The latest season of Counter Strike: Global Offensive's ESL Pro League continues at a furious pace with two more matches in the group stage on Friday.
Season 17 of the ESL Pro League features 32 teams and begins with a group stage made up of four triple-elimination groups, each comprising four teams.
At the end of the group phase, four teams progress from each section to the single-elimination bracket playoffs and compete for a share of the $850,000 prize pool.
The champions of season 17 of the ESL Pro League will also secure spots at both the IEM Cologne 2023 and the BLAST Premier World Final 2023 at the end of the year.
Group A has already concluded with Cloud9, Outsiders, G2 Esports and Fnatic the teams to have booked their places in the playoffs and two teams have joined them from Group B.
Heroic and MOUZ have to play out the Group B upper-bracket final but, regardless of that result, they will both be in the knockout phase.
The other two spots in Group B are still up for grabs with the group's two mid-bracket semi-finals taking place in Malta on Friday between Movistar Riders and FURIA and then SAW and BIG.
| What | Movistar Riders v FURIA |
| Where | Malta |
| When | 12:00pm ET, Friday March 3rd 2023 |
| How to watch | ESL Youtube / Twitch |
| Odds | Movistar Riders +275, FURIA -400 |
Considered the biggest hitters in CS:GO in Brazil, FURIA are used to playing in major events and they are strongly fancied to make the mid-bracket final at this season's ESL Pro League.
They started strongly in the upper bracket, sweeping aside Imperial Esports 2-0, before facing a tough upper-bracket semi-final against MOUZ.
They failed to win a map in that contest but that does not mean it was not close - FURIA won 21 rounds across the two maps.
As a result of that loss, they now find themselves in the mid bracket but at -400 they are expected to beat their next opponents Movistar Riders, who lost their opener against Heroic in the upper bracket and then beat Complexity 2-0 in their first mid-bracket contest.
Ultimately, both of these sides have won the matches they were arguably expected to and lost their other contests against strong Heroic and MOUZ outfits.
FURIA may have big-game experience but beyond their run to the last four of the IEM Rio Major on home soil in November, they have not made much of an impact on the biggest stage recently and punters may not want to rush to back them in this fixture. Instead, a better bet could be over 2.5 maps at +110.
Esports: LPL Spring Wednesday match previews
| What | SAW v BIG |
| Where | Malta |
| When | 1:30pm ET, Friday March 3rd 2023 |
| How to watch | ESL Youtube / Twitch |
| Odds | SAW +250, BIG -350 |
Portuguese outfit SAW earned their place at this season's ESL Pro League after making the top two in the ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference Europe but they have looked a little out of their depth in Malta.
They were not just beaten but were completely overwhelmed by MOUZ in their upper-bracket opener, losing 2-0 and winning only 12 rounds across the two maps.
And although they won their first match in the mid bracket, it was only against Imperial Esports and was not the most convincing performance as they edged it 2-1, losing the second map 16-7 on Overpass.
And against BIG in the mid-bracket semi-finals, they are worth opposing. BIG, who are -350 to win this match, are a respectable 16th in the HLTV world rankings and can be a handy side, having finished runners-up at the Elisa Masters Espoo in November and competing in the IEM Katowice in February.
In this season's ESL Pro League, they opened with a decent 2-1 win over Complexity in the first round of the upper bracket before being drawn against a strong Heroic side in the semi-finals.
And although they lost that match, they put up a fight, losing 2-1 and winning 46 rounds across the three maps. They are a capable side and can win this match against SAW 2-0, which is priced at +110.
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