate in the last three months may make their form appear worse than it is. Since February, Fnatic have lost seven series, three of which were against teams ranked in the top 10 in the world. When comparing their recent form to that of 9INE, it is clear that Fnatic are in better shape than the Polish squad.

9INE are currently ranked 28th in the world after placing second in the European ESL Challenger League Season 44 and first in the RES Western European Masters Spring, the latter of which qualified them for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown. 9INE have performed admirably in the events in which they have competed, with a 76 percent win rate over the last three months. However, as we previously stated for Fnatic, statistics can be misleading, as 9INE have not competed in any S-Tier events in 2023, whereas their opponent Fnatic have participated in nearly all of them.

Many esports betting sites have Fnatic as the second favourite to win the BLAST Premier European Spring Showdown, so we expect a statement win over 9INE here. We will back Fnatic at the -1.5 map line.

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HEROIC vs ENCE CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

?The first semi-final for the 2022 BLAST Premier Spring Showdown takes place on Friday with the fourth-ranked team in the world, Heroic, taking on the fifth-ranked team in the world, ENCE. These two rosters won their quarter-final BO3 series with relative ease. Heroic beat NKT 2-0 (16-7 and 16-11) and ENCE beat Copenhagen Flames 2-1 (16-7, 10-16 and 16-9).

Heroic did what was expected of them by beating NKT in comprehensive fashion and finishing their series in quick time. Heroic took NKT’s map pick, Inferno 16-7, after a dominant T-side taking a 13-2 lead at half-time, they then quickly wrapped up the map eight rounds later. On the second map Nuke, which was Heroic’s map pick, the Danes went into half time down 10-5 after a very good CT-side by NKT, but once Heroic switched sides they were dominant once again going on a 11-1 run to finish the map 16-11 and win the series 2-0.

Heroic are now on a four game win streak after they won all three of their matches in the PGL Major Antwerp Europe RMR A finishing in top spot, and they now add the win over NKT to the streak. Over the win streak Heroic has had three different members of their roster finish on top of the scoreboard, with Rene “TeSeS” Madsen, Casper “cadiaN” Moller and Martin “stavn” Lund twice, all finishing the last four series with the highest ratings for the roster in their wins.

CS:GO ESPORTS BETTING GUIDE

ENCE took down Copenhagen Flames 2-1, with both teams taking the opposing teams map pick. ENCE took Copenhagen Flames map pick Vertigo 16-7, where ENCE opened up the first half on a 6-0 run and finished the half up 11-4. They then only needed eight more rounds to win the first map. Copenhagen Flames were able to level the series at one-all after winning ENCE’s map pick, Mirage, 16-10. ENCE and Copenhagen Flames were left with Ancient as the last map, which ENCE have a great record on and they win 62% of their matches on Ancient over the last three months. Therefore, they were always going to be the favourite heading into the last map and the favourites did run out victors, 16-9.

The major catalyst for ENCE’s solid results and continued rise up the world rankings stems from the outstanding last three months that Lotan “Spinx” Giladi has had for the team. “Spinx” has been by far the best player for ENCE with an average rating of 1.13 out of 2 over the last three months. From the last three series that ENCE has played, “Spinx” has really put the team on his back recording a 1.3 rating average, whilst also averaging a +21 kill/death differential. If ENCE are going to continue their great form and advance to the final of this event, they will need someone to help “Spinx” out, because Heroic won’t be beaten by just one player.

The two highest ranked teams at this event will battle it out in the first semi-final for the first spot in the grand final. ENCE are on a great run over the last few months and Heroic are on a four match win streak, so this series should be a belter. We should be seeing a complete series here from both teams, hence we suggest betting in the total maps market. We will be taking the over 2.5 maps at -111.11 with BetOnline.

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?Astralis and Movistar Riders will be the closest matchup in terms of both teams’ world rankings before the event started. Astralis enter as the 10th-ranked team in the ESL rankings, whilst Movistar Riders are ranked 12th.

