CS2 Betting Guide 2024 – Season Overview and Predictions

Counter-Strike 2 officially launched on 27 September, replacing Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which has been around for years.

Starting from the winter of 2023, prominent Counter-Strike tournaments, now featuring CS2 betting opportunities, transitioned to the latest installment before CS:GO eventually bowed out of the professional scene.

Players wrapped up the 2023 season in the embrace of the new game, and enthusiasts can anticipate the commencement of the new season in the second week of January.

2024 will be marked by a change in the schedule, with the year ending with the biggest tournament in China and two Majors in 2024 – Copenhagen at the end of March and Shanghai in December.

Unlike before, the players’ break will be in the summer, a change welcomed by the world’s best players, who can finally take a break during the summer.

Key Highlights:

1. Team Liquid:
   • Underwent significant changes last season.
   • New lineup boasts experienced players like Twistzz, cadiaN, and YEKINDAR.
   • Potential to break into the Top 5 if skullz performs well.
2. Falcons:
   • Made notable signings including Magisk and ENCE trio.
   • S1mple joins on a one-month loan, replacing BOROS.
   • Showed promise at IEM Katowice despite semifinal loss to Team Spirit but failed to qualify for the Major.
3. Astralis:
   • After IEM Katowice’s disappointment and not qualifying for the Major, Benched blameF, acquired br0 from Monte, with dev1ce taking up the IGL role.
   • Coachless for now, still finding their footing.
4. MOUZ:
   • Added Brollan to replace frozen.
   • Showed strength at IEM Katowice but fell short in semifinals against FaZe.
   • Promising performance, easily qualified for PGL Major Copenhagen 2024.
5. Team Spirit:
   • Welcomes new season with a refreshed lineup.
   • Impressive LAN debut at IEM Katowice, winning the tournament.
   • Donk awarded MVP, team considered strong favorites for upcoming events.
6. Heroic:
   • Overhauled lineup with only two remaining members.
   • New coach sAw leads a revamped team.
   • Expectations high but challenging to replicate past success.
7. CS2 Betting Strategies:
   • Match betting, round betting, and handicap betting options.
   • Knowledge of team strengths and map preferences is crucial.
8. Profitable Betting Approach:
   • Focus on map winner markets for targeted esports betting.
   • Esports expertise provides an edge against bookmakers.
9. Future Counter-Strike 2 Tournaments:
   • PGL CS2 Major, IEM China, ESL Pro League, IEM Dallas, BLAST Premier Spring Final, YaLLa Compass in 2024.

The changes in the top Counter-Strike teams started at the end of the season, but during the break, all the remaining esports organizations finally formed. Long-time FaZe player Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken has left the team and returned to his former organization, Liquid.

However, FaZe quickly replaced him with David “frozen” Černansky, a Slovakian with a lot of experience still considered promising. There was also a change in the current top team, Vitality, as British William “mezii” Merriman replaced Emil “Magisk” Reif.

Ahead of the new season, there are a few teams that will get a lot of attention and show a lot of promise.

One of the most intriguing teams in the upcoming season is Team Liquid. The team underwent several changes last season with the arrival of Robert “Patsi” Isyanov and Aleks “Rainwaker” Petrov.

However, this project was not a success for the team, and only two players remained – Latvian Mareks “YEKINDAR” Galinskis and Canadian Keith “NAF” Markovič. They were joined by long-time Heroic leader Casper “cadiaN” Moller, the Russel above “Twistzz” Van Dulken and Brazilian Felipe “skullz” Medeiros.

First of all, the new line-up is very experienced. Twistzz has won the Grand Slam twice; Heroic has been the best team in the world for a long time with cadiaN, and YEKINDAR, after giving up In-game leader role, is back to his usual position where he is considered one of the best.

Only skullz doesn’t have the same experience as his teammates, but the Brazilian has been getting nice words since he joined the team. If the player can handle his tasks, this team has the potential to be in the Top 5 next year.

Saudi Arabian organization has been around for several years and decided to shake up the market and buy some of the best Counter-Strike players ahead of the upcoming season.

The team’s original plan didn’t work out, as Nikola “NiKo” Kovac stayed with the G2 organization. However, the Falcons brought in one of the best and most titled CS coaches, Danny “zonic” Sorensen.

