🕹️ Esports 🎮 Prediction & Discussion Thread

[dothebeats]

I am glad these tournaments we have at the moment progressed to knockout stages and BO3 games.

Well business wise, its always good to drag this yearly tournament as long as possible to milk in more money from sponsors as they can set up booth and whatsoever during the tournaments. Viewers wise, no complaint as I'd love to watch this tournament for weeks long so yeah everything is just straight up great ( except for the prizepool, kinda expecting it to be atleast 30 millions or something )

Except that every team in this tournament wants to get this done with as quickly as possible because the intensity, the emotions, and everything about this tournament will get into their heads as it progresses. Everyone wants a quick win to prepare for the next match and I think a lot of teams displayed their eagerness to close the series. Of course that will not always be the case since a lot of times, as you said, games are dragged to the clincher rounds wherein it's just do or die for either of the teams involved.

[1714939214]

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[Mauser]

What an ESL Pro League final that was, congratulation to Vitality for winning it in two overtimes against Team Liquid. Somehow I was rooting more for Liquid to win it, as they came from the third place in Group D and fought their way all the way to the finals, very impressive performance.  I didn't place anymore bets for the semi finals and final as I wanted to end this season in the greens.  My two last bets where FaZe to win against Cloud9 - which was a pretty poor performance for Faze, and Vitality to win against Outsiders, which even went into overtime. Somehow the two top teams NaVi and FaZe lost in the quarter finals - that really hurt to see it. Vitality went from world ranking #7 to #3 during that tournament. And this week already the qualifying games for the Intel Extreme Masters Major in Rio are starting. With less than a month to go for the big major we are going to see a lot of nice games. Today is Astralis playing again NiP, which should be a good win for NiP. And Vitality is playing against Fantasy is which is probably going to be the most one sided game of the day.

[blue_hurricanger]

What an ESL Pro League final that was, congratulation to Vitality for winning it in two overtimes against Team Liquid. Somehow I was rooting more for Liquid to win it, as they came from the third place in Group D and fought their way all the way to the finals, very impressive performance.  I didn't place anymore bets for the semi finals and final as I wanted to end this season in the greens.  My two last bets where FaZe to win against Cloud9 - which was a pretty poor performance for Faze, and Vitality to win against Outsiders, which even went into overtime. Somehow the two top teams NaVi and FaZe lost in the quarter finals - that really hurt to see it. Vitality went from world ranking #7 to #3 during that tournament. And this week already the qualifying games for the Intel Extreme Masters Major in Rio are starting. With less than a month to go for the big major we are going to see a lot of nice games. Today is Astralis playing again NiP, which should be a good win for NiP. And Vitality is playing against Fantasy is which is probably going to be the most one sided game of the day.

Latest update on HLTV ranking. Nice to see Vitality reclaim its place, compete for the #1 HLTV with Faze and Navi. I say right now, Vitality, Faze and Navi all are at the same level at each other and result would depend on their form, ban/pick map pool and whatever if was Bo1, Bo3 or Bo5. Some unconfirmed news, dev1ce might return to Astralis rooster with the transfer deal from NIP worth €600,000. Will be interesting to see Astralis match with dev1ce back.

[Trofo]

I am glad these tournaments we have at the moment progressed to knockout stages and BO3 games.

Well business wise, its always good to drag this yearly tournament as long as possible to milk in more money from sponsors as they can set up booth and whatsoever during the tournaments. Viewers wise, no complaint as I'd love to watch this tournament for weeks long so yeah everything is just straight up great ( except for the prizepool, kinda expecting it to be atleast 30 millions or something )

Except that every team in this tournament wants to get this done with as quickly as possible because the intensity, the emotions, and everything about this tournament will get into their heads as it progresses. Everyone wants a quick win to prepare for the next match and I think a lot of teams displayed their eagerness to close the series. Of course that will not always be the case since a lot of times, as you said, games are dragged to the clincher rounds wherein it's just do or die for either of the teams involved.

That is just the way I prefer it, when I know nobody is gonna test some stupid drafts and opt for out of meta heroes. It is way more predictable and easier to place great in game bets after draft phase finishes.

I am not good enough to judge how some obscure hero will fare but I am good enough to judge meta matchups and capitalize on that.

[inthelongrun]

We are in the month of DOTA 2 TI. Until then , we just entered into the week with last chance to qualify for TI and I must say that Secret is doing massive training for this games and I heard that Puppey is simply not accepting the fact that there is a chance for Secret to miss TI + the fact that they have a really massive fan base in Singapore and Asia so I do hope this is true and they are training like no other training session.

