IEM Summer 2021 Odds, Preview, Prize Pool and Picks – Is Gambit the Best Bet?

• IEM Summer begins on June 3rd, with the best-of-five Grand Final taking place on June 13th
• Gambit are the slight favorites to win the $100,000 USD grand prize at +300
• The new map ‘Ancient’ will be added into the map pool, replacing ‘Train’, for IEM Summer

IEM Summer gets underway with the group stage from June 3rd to 6th, followed by the playoffs on June 11th to 13th. For the group stage, there are two groups of eight, with the top 3 teams from each group advancing, and the first place team from each group will skip straight to the semifinals.

Gambit enters as the favorites to win following a second place finish at DreamHack Masters Spring. With a tough field and a new map in the map pool, it’s anything but an easy win for Gambit. Here are the betting odds for IEM Summer.

IEM Summer 2021 Odds

Odds as of June 1st

The World Number 1

Through the first five months of 2021, Gambit has put together numerous impressive results. They finished first at the IEM World Championship and the BLAST Premier and then earned second place at their most recent tournament, DreamHack Masters Spring. All of those results has Gambit as the number one CSGO team in the world according to HLTV, and they’ve held that spot for over a month now.

Aside from being the current world number one, there’s a couple of reasons to believe in another tournament win for Gambit. At DreamHack Masters Spring, Gambit lost 3-0 in the finals to Natus Vincere. Luckily for Gambit and the other teams competing, NAVI is not participating in IEM Summer.

Gambit’s toughest competition will likely be Heroic. After a five-game set at ESL Pro League Season 13 that Heroic won, Gambit got revenge at the BLAST Premier with a 2-1 win. Gambit could very well go on to win this tournament, but with some moving parts and mixed results against Heroic, there’s better value to be had elsewhere, including Heroic.

Astralis or Virtus Pro?

For a long stretch of time, Astralis was the team to beat in the world of CSGO. However, while Gambit has excelled in the first half of 2021, Astralis has yet to really threaten to win a tournament. After a second place finish at the BLAST Premier: Global Finals back in January, Astralis has been consistently finishing just shy of the top 4. They’ve also struggled to beat Gambit and Heroic over the past couple of months. Heroic won the last two meetings without dropping a single map, and Gambit beat Astralis 2-0 back at ESL Pro League Season 13.

As for Virtus Pro, it’s kind of a similar story. They proved the ability to compete after a second place finish at the IEM World Championship, but generally, outside of that they’ve been consistently placing 7th to 8th. Gambit has also dominated VP in 2021 as they’ve won the past three matchups.

If you’re choosing between these two teams, I’d recommend Virtus Pro, but there are better bets to be had for IEM Summer.

IEM Summer 2021 Best Bet & Longshot

The team that I think could make a run at winning IEM Summer is G2. We’ve seen the progression of G2 over the course of 2021. In the lead-up to IEM Summer, G2 Esports qualified for the BLAST Premier Spring Finals and made the top four at DreamHack Masters Spring.  Although they’ve struggled against Gambit, they do have a recent win over Heroic at Flashpoint Season 3.

If there’s a team to pull off an underdog run at IEM Summer, it’ll likely be G2. If you want to bet on a dark horse then go with G2 Esports, but otherwise, I like Heroic at +400. They just took a series off of Gambit in April and have a bit better value than the favorites.

Pick: Heroic (+400)

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