BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 is the last Counter-Strike: Global Offensive S-Tier tournament of 2021 and the final event of the BLAST Premier series. It will feature 8 of the best CS: GO teams in the world, who will duke it out for the coveted trophy and the lion’s share of the $1,000,000 prize pool.
The BLAST Premier Series started in 2020 as an ambitious project that COVID-19 severely impaired. BLAST Initially intended to host 10 CS: GO tournaments but had to reduce the number to only 8, most held as regional competitions.
This season, the BLAST Premier Series featured half as many events, with the BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 marking the 5th and final tournament. Despite cutting the competition in half, BLAST kept the structure relatively the same, while the second-ending contest kept the same format as the Global Finals 2020.
If you’re looking to bet on 2021 BLAST Premier: World Final 2021, you won’t need to look far to realize that there is one clear favourite to win the whole thing and a handful of outsiders.
Natus Vincere enters the tournament as the undisputed best CS: GO team in the world. The Ukrainian-Russian squad have been nothing short of phenomenal in the latter stages of the year and have won every tournament they have attended since July, except for Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Fall: CIS, where they placed second.
Over that stretch, NaVi emerged victorious in some of the highest-rated events of the year, including PGL Major Stockholm 2021. Beyond that, NaVi won Intel Grand Slam Season 3 and finished atop of Regional Major Rankings 2021: CIS and the BLAST Premier World Leaderboard 2021.
We haven’t seen a team be as dominant as NaVi since Astralis in 2018-2019, and with the way the CIS squad is playing, it’s easy to understand why the top-rated online bookies have priced them at only 8/13 go all the way.
The BLAST Premier: World Final betting odds for 2021 heavily favour Natus Vincere, which is fair. They have been the best team of the year and have looked unstoppable for the past 6 months.
But there is one team that seems to have the recipe to derail NaVi, and that’s no other than their regional rivals, Gambit Esports. NaVi and Gambit met countless times in 2021, but most notably, they clashed in 3 tournament finals.
Natus Vincere emerged as the winners in 2 but needed 5 maps to defeat Gambit in the finals of StarLadder CIS RMR 2021 (3-2), and they had to admit defeat to Gambit (0-2) in the finals of Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Fall: CIS.
Gambit has proven before that they can defeat NaVi, so seeing the bookmakers price them as the second-favourites to win this tournament makes sense. But while Gambit Esports seem to know how to deal with NaVi, their performances on LAN have been disappointing.
Team Vitality entered BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 fresh off a title-winning run at Intel Extreme Masters XVI – Winter. It marked their first tournament title of the year, but it’s worth noting that NaVi did not attend that event, so we must take Vitality’s success with a grain of salt.
Regardless, the French squad has been enjoying a resurgence in recent months, and while they hadn’t won any tournaments before last weekend, they have achieved plenty. Most notably, Vitality finished IEM Fall Europe in 3rd, reached the Stockholm Major quarter-finals and claimed silver from BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2021 at the end of November.
Vitality could have won 2 more titles this season, but they lost the ESL Pro League Season 14 and the BLAST Premier: Fall Final 2021 against Natus Vincere. Still, both series went down to the wire (2-3, 1-2), suggesting that Vitality might be able to defeat Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and co. on a good day.
Many sportsIn-play modeLive streaming25+ sportsSuperb bonusesEasy to useVIP programLive gamesMany bonusesMany bonuses24/7 supportMobile appsLive bettingMany sportsFast payoutsThe CS: GO betting sites make it easy to bet on BLAST Premier: World Final, offering many betting opportunities for us to explore. But while most bookmakers will offer markets on the upcoming event, you should shop around and find the right bookie, preferably one with generous betting bonuses.
By betting on the outright winner, you’re predicting which team will go and win the tournament. It is one of the most popular bet types amongst Esports bettors, and while it carries a higher risk, outright markets are usually priced generously and offer better rewards.
A round winner bet is one of the least popular CS: GO bet types amongst casual bettors but can be a deadly weapon in the hands of an experienced punter who bets on live matches. As its name would suggest, you’re predicting which team will win the next round with this bet type.
