The Counter Strike: Global Offensive BLAST Premier Fall Finals came to an end on Sunday with Heroic building on their runners-up berth at the IEM Rio Major in Brazil by beating FaZe Clan in the Grand Final.
And as the dust settles on the major event, there is a sprinkling of CS:GO action across the divisions on Monday with games in Germany's ESL Meisterschaft as well as the European Global Offensive Champions.
Here is a look at ALTERNATE aTTax against Sprout in the mid-bracket final of the ESL Meisterschaft and HONORIS against 500 in the Global Offensive Champions upper-bracket quarter-finals.
Tough to predict winner in mid-bracket final
What: ALTERNATE aTTaX vs Sprout, ESL Meisterschaft
Where: Hanover, Germany
When: 13:00, Monday 28th November 2022
Odds: ALTERNATE aTTax 7/4, Sprout 2/5
Danish outfit Sprout, who are 19th in the HLTV CS:GO world rankings, are progressing well this season and are 2/5 to win their ESL Meisterschaft mid-bracket final against ALTERNATE aTTax, who can be backed at 7/4.
Sprout failed to cause much of a stir in the Legends Stage of the recent IEM Rio Major in Brazil, winning only one of their four matches, but the tournament experience should have done them good nonetheless.
And following that, they put in a decent display in the A-Tier event - the Elisa Masters Espoo- in Finland, initially topping their section with a 4-1 win-loss record before losing to German outfit BIG in the semi-finals.
They won three and drew two of their five matches to top the upper group in the main group stage of the ESL Meisterschaft, consequently progressing directly to the upper bracket final, in which they lost to BIG Academy.
They then dropped down to the mid-bracket semi-finals, losing to opponents ALTERNATE aTTax 2-1 before a win over ONYX Talents later in the same day put them back in contention for the title.
They are now preparing to face ALTERNATE aTTax again and are expected to win this time, having been unfortunate to lose their previous meeting.
That meeting produced a total of 85 rounds and the teams could again be tough to separate, so ALTERNATE aTTax are worth chancing at +1.5 on the match handicap at 8/15.
500 should get the better of HONORIS following fine showing in Finland
What: HONORIS v 500, Global Offensive Champions
Where: Europe
When: 15:00, Monday 28th November 2022
Odds: HONORIS 9/4, 500 1/3
Season two of CS:GO's Global Offensive Champions in Europe is about to get underway with a double-elimination bracket in the playoffs and HONORIS are 9/4 to beat 500, who are 1/3 to triumph, in the first match taking place on Monday.
The winners of this tie will progress to the semi-finals of the upper bracket and will take on either Sangal Esports or Websterz.
It may only be a B-Tier event but there is a prize pool of $50,000 on the line and Bulgarian outfit 500 have looked good recently.
Although down in 29th in the HLTV world CS:GO rankings, 500 are fresh from a decent showing in the Elisa Masters in Espoo in Finland.
The Bulgarian side defied expectations in that tournament to win four of their five matches in Group B with only Fnatic finishing above them as a result of their head-to-head record.
500 managed to beat Astralis, Complexity, Bad News Eagles and SAW to second spot in the section and consequently progressed straight to the tournament's playoffs.
Unfortunately, the quarter-finals was the end of the road for them as they went down 2-0 against BIG but even then they managed to hold their own with 22 rounds won across Nuke and Inferno.
HONORUS of Poland are 58th in the HLTV world rankings and are worth opposing against a 500 team who should take a lot of confidence from their recent performance in Finland.
The best way to approach this from a betting perspective is to go for 500 at -1.5 on the match handicap at 6/5, while they are also worth a bet at 4/9 to win the first map.
Other teams involved in the ongoing season of the Global Offensive Champions are Tricked Esport, Dynamo Eclot, 00 Prospects and iG International.
