This offer has expired Stake code

BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 Tournament Betting Preview & Outright Predictions

By Tit Krajnik

02 Oct 2023

Tit Krajnik 02 Oct 2023

Share this article

BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 is set to kick off on Wednesday, October 4, 2023.
8 Counter-Strike teams
$67,500 prize pool and a ticket for BLAST Fall Final on the line

BLAST Premier (Getty Images)

BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 Predictions

BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 is an upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive esports tournament, which is set to kick off on Wednesday, October 4 and conclude with the grand finals on Sunday, October 8.

BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 Predictions
BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 Odds
The Main Favourites
Can Any Of The Outsiders Impress?

BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 is a part of the BLAST series and will serve as a qualifying event for the Fall Final, which leads into the BLAST Premier: World Final 2023, set to kick off in December as one of the most prestigious Counter-Strike events of the year.

Still, while BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 doesn’t hold as much prestige as some bigger events, the competition will welcome some of the biggest names from the European CS scene and present us with plenty of excellent betting opportunities to explore.

ENCE and G2 Esports are firm favourites to win the tournament
Cloud9’s chance to prove their worth
Most of the top teams are in shaky form

BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 Odds

Esports bookmakers have made it very clear which are the favourites to win BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 with their offer on the outright betting markets. ENCE are priced as the main favourites to go all the way at 2.75, followed by G2 Esports (3.00), who are the second favourites to win the event.

Far behind on the list is Cloud9 (5.00) as the only outsiders with a real chance to make some noise, leaving us with BIG (12.00), Movistar Riders (12.00), 9INE (13.00), OG (21.00), and Alliance (76.00) as complete outsiders and the main candidates to get eliminated early.

The offered Counter-Strike odds make a lot of sense, as it’s hard to argue that any of the bottom teams can make it far. But crazier things have happened.

The Main Favourites

ENCE (2.75) and G2 Esports (3.00) are the two main favourites to win BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023, and there’s nothing wrong with that. ENCE and G2 Esports are not only two of the best teams at the tournament but also two of the strongest Counter-Strike squads in Europe.

Of the two, G2 Esports are a bit more inconsistent, with higher highs and lower lows, whereas ENCE are one of the most consistent teams of the last few months, having placed top-four in the last four Big Events they’ve attended.

G2 Esports and ENCE recently attended ESL Pro League Season 18, where they were both considered strong contenders to win the tournament, but neither made the finals. G2 Esports got eliminated from the quarterfinals by the eventual champions MOUZ, and ENCE suffered the same fate in the semis, where they lost against MOUZ 1-2.

ENCE have shown a bit more than G2 Esports, so it’s fair to have them priced at slightly lower odds, but when we talk about G2 Esports, you never know which version you’re going to get. They might stumble or turn on their jets and run over every team that stands in their path.

Can Any Of The Outsiders Impress?

When figuring out which team will win any tournament, it’s fair to ask ourselves if there are any of the outsiders that can upset the field and go all the way. It has happened before, and it will happen again. But I have my doubts that it’ll happen here.

Besides Cloud9, not a single team left in the field has enough talent to compete with ENCE and G2 Esports. And even though there’s a good chance either of the two slips, it’ll require ENCE, G2 Esports and Cloud9 to all underperform for the likes of BIG, 9INE, or Movistar Riders to have a chance to go all the way.

Alliance and OG are not on my list as potential dark horses, as they either lack firepower (OG) or are a new team with questionable synergy and not enough talent (Alliance).

Verdict

BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023

As much as I would like to see Cloud9 finally wake up and show what this stacked roster is capable of, Cloud9’s past tournament runs, and performances suggest that this squad isn’t ready yet to win a big event. BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023 could be the tournament where C9 find traction, but it doesn’t seem like it.

So it all comes down to ENCE and G2 Esports, who seem evenly matched on paper. G2 Esports defeated ENCE in the finals of IEM Cologne 2023, but ENCE have looked better in their recent outings. So, while it may seem like a complete coin-flip, ENCE are the safer pick since they’re more consistent than G2.