Yes, Puppey and Team Secret are one of the most popular players and teams here in the SEA. But every team is also training heavily as well. I don't think they will qualify for TI. They can get wins and probably enters the upper bracket but they will fall once again and come out short. Puppey ain't in TI for the first time if they failed to qualify right? This must be the ending of the era of Puppey and Kuroky.

I'm rooting for Virtus.pro to get a slot. The other slot is up for grabs by those 2 Chinese teams, T1 and Team Secret.

[dothebeats]

Except that every team in this tournament wants to get this done with as quickly as possible because the intensity, the emotions, and everything about this tournament will get into their heads as it progresses. Everyone wants a quick win to prepare for the next match and I think a lot of teams displayed their eagerness to close the series. Of course that will not always be the case since a lot of times, as you said, games are dragged to the clincher rounds wherein it's just do or die for either of the teams involved.

That is just the way I prefer it, when I know nobody is gonna test some stupid drafts and opt for out of meta heroes. It is way more predictable and easier to place great in game bets after draft phase finishes.

I am not good enough to judge how some obscure hero will fare but I am good enough to judge meta matchups and capitalize on that.

I used to spend 12+ hours playing Dota 2 in SEA server with 7k mmr and we used to test some stupidly efficient drafts that are out of meta in past patches. Lost that eye for innovation after I got busy on real life events and now just following closely on the pro scene and some streams but don't play that much anymore. It helps to understand out of meta team comps if you are actually playing with them, but it becomes a grey area when you just bet on them and follow what the meta is all about. I think this year's TI focuses mostly on early rotations from supports converging to mid since the disappearance of the small camp near the tower removed lots of potential exp for the midlaner to gank on other lanes. Hence why a lot of carries tend to be self-sustainable (Pudge, UD, Faceless Void) since most of the time they are left on a 1v1 matchup against a somewhat aggressive offlane.

Pretty sure there will still be that one OP meta that a team has already figured out (like the Tiny-Lycan last year) that will surely test a lot of team's capabilities in handling these cheesy strats.

[Eternad]

We are in the month of DOTA 2 TI. Until then , we just entered into the week with last chance to qualify for TI and I must say that Secret is doing massive training for this games and I heard that Puppey is simply not accepting the fact that there is a chance for Secret to miss TI + the fact that they have a really massive fan base in Singapore and Asia so I do hope this is true and they are training like no other training session.

Yes, Puppey and Team Secret are one of the most popular players and teams here in the SEA. But every team is also training heavily as well. I don't think they will qualify for TI. They can get wins and probably enters the upper bracket but they will fall once again and come out short. Puppey ain't in TI for the first time if they failed to qualify right? This must be the ending of the era of Puppey and Kuroky.

I'm rooting for Virtus.pro to get a slot. The other slot is up for grabs by those 2 Chinese teams, T1 and Team Secret.

Team Secret will never qualify on this year TI because there pos1 crystallis don’t  upgrade to daedalus. 

I still believe on Team Secret that they can best the odds here. Chinese team is a choker on crucial tournament same with T1. Virtuos Pro is there greatest enemy on this tournament because VP is very hungry to get the TI spot after missing the spotlight for a long time. They have a good roster this year so my money will goes them since they are consistent to there matches compared to other teams on other region.

[jakelyson]

Team Secret will never qualify on this year TI because there pos1 crystallis don’t  upgrade to daedalus. 

That's a good one!!!

I still believe on Team Secret that they can best the odds here. Chinese team is a choker on crucial tournament same with T1. Virtuos Pro is there greatest enemy on this tournament because VP is very hungry to get the TI spot after missing the spotlight for a long time. They have a good roster this year so my money will goes them since they are consistent to there matches compared to other teams on other region.

Are we sleeping on team Liquid and Polaris?

Polaris performed very well on SEA Regional Qualifiers, and they have a very solid lineup. I think they are a serious contender in Last Chance. I know SEA is not as competitive as China or WEU region, but still, they are showing some promise. They will give one hell of a fight on the group stage for sure.

I know Team Liquid is still very competitive even though it is not very evident in their last outing. They will give their all now, it's their last chance for this year after all. 

[arallmuus]

Are we sleeping on team Liquid and Polaris?

Polaris performed very well on SEA Regional Qualifiers, and they have a very solid lineup.