Astralis have been playing some inconsistent CSGO over the last month. They were quite underwhelming in their last two events, finishing 7th-8th at IEM Katowice and 5th-8th at ESL Pro League 15 – well below the high expectations that the Danes have set for themselves.

Movistar Riders have recorded very similar results to those of Astralis, but they were ranked 27th in the world before their 9th-12th finish at the IEM Katowice Play-In, and 34th in the world before they finished 5th-8th, in the exact same position as Astralis, at ESL Pro League 15. Therefore, the expectations of the Spanish organisation were a lot lower and these last two performances have shown that Movistar Riders are on the climb up the ESL world rankings.

This matchup has the most potential to be the best series we will see at the quarter-final stage due to the close proximity of their ESL world rankings. We believe that we could see three maps here, so over 2.5 total maps is the play.

Ninjas in Pyjamas comes into the BLAST Premier EU Spring Showdown at no.7 in the ESL world rankings. NiP enter this event coming off two really strong performances in the ESL Pro League 15 (3rd-4th) and IEM Katowice (7th-8th). The second favourite at this event will be here to win and try to gain a spot at the BLAST Premier Spring Final, given that they have not won an event since IEM Fall Europe in October of 2021. With their new addition Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin playing his second event with this roster, they will continue to increase their cohesiveness and improve their team gameplay as a whole.

Bad News Eagles are the second lowest ranked team at this event, sitting 25th in the ESL rankings. The Kosovo-based organisation have not participated in an S-Tier event in their short history, and have only participated in one A-Tier event, but they have only been an official team since the start of 2022. This is a massive step up for Bad News Eagles and they will have to play out of this world to take it to a roster like Ninjas in Pyjamas’.

This series should end in a comprehensive win for the Ninjas, who should take this series 2-0 and advance to the semi-finals. Therefore, we suggest taking the favourites at the map line of -1.5 with BetOnline.

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ENCE will kick off their BLAST Premier Spring Showdown against Copenhagen Flames. ENCE enter the event as the fifth ranked team in the ESL world rankings, which is the first time the organisation has been inside the top five in the world since August of 2019. ENCE surprised a lot of CS:GO analysts, and fans, when they made their most recent run to the ESL Pro League 15 grand-final, finishing second after losing 3-1 to FaZe in a best-of-five series.

Copenhagen Flames will enter the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown as the 15th ranked team in the ESL world rankings, making them the third-lowest ranked team at this event. The Danish roster have been floating between 10 and 20 in the world rankings for the last six months, a direct result of their ultra-consistent results and not being able to win an S-Tier event. The last two events that the Danes participated in ended with the Flames winning the PGL Major Antwerp Europe RMR B and a 1st-2nd place finish at their IEM Dallas Europe Open Qualifier.

Given the recent results for both ENCE and Copenhagen Flames we could be in for a really good series to kick off this event. We believe that this series will be going to three maps, therefore we suggest taking over 2.5 maps in the total maps market, currently $1.83 with BetOnline.

Heroic kick off their BLAST Premier Spring Showdown against the lowest ranked team participating in this event, NKT. The boys from Denmark are the favourites to take out this event, currently at $2.75 with BetOnline, being the highest ranked team with a current ranking of fourth in the ESL world rankings. Heroic are coming off a very good performance at the IEM Katowice where they secured a 3rd-4th place finish, however, they then dropped the ball massively when they could only achieve a 9th-12th place finish in the ESL Pro League 15. This event gives the Danes another chance to get into form before the PGL Antwerp Major rolls around in mid-May.

NKT enter the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown as the lowest ranked team, with a ranking of 99 in the ESL world rankings. There isn’t much hope surrounding the Asia-based team due to the fact that they sit 74 places in the rankings behind the second lowest tanked team, Bad News Eagles. NKT will hope to steal a map of the Danish powerhouse to take something from this event, but even that is highly unlikely.

We at www.behindzioncurtain.com see this series being a quick and comprehensive win for Heroic. We will be taking the favourites at the rounds line handicap of -13.5, currently $1.83 with the top esport betting sites.

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