Esports Betting Tips – CWL Championship 2018, Day Five

Joe O'Brien

The biggest event of the Call of Duty calendar is upon us.

The CWL Championship kicked off on Wednesday August 15, with 32 teams facing off for the most prestigious trophy the game has to offer. It’s the final showdown of the WWII season.

This year’s world championship has been one of the most unpredictable to date, with crazy upsets, big names crashing out early, and some underdogs making surprising runs. After four days of competition, only six squads remain for the last day of the tournament.

We’ve teamed up with Rivalry.gg to bring daily insight into the event for prospective betters. With few matches left to play and only the strongest teams remaining, we’re changing up the format for the final day – rather than pick out matches in different categories, we’re simply reviewing the three confirmed match-ups, so you can make an informed decision if you choose to place a bet on the final day.


eUnited vs Luminosity

When: Sunday August 19, 16:00 UTC

Odds: 1.77 vs 1.87

Aside from a single slip-up against Elevate in the first round of the winner bracket, Luminosity has been in blistering form at the CWL Championship.

They didn’t drop a map in the group stage, eliminated pre-tournament favorites Rise Nation with a reverse sweep, swept aside Lightning Pandas with ease, and sent Red Reserve home, another of the top teams coming into the event.

Right now, it really looks like there’s nothing this Luminosity team can’t do. Matthew ‘FormaL’ Piper and Johnathon ‘John’ Perez are showing form reminiscent of their respective glory days, during which both won CWL Championship titles as the MVP for their teams. Both Josiah ‘Slacked’ Berry and Jordan ‘JKap’ Kaplan are playing their roles well, the latter looking to make his fifth appearance in a CWL Championship grand final.

eUnited are no pushovers, however. They themselves stormed through the winner bracket, sending both Red Reserve and Unilad to the lower bracket before falling at the hands of an indomitable Team Kaliber. They too have shown flashes of form that make an eUnited championship look very feasible.

This is very much a match that could go either way, but we’d give a slight edge to Luminosity to take it. They’ve built up a lot of momentum through an impressive lower bracket run, while eUnited has an unfortunate history of promising tournament runs cut short by consecutive losses in the playoff stage.

Whichever of these two teams survives this match could very well go on to take the trophy, and certainly will be favored no matter who they face in the next round of the lower bracket.


Team Envy vs FaZe Clan

When: Sunday August 19, 16:00 UTC

Odds: 1.87 vs 1.77

This isn’t the first time these two teams have clashed at the CWL Championship. They met in the very first round of the winner bracket, where Envy came up clutch in a fifth game to send FaZe to the lower bracket.

FaZe are no strangers to lower bracket runs, however, and they’ve managed to fight their way back to this rematch. Team Sween was their first victim, before 3-0 sweeps over Unilad and Elevate carried them to championship Sunday.

Meanwhile, after beating FaZe, Envy took down Ghost Gaming, but fell to a reverse sweep from Evil Geniuses in the winner bracket semi-finals.

Within the context of this tournament it’s a tougher call, but taking a broader view of the season and recent events FaZe has definitely been the more impressive team. Neither looks likely to quite match the heights of some of the heaviest-hitters at this event – the likes of Team Kaliber, eUnited and Luminosity – but head-to-head either could take it.

Despite losing their earlier engagement, we’d give the edge to FaZe Clan to take revenge here. They have frequently shown a clutch factor that Envy doesn’t seem to match, with the exception of their last meeting. FaZe has a talent for grinding out tough series, and it seems unlikely that Envy will be able to sufficiently blitz them to nullify that.


Evil Geniuses vs Team Kaliber

When: Sunday August 19, 17:30 UTC

Odds: 2.07 vs 1.62

Evil Geniuses has had a spectacular run at this tournament, but it’s hard not to feel like this might be a bridge too far. In the winner bracket final they face a Team Kaliber that has been in phenomenal form throughout the winner bracket.

Team Kaliber’s side of the bracket was about as tough as could be. They beat Rise Nation in the first round, who were coming in as the predominant favorites as far as most were concerned. Elevate in round two is arguably a slightly softer opponent – though that match-up only occurred because Elevate upset Luminosity in round one.

Finally, Team Kaliber took on an eUnited in the winner bracket semi-final that has been looking incredibly hot in the playoff stages of the tournament.

Team Kaliber remains unbeaten in Hardpoint at this tournament, despite playing some of the best Hardpoint teams in the world. With all of their big rivals either taken care of or fighting from the lower bracket, Team Kaliber is now the biggest favorite not just for this match, but for the entire event.

Stranger things have happened at this tournament than Evil Geniuses beating Team Kaliber, but based on how formidable tK looks right now, smart money seems to be on them to secure a grand finals spot here.


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