The first signing was the experienced, multiple Major winner Emil “Magisk” Reif from Denmark. The team, which had been without any signings for a long time, acquired the ENCE trio of Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, Pavle “maden” Boškovič, and Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia. The fifth player was Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas, who played here last year.

IEM Katowice was the first tournament for the newly-formed team, and it looked solid. The Falcons lost their first group game 0-2 against Eternal Fire but then won three games in a row to qualify for the playoffs.

They looked particularly solid in the last two against Complexity and NaVi but lost 0:2 to Team Spirit in the semifinal.

Falcons have made a surprising decision to bench Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas. In a shocking move, they have brought in Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev on a one-month loan from Natus Vincere.

The Ukrainian superstar is returning to Counter-Strike after taking a break from competition in October. The Saudi organization made this roster change just a few days after their disappointing exit from PGL Major Copenhagen Europe RMR.

S1mple, upon announcing his break, expressed his curiosity towards the offers he would receive upon his return. He also mentioned that he would be open to switching roles to become a rifler since he felt that the AWP was not as effective in Counter-Strike 2.

Last year, Astralis underwent several changes, with a new line-up around Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer.

In the end, the changes didn’t work out, and at the end of 2023, after the drama in Heroic, two top 20 players – Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard and Martin “stavn” Lund – moved over to Astralis.

However, after the disappointing IEM Katowice performance and shockingly not qualifying for the PGL CS2 Major in Copenhagen, the team decided to bench Benjamin “blameF” Bremer and acquired Alexander “br0” Bro from Monte, while Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz is taking up on IGL role.

The Danish team has high goals, but it is worth noting that it still needs a coach.

We need to give The Astralis organization some time at the beginning of the season, as it usually takes a while for newly formed teams to start showing their best game.

For this reason, taking Astralis with a pinch of salt in the upcoming tournaments is recommended, as they can surprise both positively and negatively. It will also be challenging for other teams to play against Astralis initially, as there will be no time to analyze their game.

MOUZ finished last year as one of the better teams, but at the end of the year they lost one of their key players, 21-year-old David “frozen” Chernansky. He moved to FaZe to replace Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, who left for Liquid. There were a lot of questions about who MOUZ would take in his place.

Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, 21, joined the team, and IEM Katowice has shown that the move has been pretty solid. Although he is quite young, he has been playing Counter-Strike professionally for more than six years. One of Sweden’s most talented players looked very solid at IEM Katowice.

MOUZ beat Cloud9 2-1 in the group stage, then beat GamerLegion 2-0 in the semi-finals, and left ENCE with no chance in the group final, only to lose to FaZe in the seminal. The team looks promising, as they easily qualified for PGL Major Copenhagen 2024.

Team Spirit welcomes the new season with a slightly renewed line-up. Danil “donk” Kryshkovets and Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia joined the team mid-last year. They are extremely young but talented players – “donk” recently celebrated his 17th birthday and “zont1x” turned 18.

A month ago, 22-year-old Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov, considered one of the best players in 2022, joined the team. They join Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov, 27, and Boris “magixx” Vorobiev, 20, who have been with the team for over four years.

It was unclear what to expect from Spirit in this tournament, as it was the team’s first LAN tournament. However, the first matches showed that Spirit can go very far.

In the group stage, they won 2:1 against NaVi and smashed Complexity 2:0, and in the group finals, they didn’t leave any chance to one of the best teams – FaZe.

After that, the didn’t lose a single map and lifted the IEM Katowice trophy, with donk receiving MVP of the tournament.

Spirit will be considered one of the tournament’s favorites this year with such a potential team.

Heroic is among the teams that have changed the most. The line-up of Heroic is intriguing, and they already proved so by beating teams such as Astralis and qualifying for the Major.

Last year, this organization was at the top of the rankings several times and played in various finals, but eventually, the line-up fell apart.

Eetu “sAw” Saha is the new coach. At the same time, the two remaining Heroic members, Rene “TeSeS” Madsen and Rasmus “sjuush” Beck, are joined by Guy “NertZ” Iluz, Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi and Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski. It will be tough to repeat the achievements of last season’s Heroic team, but the new team should not be underestimated.

Blast Premier Spring Groups and IEM Katowice were the first tournaments of the year, and things will only pick up from there. For the first few tournaments, look out for teams that have retained their cores and will be able to show continuity.

