MAD LIONS VS COPENHAGEN FLAMES CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS
CSGO Betting Odds:	MAD Lions $1.67 at GG Bet | Flames $2.13 at GG Bet
When:	March 17, 2020 at 10:00 PST
Watch Live:	Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/flashpointcs)

MAD LIONS VS COPENHAGEN FLAMES FLASHPOINT SEASON 1 BETTING PREVIEW

The lower bracket fixture of Group A at FLASHPOINT will feature an exciting clash between two Danish rosters in MAD Lions and Copenhagen Flames, who will compete for a spot in the lower bracket finals and a guaranteed 30 playoffs points.

MAD Lions entered the inaugural season of FLASHPOINT with a lot to prove after their disappointing ninth-12th finish at the Intel Extreme Masters XIV – World Championship. A top finish at IEM Katowice Open Qualifiers, a third-place finish at closed qualifiers and two top-four placements at DreamHack Open Leipzig 2020 and ICE Challenge allowed to 12th in the the global CS:GO esports standings, but internal struggles have hampered their progress of late.

Earlier this month, MAD Lions benched in-game leader Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen amid some disagreements with the squad and replaced him with Asger “AchilioN” Grunnet Larsen, who was previously an inactive member of CPH Flames. The 23-year-old Danish pro, however, failed to lead his new team to success in the opening fixture of FLASHPOINT, where MAD Lions suffered a shock defeat against HAVU.

While it is up to debate whether MAD Lions are weaker without HUDEN or their poor performance against HAVU had something to do with the fact it was AcilioN’s debut, one thing is for sure – MAD Lions looked very iffy.

Copenhagen Flames lost their opener at FLASHPOINT against c0ntact Gaming, which was an expected result. The Danes showed some quality on Nuke, where they pushed their adversaries into overtime (16-19), but that good work was undone with a 5-16 defeat on the second map.

Their best-performing player was Rene “TeSeS” Madsen with a 0.89 rating across the series, while the team averaged only 0.848. It’s also worth noting that TeSeS averaged 1.17 on Nuke and 0.44 on Mirage, so it’s hard to count on him to carry his team to victory against MAD Lions.

CPH Flames are one of the underdogs at FLASHPOINT, which is nothing shocking as they were lucky to gain a place in the tournament to begin with. TeSeS and company finished the LAN qualifiers, in fifth-sixth place but were gifted an invite because BIG withdrew from FLASHPOINT at the last minute and decided to compete at ESL Pro League Season 11 instead.

MAD LIONS VS COPENHAGEN FLAMES FLASHPOINT SEASON 1 BETTING PREDICTIONS

MAD Lions are priced as heavy favourites by esports bookmakers and it’s hard to argue against that. Not only do they have better individual quality, but they also field AchilioN, who was previously CPH Flames’ IGL, meaning MAD Lions will know exactly how to defeat their compatriots.

Although AchilioN and his team are a stronger team on paper, we have a difficult time trusting a team that just recently replaced their IGL. In their clash with HAVU, MAD Lions looked very disorganised and it seemed like they had no idea how to approach the game, which points to a problem with their leadership.

MAD Lions should still come out ahead; however, due to their iffy display in game one of the tournament, we don’t believe they’re capable of a clean sweep. The favourites are the safest bet here, but it’s hard to ignore the $2.04 offered on over 2.5 maps.