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BIG vs Imperial Esports Tips & Predictions – ESL Pro League Season 20

By Tit Krajnik

09 Sep 2024

Tit Krajnik 09 Sep 2024

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BIG vs Imperial Esports Counter-Strike betting picks for Tuesday, September 10, 2024, in the first round of Group C at ESL Pro League Season 20 (16:30 CEST)
BIG are priced as underdogs
Imperial Esports and BIG have yet to meet this year

Esports (Getty Images)

BIG vs Imperial Esports Predictions

The first round of Group C at ESL Pro League Season 20 will feature a clash between BIG and Imperial Esports, who have yet to meet this season. But according to the esports betting odds, Imperial Esports are in a better spot to come out ahead of this contest.

BIG vs Imperial Esports Predictions
Head to Head
BIG Form
BIG Squad & Team News
Imperial Esports Form
Imperial Esports Squad & Team News

Imperial Esports are 1.75 favourites with the top Counter-Strike bookmakers to defeat BIG who enter the series as 2.05 underdogs. As the difference in the quality of the teams isn't significant, it is fair to question whether taking the outsiders at plus money is the right call purely to play the price.

BIG are 6-2 from their last eight series
Imperial Esports are on a five game winning streak
First clash between the two teams this year

Head to Head

This will mark BIG's first meeting with Imperial Esports in 2024 and the first clash since May 2022.

BIG Form

ESL Pro League Season 20 is BIG's ninth S-Tier Counter-Strike esports tournament of 2024 and the first since Intel Extreme Masters Cologne 2024 – where they failed to make it through the Play-in stage and finished the event in 17th-20th place.

Since then, BIG have attended and successfully made it through Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024: European Qualifier B, finished top-eight at BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2024, and more recently, ended their run through CCT Season 2 European Series #9 in ninth-16th place.

Not a bad outcome for a team of this calibre, even though their recent record includes some less-than-inspiring results, such as two defeats against Virtus.pro (1-2) and ALTERNATE aTTaX (1-2).

BIG Squad & Team News

BIG have not made any roster changes since July.

Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz
Karim "Krimbo" Moussa
Florian "syrsoN" Rische
Jon "JDC" de Castro
Rigon "rigoN" Gashi

Imperial Esports Form

Imperial Esports have done a good job making a name for themselves as a competitive Counter-Strike esports team over the last month. Albeit, most of their success was limited to local tournaments and qualifiers, including ESL Challenger League Season 48: South America - Regular Season and Intel Extreme Masters Rio 2024: South American Open Qualifier #2.

Their only other competitive appearance since late July came at IEM Cologne 2024, where Imperial Esports crashed out very early, with two defeats against FURIA Esports (1-2) and paiN Gaming (1-2), which is far from great. Yet their lacklustre showings in Cologne were somewhat overshadowed by Imperial's 10-game winning streak at ESL Challenger League Season 48.

Imperial Esports Squad & Team News

Imperial Esports have not made any recent roster changes.

Vinicius "VINI" Figueiredo
João "felps" Vasconcellos
Kaiky "noway" Santos
Lucas "decenty" Bacelar
Santino "try" Rigal

Verdict

BIG v Imperial Esports

Imperial Esports are in excellent form, yet we have to take into account that all of their recent wins came against regional opponents, who are unquestionably weaker than BIG. Winning ten games in a row still means something, but this is not reason enough to believe Imperial Esports will be as dominant in Malta.

BIG have not looked perfect of late, but they have been doing progressively better, so they should do fine against teams of similar calibre, such as Imperial Esports. This is as close to a coin flip as it can get, so it makes sense to side with BIG at plus money over Imperial at 1.75.

BIG To Win

Moneyline

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