Its either going to be a team from EU region or China though. If we are going to count in a team from the Sea server then my bets will go to T1 obviously. I honestly pretty clueless about the other team from the Sea region Polaris but I dont think they have ever played against teams outside of the Sea and China region so there you have it

Leaning towards Liquid and Xtreme gaming / T1 to qualify though

[Distraction]

RMR tournament in CS:GO has finally started!

We have left day 1 behind. I can't say that we saw much of a surprise in general. However I was surprised about the FaZe - GamerLegion and Bad News Eagles - Eternal Fire matchups. FaZe were barely able to defeat their opponent after 4 OTs. This was very unexpected honestly. There is a huge quality difference between these teams but there is a very visible drop in FaZe's performance recently. That must be why they had this much difficulty in this one.

As for the other matchup, Eternal Fire should have been able to win this. Dust2 was like one of their best maps and their opponent was also not stronger than them. But at one point we saw Bad News Eagles leading the match by 11-1 which was a nightmare for Eternal Fire. They still figured out a way after starting to play on CT side. They made a great comeback and even got ahead by 13-12. But in the last rounds typically Eternal Fire started to mess up things and their opponent punished them for it by winning 16-14. XANTARES is trying his best but they are still having tactical issues as a team.

[boyptc]

Team Secret will never qualify on this year TI because there pos1 crystallis don’t  upgrade to daedalus.  

I still believe on Team Secret that they can best the odds here. Chinese team is a choker on crucial tournament same with T1. Virtuos Pro is there greatest enemy on this tournament because VP is very hungry to get the TI spot after missing the spotlight for a long time. They have a good roster this year so my money will goes them since they are consistent to there matches compared to other teams on other region.

Team Secret can manage to be at the top of their bracket but Crystallis doesn't really look good as their pos 1. I guess it's better if they've made Reso as their pos 1 because that guy has proven himself that he's one of the best pos 1s ever.

On Team Secret's bracket, the hardest team that they'll ever face could be VG. But wait, I've seen on the roster that Yang is now their pos 5? That's nuts, I admire that guy as one of the best pos 3 player.

Polaris performed very well on SEA Regional Qualifiers, and they have a very solid lineup. I think they are a serious contender in Last Chance. I know SEA is not as competitive as China or WEU region, but still, they are showing some promise. They will give one hell of a fight on the group stage for sure.

It's a solid team but underrated one. I'm not judging them but they're not just my pick although they really can shock most of the teams there.

[ralle14]

Are we sleeping on team Liquid and Polaris?

If I have to rank these two teams i'd put them somewhere around the middle or maybe a bit higher since I think there are other teams that are better than them but they're still good enough to beat half of the teams in this tournament.

Polaris performed very well on SEA Regional Qualifiers, and they have a very solid lineup. I think they are a serious contender in Last Chance. I know SEA is not as competitive as China or WEU region, but still, they are showing some promise. They will give one hell of a fight on the group stage for sure.

For now, they look promising and the biggest question for them is if they could keep up with the playstyle of the other teams since we know how Talon's performance in the last major.  

[tomahawk9]

IEM Road to Rio RMR will have some top quality matches today! Starting with Faze - Fnatic and Cloud9 - G2 🔥🔥



then we'll have Vitality, Navi, Heroic and more, but i'm gonna with a combo with some lower tier teams,  *EDIT remind me to never trust on tier -10 br teams like 00nation again lol



Good luck everyone!

[inthelongrun]

We have here the groups and their game schedules. I have to say that Team Secret should be able to make it into the upper bracket.

Group B though is a very tough group. Wildcard Gaming and Infamous are most likely the weakest teams that will drop into the lower bracket. I am very excited to see if T1 players are able to utilize this break and worked more on their chemistry and strategies. Their first game will be against Liquid right away and that's like a deciding factor already if they are indeed a serious team enough to compete at the world level.

[Trofo]

We have here the groups and their game schedules. I have to say that Team Secret should be able to make it into the upper bracket.

Group B though is a very tough group. Wildcard Gaming and Infamous are most likely the weakest teams that will drop into the lower bracket. I am very excited to see if T1 players are able to utilize this break and worked more on their chemistry and strategies. Their first game will be against Liquid right away and that's like a deciding factor already if they are indeed a serious team enough to compete at the world level.

