Evil Geniuses vs. Astralis, Preview & Prediction - Free 2/19 CS:GO

Astralis is a firm favorite in this Best of 3 encounter when they face Evil Geniuses in the Group A upper bracket semi-final of the IEM Katowice 2021 on Friday. The winner of this clash will advance to the Group A Upper final and meet a winning side from the duel between Spirit and Heroic. On the other hand, the losing side will go down to the Lower bracket and face a winner of the tilt between G2 and BIG.

Evil Geniuses Team Stats and Latest Results

Evil Geniuses are not going through a good period since the beginning of 2021. They struggled at the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020, DreamHack Open January 2021 Europe, and BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021, failing to win three consecutive games in a new year. However, Evil Geniuses made an upset in the opening match of this tournament as they beat Gambit 2-0. Evil Geniuses lost seven of the previous 12 matches.

In the last three months, Evil Geniuses won the only appearance on Train and were above average on Nuke (57.1% win rate) and Inferno (54.5%), while they failed to get a victory on Dust2 (played twice) and Vertigo (played four times). Since November 2020, Evil Geniuses are playing with the same squad that appeared on 30 maps with a record of 13 wins and 17 losses. The lineup is made of Stanislaw (0.89 rating), Tarik (0.97), Brehze (1.05), Ethan (1.04), and CeRq (0.98).

Astralis Team Stats and Latest Results

Astralis played at only two tournaments since winning a trophy and $200,000 after defeating Liquid in the Grand Final of the IEM Global Challenge 2020. They beat Evil Geniuses, G2 and Vitality to make it to the Grand Final at the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020, but Natus Vincere was better and Astralis settled with 2nd place and $200,000. The Danish team didn’t experience the best of times at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2021, but they opened the IEM Katowice 2021 with a 2-0 victory over mousesports. Astralis won eight of the last 11 games.

During the previous three months, Astralis was decent on Dust2 (76.9%) and Train (75.0%), while they were average only on Nuke (50.0%). Just like Evil Geniuses, Astralis assembled its current lineup in November last year and appeared on 55 maps with a record of 37 wins and 18 losses. The team members are Xyp9x (1.02), dupreeh (1.11), gla1ve (1.00), device (1.21), and Magisk (1.06).

Evil Geniuses vs. Astralis H2H Record

These rivals have met on eight occasions before, and the series is currently tied at 4-4. Astralis won the most recent clash at the BLAST Premier Global Final 2020a month ago.

Evil Geniuses vs. Astralis Betting Preview

Evil Geniuses are perhaps among the top 10 teams in the CS:GO right now, but I don’t think they have the quality to make another upset and defeat favored Astralis. Although Astralis won each of the last two H2H meetings, EG managed to take a map in both games. Still, I am not brave enough to back them to get one here, so I am going with a straight win on Astralis.

The Pick: Astralis to win (-286 @LOOT.BET)