Some esports grand finals do not start at 0-0. Formats with an upper bracket sometimes award the finalist from that bracket a one-map advantage, so the series begins at 1-0 before a single round is played. Every market on that match is then asking a different question than the format label suggests, and the first thing to read is not the price but the starting score.
The series is shorter than it says
A best-of-three with a one-map advantage is a race to two map wins where one side needs a single map and the other needs two. The only possible final scores are 2-0, 2-1 and 1-2: the team with the advantage cannot lose 0-2, because it started one up.
That changes the match-winner price's meaning. A team at 1.40 in a normal best-of-three and the same team at 1.40 with a map in hand are not the same proposition: the second needs to win half as many maps. The Dota 2 odds page warns against carrying the standard best-of-three shortcuts into any series with an awarded starting advantage, and this is the reason.
Handicaps and totals move with the start
Settlement math still applies the handicap to the final series score, awarded map included. A 2-0 with the advantage means the adjusted score for a -1.5 handicap is 0.5-0, a win; a 2-1 becomes 0.5-1, a loss. The same final scores as a normal series, reached by a shorter path.
Totals are the market to treat with the most care. Whether an over or under counts only the maps played or the awarded map as well is defined by the market's rules, not by intuition, and formats differ by tournament. The market guide repeats the same caution for unusual formats: awarded maps can change settlement, so the market label outranks any habit.
Why the advantage exists at all
The map in hand rewards the upper-bracket run, and the format appears most often in the grand finals of double-elimination events. When you see one, the market is pricing the whole package: the stronger seed and the shorter path together. A price that looks too short for the matchup often makes sense once the awarded map is counted.
What to check before comparing two prices
Confirm the starting score, the format label and the market scope, in that order. Two desks can list the same grand final with different labels, one folding the advantage into the series market and another pricing only the maps played. If the label does not say, the operator's rules decide, and no price comparison means anything until you know which contest is being priced.
An awarded map is a head start written into the rules. Count it before you count anything else.