ASTRALIS vs NINJAS IN PYJAMAS CS:GO BETTING & MATCH DETAILS
CSGO Betting Odds:	Astralis $1.99 at GG Bet | NiP $1.76 at GG Bet
CSGO Betting Lines:	Astralis +1.5 at $1.34 | NiP -1.5 at $3.09
When:	June 9, 2020 at 14:00 CEST
Watch Live:	Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/dreamhackcs)

ASTRALIS VS NINJAS IN PYJAMAS DREAMHACK MASTERS SPRING 2020: EUROPE BETTING PREVIEW

Ninjas in Pyjamas will meet Astralis in the DreamHack Masters Spring: Europe lower bracket fixture on Tuesday, when the two European titans will duke it out for a guaranteed top-eight finish and 65 Electronic Sports League (ESL) Pro Tour points.

To say Astralis struggled throughout the group stage of DreamHack Masters Spring would be an understatement. Although the Danes came away with a 2-1 record, their overall performances were rather disappointing.

In the opening match, Astralis took down Heroic, although they faced strong resistance on both Train (19-16) and Inferno (16-14). Things improved slightly in their clash with North (16-4 and 16-8), but G2 Esports took down the former world no.1 team with dominant performances on both Dust II (16-13) and Nuke (16-7) to secure a spot in the upper bracket.

While it is somewhat surprising to see the four-time Major champions struggle to such a degree, we must remember that the current version of Astralis fields only three core members. In-game leader Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander has taken medical leave, while Andreas “Xyp9x” H?jsleth stepped down from the active roster at the end of May.

As their replacements, Astralis decided to field the recently signed Jakob “JUGi” Hansen and acquired Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer from Heroic as a stand-in player. Additionally, Emil “Magisk” Reif has been moved to the IGL role, which has negatively affected his performances.

Historically, Ninjas in Pyjamas have struggled against their southern neighbours. However, the Swedes will surely fancy their chances against the weakened Astralis, who they defeated 16-7 at the start of the month at the BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown.

Like Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas did not produce any remarkable results throughout the DreamHack Masters Spring group stage, but it would be fair to say that Hampus “hampus” Poser and his team were placed in a much tougher group. They started their run with a pair of 0-2 losses against Team Vitality and Natus Vincere but bounced back with a 2-0 sweep against ENCE on the final day.

Before the DreamHack Masters, Ninjas in Pyjamas participated at the ESL One: Road to Rio – Europe, where they looked very sharp throughout the group stage but fell short against FaZe Clan (1-2) and Vitality (1-2) in the playoffs to finish in fifth place.

Similarly to Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas recently made a change to their IGL position. In May they benched Jonas “Lekr0” Olofsson and replaced him with hampus, who arrived from GamerLegion. After a slow start, hampus has adapted to life at NiP and the team’s results have picked up accordingly.

ASTRALIS VS NINJAS IN PYJAMAS DREAMHACK MASTERS SPRING 2020: EUROPE BETTING PREDICTIONS

Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated Astralis on June 1 at the BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 European Showdown. While it is risky to value a best-of-one (Bo1) match too highly, that result is a clear indication that the Danes are not the same team with new players.

Snappi and JUGi are not suitable replacements for Xyp9x and gla1ve and without their two core players, Astralis are a shadow of their former selves. What’s more, Magisk taking over as an IGL has seen his average rating plummet well below 1.00, meaning all the pressure falls on Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz and Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen.

The latest odds at CS:GO betting sites favour Ninjas in Pyjamas here, but we expected them to be much shorter. The -1.5 map handicap on NiP is a bit of a stretch, but the young Swedish team should get the win.