CS2 Esports World Cup Odds: Format, Schedule, Where to Bet & Predictions

Luke Warr Published August 14, 2025

The Esports World Cup is wrapping up before long and it saved its Counter-Strike 2 tournament until right near the end, but who can you most reliably bet on to win, and which teams have the best esports betting odds?

The Counter-Strike esports scene was upended at IEM Cologne when Team Vitality lost to MOUZ, ending a streak of non-stop championship runs that dated back to February. Now that the seal is broken, will Counter-Strike 2 return to normal parity? Or is this just a hiccup in the year of Vitality?

Event Overview

Tournament Format

• The Esports World Cup will have a straightforward 16-team, single-elimination bracket with no group stage.
• All matches are set to be a best-of-three, excluding the grand finals. The grand finals are best-of-five.

This bucks the general trend in Counter-Strike 2 esports where finals are best-of-five matches. The event will also take a page out of PGL’s playbook by having a third-place decider match.

Alongside the prize pool money paid out to players is the Esports World Cup’s club championship. Esports organizations compete across all games hosted at the Esports World Cup by earning points when their sponsored players place well in tournaments. The team that earns the most points wins the club championship.

Dates and Schedule

The Esports World Cup’s Counter-Strike tournament begins on August 20, 2025 at 6 AM EST / 12 PM CET.

Since there is no group stage, the action immediately begins with the playoffs. The tournament wraps on August 24, 2025 with the grand finals and a third-place decider.

Round 1 (Aug. 20-21)

• Vitality vs Liquid
• Astralis vs TYLOO
• Navi vs 3DMAX
• GamerLegion vs The Mongolz
• Virtus.pro vs MOUZ
• G2 Esports vs Team Falcons
• FaZe Clan vs Aurora Gaming
• Heroic vs Team Spirit

Quarterfinals (Aug. 21-22)

• Team Vitality vs TyLoo
• 3DMAX vs The MongolZ
• Aurora Gaming vs Heroic
• MOUZ vs Team Falcons

Semifinals (Aug. 23)

• Team Vitality vs The MongolZ
• Team Falcons vs Aurora Gaming

Third-Place Match (Aug. 24)

• Team Vitality (1.42) vs Team Falcons (2.78) – (3 AM EST / 9 PM CEST)

Grand Final (Aug. 24)

• The MongolZ (1.46) vs Aurora Gaming (2.65) – (6 AM EST / 12 PM CEST)

CS2 Esports World Cup Outright Odds: Who are the favorites?

Odds as of August 13 via GG.BET.

Event Favorites and Teams to Watch

While CS2 betting has been fairly easy to predict for most of 2025, IEM Cologne made things much more difficult.

• Team Vitality has been the clear favorite in every tournament it has played in, and it lived up to that billing by winning all those tournaments. Until IEM Cologne and the BLAST Bounty event, that is.
• MOUZ topped Vitality in the semifinals in Cologne, snapping Vitality’s streak of first-place finishes.
• Team Spirit then swooped in to steal the tournament, beating MOUZ in the finals.

This series of events returned Counter-Strike to normal in some ways, with multiple teams having a credible chance to win the tournament.

Vitality

Despite not winning IEM Cologne or the BLAST Bounty event, Team Vitality remains the definitive Esports World Cup betting favorite and the odds reflect that status. A single loss in IEM Cologne and a series dropped to The Mongolz hasn’t undone everything Vitality has accomplished throughout 2025.

Spirit

Team Spirit sits in second when it comes to outright betting, which is understandable given how it just won IEM Cologne. The team is entering the Esports World Cup in an awkward position however, with Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich reportedly set to replace Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia after the event. It’s easy to imagine this leading to some interpersonal tension or motivation issues at the event.

MOUZ

MOUZ is a surprisingly distant third in its outright odds. MOUZ was the team to finally defeat Vitality and has a winning record against Spirit in 2025, but hasn’t gotten respect from bookmakers, making an interesting potential pick for bettors.

Teams to Watch

Team Falcons is an interesting option on paper and could be a tempting dark horse, but it’s also a side that you shouldn’t bet on.

• Top prospect Maksim “kyousuke” Lukin debuted for Falcons at IEM Cologne 2025 and looked solid individually
• The team ultimately failed to clear the group stage despite that boost.
• Falcons could be a serious threat if it can come together, but it feels unlikely to happen this quickly, if it ever happens for this roster of players.

Team Falcons

Past that, no team has a particularly good chance. While The MongolZ, Natus Vincere, and FaZe Clan are all very credible teams and could be worth considering for bettors looking to back longer CS2 odds, they face a steep uphill climb.

Where to Bet on CS2 at the Esports World Cup

GG.BET is among the best options for betting on Counter-Strike 2 esports, and that’s still the case with the Esports World Cup.

While many sportsbooks offer esports at this point, GG.BET makes esports its main focus. This means that it has a diverse set of markets to choose from for CS2 at the Esports World Cup, ranging from winner outrights to kill counts for individual players. Sign up using a GG.Bet bonus code today.

Jaxon’s Pick for the EWC CS2 Tournament Winner

Team Vitality is the team to roll with for outright betting in the Esports World Cup Counter-Strike tournament.

While Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and company are coming off losses at IEM Cologne 2025 and the BLAST Bounty tournament, it’s impossible to deny how good Vitality has been for most of 2025. More importantly, there’s no hint of Vitality losing a step. The loss to MOUZ was moreso a matter of MOUZ playing an exceptional match rather than the conclusion of a prolonged skid from Vitality. A loss to The Mongolz was more concerning, but there’s still plenty of reason to believe in this Vitality squad on a stage as big as EWC.

The 1.9 speak to this, while still offering a strong return. Look for the squad to return to their winning ways here.

Featured image: EWC Foundation