CS:GO Dreamhack Masters Malmo Odds & Picks: Astralis +150 Favorite

• DreamHack Masters Malmo 2019 begins on October 1st with the Grand Final happening on October 6th
• Astralis enter as the favorites after they won the StarLadder Berlin Major
• Team Liquid look to start a brand new winning streak following an early exit to Astralis in Berlin

The group stage of DreamHack Masters Malmo starts on October 1st with Astralis entering the favorites to win it all.

The field of 16 teams are split into two groups of eight, with the top three teams from each group making it to the playoffs.

DreamHack Masters Malmo Group Stage Odds

*Odds taken 09/25/19

Astralis is Back On Top

Prior to StarLadder Berlin, Team Liquid looked like the unbeatable team in CounterStrike. They had won seven straight tournaments heading into the event which included picking up the IEM Grand Slam. Astralis put an end to their dominance with a 2-0 victory of Liquid in the StarLadder Berlin Major quarterfinals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8REfRN1D5M

They followed it up with consecutive 2-0 wins over NRG and AVANGAR to win their first tournament since BLAST Pro Series Sao Paolo back in March. Astralis once again looked like the team that dominated all of 2018 and won the IEM Grand Slam Season 1.

Astralis didn’t drop a single map in the StarLadder Berlin New Champions Stage and their only blemish was an earlier loss to NRG.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkVQXKCVSFQ

The biggest benefit for Astralis is that Group A is a much easier group. Their toughest competition comes from ENCE who recently swapped out Aleksib for suNny. They’ll also have to get past Team Vitality who have yet to name a replacement for NBK, and FNatic who brought back Flusha. Astralis should have no issues cruising through this group and earning a spot in playoffs.

Keep an Eye on NRG

As I already mentioned, NRG was the only team that was able to defeat Astralis at StarLadder Berlin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lcs7I2tMN78

Ever since NRG acquired stanislaw back in June, we’ve seen them become more and more dangerous. HLTV currently has them as the fourth best team in the world behind Liquid, Astralis and AVANGAR.

However, their ability to make it into the finals will depend on if they can beat Team Liquid. It’s hard to gauge Team Liquid right now since their loss in Berlin came from an unfortunate quarterfinals matchup against the tournament winners. Of course, they also dropped best of one’s to NRG and AVANGAR in the Legends Stage.

Regardless, NRG has certainly closed the gap and might have better value of making the finals over the likes of Liquid.

Guardian Joins Na’Vi

Natus Vincere is a very interesting team entering DreamHack Malmo. Blast Pro Series Moscow was their last tournament with Zeus and they’ve now brought in Guardian to be their fifth.

This move comes with a lot of internal role shifts. Guardian will likely take over on AWP’ing duties and they’ll have to find a new in-game leader. They’ve only had a couple of weeks to sort everything out but if Guardian can supply enough secondary firepower for Simple, than Na’Vi could be a dangerous team.

Which Group Will the Winner Come From?

*Odds taken 09/25/19

A for Astralis

The only reason that Group A is even close to the odds of Group B, is because the former has Astralis in it. Aside from Astralis, the team with the next highest odds to win in Group A is ENCE at +1600. Group B has a lot more competitors with the likes of Liquid, NRG, mousesports and Na’VI, but still, they might not fare too well against Astralis.

It’s pretty straightforward, if you’ve got money on Astralis then you can double-down and predict that the winner will come from Group A.

Picks:

To Make Finals – Astralis (-330) & NRG (+300)

To Win – Astralis (+150)

Winners Group – Group A (-110)