Must say I agree with your analysis completely, Secret is much too strong to to not make upper bracket. Same goes for all other favorites and I sort of think they will maybe keep some of the best strategies for later stages. Real tournament will start in the knockout stages for them. Should be some good DOTA games for sure and hopefully some nice betting profits

Should also help us judge how the regions compare in this new meta before the main thing starts.

[Distraction]

IEM Road to Rio RMR will have some top quality matches today! Starting with Faze - Fnatic and Cloud9 - G2 🔥🔥



then we'll have Vitality, Navi, Heroic and more, but i'm gonna with a combo with some lower tier teams,  *EDIT remind me to never trust on tier -10 br teams like 00nation again lol



Good luck everyone!

Spirit's losing to Sprout was a surprise for me too. There is a significant gap between these two teams normally. Sprout are a team on the decline while Spirit are the opposite. But Sprout's amazing 10-3 CT performance on Mirage helped them get the win.

Congrats on your wins on Cloud9 - G2 bet. After a pretty challenging matchup Cloud9 took the win by 16-13. Ax1Le's extra performance with 26 kills was a big help in this win. G2 are having some difficulties after being eliminated by Vitality in the ESL Pro League but they'd pull themselves together soon I guess.

FaZe were pretty unreliable on the last days so I didn't want to bet on them. They were so close to losing this matchup actually as fnatic were doing a great job on Nuke even though it was one of FaZe's best maps. FaZe had a big difficulty in carrying the match to OT. There was a 19-17 FaZe win at the end. But fnatic's effort was worth watching as it was really promising at the same time. I liked mezii the most as he was one of the top fraggers in the match by 31 kills at the same time. nicoodoz's playing style with AWP is really delightful by the way as it's very brave. 

[dunfida]

We have here the groups and their game schedules. I have to say that Team Secret should be able to make it into the upper bracket.

Group B though is a very tough group. Wildcard Gaming and Infamous are most likely the weakest teams that will drop into the lower bracket. I am very excited to see if T1 players are able to utilize this break and worked more on their chemistry and strategies. Their first game will be against Liquid right away and that's like a deciding factor already if they are indeed a serious team enough to compete at the world level.

Is this the Last chance Qualifier for TI11?

T1 bracket is totally hard to break, considering on other teams which is powerhouse or tier1 as we know.Lets see if the new roster of T1 could really able
to withstand and able to compete out on securing their spot for the upcoming internationals.

I would say that this qualifier would be more interesting than with the main event. 

[CLS63]

Eternal Fire continue to make their supporters unhappy. They have started with 2 losses to RMR already. I might understand the Astralis one but the loss against Bad News Eagles wasn't understandable. Actually they could have won both of these matches if they were able to play stronger as a team. They are still trying to make a difference with individual performances but this can't help them at all. XANTARES can't carry the team like all the time. He seemed pretty thoughtful today after seeing a poor team performance again.

woxic mentioned some issues in the team without giving some details on his Twitter. There must be some kind of a psychological problem that prevents this team from playing well consistently. I hope that they can solve it as soon as possible. Otherwise it seems difficult for them to even qualify for Challengers Stage.

[dothebeats]

We have here the groups and their game schedules. I have to say that Team Secret should be able to make it into the upper bracket.

Group B though is a very tough group. Wildcard Gaming and Infamous are most likely the weakest teams that will drop into the lower bracket. I am very excited to see if T1 players are able to utilize this break and worked more on their chemistry and strategies. Their first game will be against Liquid right away and that's like a deciding factor already if they are indeed a serious team enough to compete at the world level.

T1 and Outsiders (VP) should happen. Even if one of them wouldn't qualify, they can still bring us some good betting opportunities and of course, good Dota. Team Secret is the favorites to win this last chance qualifiers and I understand where that sentiment is coming from. T1 proved to be not in their element as they have been formed a few weeks before the qualifiers and the chemistry is not yet there. Nouns also have a huge fighting chance against all other teams, but hopefully their carry pulls through though.

[ralle14]

Spirit's losing to Sprout was a surprise for me too.

The same with Vitality, it looks like some of the teams were caught off guard with the format.

Also, it's nice to see EG bounce back as they're one win away from securing the legend spot after beating FURIA and it's their best chance at qualifying early since they could be facing Liquid, Complexity, or FURIA again if they lose here.

For the matches later today I have Astralis together with Cloud9 @2.28. The bookies underestimate Astralis with how the odds are this close and Cloud9 should win vs NiP now that it's best of three for the upper teams.



Edit: Rip, game wasn't even close BNE winning one sidedly after that monstrous 13-2 half.