Completely new teams may surprise you, as other teams have yet to have the chance to analyze them. As a result, betting against newly formed teams is risky. Next upcoming Counter-Strike tournaments in 2024:

• PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen – 21 – 31 March
• IEM China – 8 – 14 April
• ESL Pro League Season 19 – 23 April – 12 May
• IEM Dallas – 27 May – 2 June
• BLAST Premier Spring Final – 12 – 16 June
• YaLLa Compass – 5 – 9 June

Counter-Strike 2 is currently one of the most prominent esports platforms available. It is a multiplayer first-person shooter game well-suited for large-scale multiplayer gameplay. This feature is essential for a game that aims to enter the esports betting market successfully, and Counter-Strike 2 has done that.

The game has two teams, the terrorists and the counter-terrorists. The game has 15 rounds per half, so 30 rounds across the two halves. The team to win 16 rounds is the winner, and that is when the game ends. To win a round, you must eliminate every opposing team member or complete the objective.

The terrorists have the objective of planting an explosive and detonating it before the time runs out. In contrast, counter-terrorists have to prevent this by stopping it from being planted or defusing it afterward.

The mass multiplayer and team format is precisely what you need for an esports game, and you would easily think that the game was designed explicitly with esports in mind, but that isn’t the case.

The game is played by millions of people worldwide online, and it is used for some of the most significant esports events.

If you are a new player looking to bet on CS2, then there are three main CS2 gambling markets you need to know about. The first and easiest way to get into this is CS2 match betting. This market is as simple as it gets; you are picking the winner of the game overall.

When betting here, it doesn’t matter about the score, method of victory, or anything else; it’s simply who wins. This is certainly it if you are looking for the simplest way to get into CS2 profit.

The second CS bets market is a way to split the game down into individual segments if you wish to do that. Here, you can bet on a particular round on a specific match, a tiny part of the game.

These are the kind of CS2 betting lines that many people are turning to, as it offers them a quick way to get involved, which means CS2 betting and winning in a short period and not waiting for the entire game to finish.

The final way to make CS2 bets is if you are looking to add value to your pick if you think they can win and win easily. This is by using the CS2 handicap betting line on your bet, which, if you are betting on the favorite, increases the betting odds because they have a fictional deficit to make up.

The handicap line is used in many sports, and those who bet on it will be familiar with how it works. You can use it to bet on underdogs, but the primary use is to bet on a favorite that you think will easily win, so you add the handicap element into the bet to give you a bigger payout.

There are other CS2 betting markets available, but to get you started, these are the three you should concentrate on.

Not all bookmakers will accept bets on CS2. This growing market continues to improve, so it is vital to compare what is on offer with the different betting websites before you decide who to bet with.

Look out for bookmakers at the forefront of the growth in this sector. If you do that, you know the bookmaker will constantly look to improve and offer you a better service.

It would help if you also looked out for the number of betting opportunities, both in terms of the number of tournaments covered and the amount of betting markets per match.

Some bookmakers who do cover esports will only cover the significant events throughout the year, while others will go into more depth.

You may not need the smaller events right now, and you may not watch or make CS2 bets on them, but by covering them, it is a sign that the bookmaker takes the CS2 gamble very seriously, which makes them a good choice for you.

The key to profit with CS2 is to get to know the teams involved intimately and their strengths and weaknesses. You can use this information on one specific CS2 game betting market: the map winner market.

Here, you are not betting on a full game; you are betting on one map and one battle, which cuts down the game into a small piece.

If you know the teams and their strengths and weaknesses, you will be able to work out which maps suit them best and which do not suit the opposition. Combining a solid map for your team with one that you think the opposition will struggle on gives you an advantage that you can use when betting on games.

Everyone is still learning about esports in general, and the more information you have, the more chance you have of getting one over on your bookmaker.

Unlike other sports, betting sites do not have an entire team to share knowledge as they would with football; their esports team will be small, maybe even just one or two people, giving you the chance to outthink them.

If you become an esports expert, then there is every chance you will know more about esports, specifically CS2, than your bookmaker. When you hold the upper hand with information, it is simply a case of waiting for them to put their prices up and picking the holes in their knowledge.

There is a real chance for esports players to show off their knowledge by outsmarting their bookmaker right now, so if you are very knowledgeable, then now is the time to take advantage.