Betting on total kills is precisely how it sounds – with this bet type, you’re predicting how many kills there will be in any given match. However, you don’t need to guess the exact number but only predict whether a game will see more or fewer than X kills.
Betting on total rounds in CS: GO is similar to betting on total kills in that you don’t have to guess the exact number but only predict whether the total number of rounds will exceed a certain line.
To access the total rounds bets on CS: GO betting sites, you must navigate to the over/under markets, where you can predict whether the game will go over the predetermined number presented by real money bookies.
Many handicap bet types are available when betting on CS: GO matches, but the most popular are kills, rounds, and map handicaps.
While kills don’t necessarily win you games in CS: GO, you can still bet on how efficient the teams will be when scoring them. With a kill handicap, you can give the underdogs an imaginary advantage of X kills or take the same amount away from the favourites.
When the game ends, you add or deduct the number from the final kill score. The kill handicap betting in CS: GO works much like goal handicap betting on football.
The process works the same way with maps and rounds handicap betting, meaning you add maps/rounds to the underdog’s final score or deduct maps/rounds from the favourite’s final score. The most popular is map handicap betting, but it is only available in the best-of series.
BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 will take place on December 14-19 at BLAST Studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. The tournament will welcome 8 CS: GO teams who have earned their spot at the event via individual tournament results or based on their BLAST global ranking.
The teams will compete in a double-elimination bracket, with all matches played as best-of-three (Bo3), including the grand finals. The prize pool is $1,000,000, with a $500,000 winner’s share.
Gambit qualified for the event by winning the BLAST Premier: Spring Finals, while Heroic earned their ticket for the tournament in April when they won ESL Pro League Season 13. NaVi is the only other team to qualify via tournament performances, having collected gold medals at ESL Pro League Season 14, Stockholm Major, and the BLAST Fall Finals.
G2 Esports, Team Vitality, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Astralis have all been invited due to their placement on the BLAST Premier World Leaderboard.
The live stream of the tournament will be available on Twitch and YouTube. It will be available in 4 languages, including English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese.
As a tournament that features only the top CS: GO teams in the world, it’s not easy to make a BLAST Premier: World Final prediction for 2021. But while it’s tough to say who will end up on top, we must touch on a couple of great picks.
The betting odds on Natus Vincere to win the tournament aren’t great, but they won’t get any better. It is the undisputed best team in the world, showing the levels of dominance we haven’t seen since the “Astralis Era.”
Betting on the favourites is not always the smartest choice, and there’s rarely any value in doing so. But with the form NaVi has been showing of late, it’s tough to doubt their chances to add another trophy to their cabinet.
We don’t expect Heroic to defeat Natus Vincere and win the whole thing, and we wouldn’t be surprised if they crashed out at the first hurdle. But while Heroic can be volatile, this team has a very high upside and is notoriously good on LAN.
Admittedly, they got seeded into a tough bracket with Gambit and NaVi, but it wouldn’t be unfair to say that Heroic is good enough to defeat both CIS juggernauts on a good day. The CS: GO bookmakers are underestimating Heroic and what they bring to the table, and while you could make a solid case for Heroic as a longshot bet to win the tournament (15/1), we’re happy to take Heroic to reach the finals at 5/1.
Team Vitality has found some severe traction of late, and it looks like they’re in the prime form to cause some damage at the BLAST Premier: World Final 2021. They’re priced as high as 8/1 to win the tournament with BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 odds and 7/2 to reach the finals.
Since we have a hard time fading NaVi, we wouldn’t consider betting on Vitality to win the title, but they’re a solid pick to reach the finals. Based on their recent showings, Vitality should make it out of their bracket, from where they only need to win one more game to reach the big stage.
Their odds of making it all the way aren’t very high, but Vitality certainly have a higher than 22.2% chance of reaching the finals. At the offered betting odds, we have to add VItality to our list of BLAST Premier: World Final 2021 betting tips.
With that, we conclude our CS: GO betting preview, providing you with all the information you will need to bet on BLAST Premier: World Final 2021.
