🕹️ Esports 🎮 Prediction & Discussion Thread

[boltz]

Team Secret without Nisha are looking and playing like Tier 2 team and they are having a negative session of 0-4. What can Secret do right now ? I think all they can do is to practice more and figure it out the new meta system as they keep playing nuking strategy and most of the times , the enemy team or most of the teams are playing right-click dmg build , which means they can engage into fight whenever they want because cooldowns are not a problem for them.

Same goes for PSG.LGD as without AME they are struggling to find perfect engaging time as they are well known for this little things that will break the game in their favor.

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[Peanutswar]

Team Secret without Nisha are looking and playing like Tier 2 team and they are having a negative session of 0-4. What can Secret do right now ? I think all they can do is to practice more and figure it out the new meta system as they keep playing nuking strategy and most of the times , the enemy team or most of the teams are playing right-click dmg build , which means they can engage into fight whenever they want because cooldowns are not a problem for them.

Same goes for PSG.LGD as without AME they are struggling to find perfect engaging time as they are well known for this little things that will break the game in their favor.

Team secret really deserve to be part of the TI Finals but still they cant manage to get the aegis and I guess its still time to their team to make a huge changes, recently the team nigma get crash by the HR and other teams which is not really now well in playing unlike before, also the LGD we know they strong before but image still they cant manage to make a win in their matches recently with a good performance most of the time they choke I guess time for the new era of players.

[jakelyson]

Same goes for PSG.LGD as without AME they are struggling to find perfect engaging time as they are well known for this little things that will break the game in their favor.

At least for PSG LGD, they are at the top of the standings in China. Team Secret is at the bottom right now in WEU. It is still too early to predict anything though. All that I know is, there is a lot of adjustment needed for both teams. I do not know how Team Secret will approach this if BOOM does not dwell well with them. The penalty for changing a player in the official roster is very stiff.

... also the LGD we know they strong before but image still they cant manage to make a win in their matches recently with a good performance most of the time they choke I guess time for the new era of players.

PSG LGD is like a new team now. The only remaining player from the previous roster is Nothingtosay and Y. Ame (retired), Xinq and Faith_bian are not playing for LGD anymore. They are still performing very well even though they are recently assembled team. They can dominate, it just needs more playing time together.

[Jackl87]

Team Secret without Nisha are looking and playing like Tier 2 team and they are having a negative session of 0-4. What can Secret do right now ? I think all they can do is to practice more and figure it out the new meta system as they keep playing nuking strategy and most of the times , the enemy team or most of the teams are playing right-click dmg build , which means they can engage into fight whenever they want because cooldowns are not a problem for them.
Same goes for PSG.LGD as without AME they are struggling to find perfect engaging time as they are well known for this little things that will break the game in their favor.

Yeah it's definitely true that the first matches of Secret with the new line-up were pretty disappointing. I think Nisha is definitely among the top 3 Dota 2 players right now in the world and if you lose such a player then obviously this has a big impact on the performance of your team. In addition to that he was at Team Secret for a pretty long time so they already knew each other very well. Now Secret has to replace one of the best players and also need to get used to the new player. This will probably still take some time. It is still questionable for me though if Secret will be able to get on the same performance level than last year again.

[dothebeats]

PSG LGD is like a new team now. The only remaining player from the previous roster is Nothingtosay and Y. Ame (retired), Xinq and Faith_bian are not playing for LGD anymore. They are still performing very well even though they are recently assembled team. They can dominate, it just needs more playing time together.

PSG.LGD is the way they are because of their coach and not necessarily their players. Xiao8 is what PSG.LGD is all about, and I think the True Sight have already conveyed you this because everything revolves around xiao8's strategies, metas, and decisions. He wouldn't be called Director 8 for no reason. Even with the departure of Somnus, Chalice, and xNova who brought the said team to prominence in 2018 - 2020, PSG.LGD as a team is still very strong because of the leadership of Xiao8. It'll take some time before they can get their shit together but I'm pretty sure LGD is still deserving as a Div 1 team.

[sunsilk]

That loss of PSG.LGD might not be valid as the Team Knights are allegedly cheating with a map vision hack.

I also saw this thread earlier today and now I feel salty about my loss on PSG.LGD. The organizer had some evidence to back their accusation so I think it's only a matter of time until Knights receive their punishment.

The games scheduled today aren't worth betting on due to how one-sided the odds are but we'll see a few notable teams like EG and BetBoom play their first series.

They'll for sure going to be punished.

I'm waiting for an official announcement from the organizers that Knights to be disqualified and I guess those that have lost with their bets against this team might get a refund.

And that's going to depend now on the sportsbook where you've placed the bet. But I guess, that's it, no refund is most likely going to be given if there's a policy related to such matches that have been disqualified.

[Balmain]

We are nearing the end in HLTV's list of top 20 players. The 7th name was M0nesy, the 6th name was Broky, and the 5th name was Niko. Only 4 names left. 4. name, to be announced on January 13, 22:00. The Player of the Year will be announced on January 14 as part of the HLTV Awards Show. Can anyone guess who is in 4th place?

S1mple is definitely among the top three names and I think it can even take the title of the first best player again, but this year it seems a little difficult because Navi has gone down a bit.

[dothebeats]

We are nearing the end in HLTV's list of top 20 players. The 7th name was M0nesy, the 6th name was Broky, and the 5th name was Niko. Only 4 names left. 4. name, to be announced on January 13, 22:00. The Player of the Year will be announced on January 14 as part of the HLTV Awards Show. Can anyone guess who is in 4th place?

S1mple is definitely among the top three names and I think it can even take the title of the first best player again, but this year it seems a little difficult because Navi has gone down a bit.

Zywoo might just have a slot on the top 4 for this year. I'm quite surprised that m0nesy doesn't belong in the top 5 this year even though his name has been very popular on the latter half of 2022. I guess their tournament performance didn't really help in him achieving a better ranking for 2022. S1mple is definitely in the top 3 that's for sure, although I can't think of any names that could outrank him in 2022. Even though Navi isn't performing well, he still posted several good stats in notable games for sure.

My top 4 predictions would be this:

1/2: S1mple or Zywoo
3/4: Elige/NAF

There's not a lot of names that I can think of that can fill the remaining slots. These guys have been pretty consistent all throughout the year. I've been reading 'Ax1le' as a possible contender for the remaining 4 slots given his high rating for the last 6 months, but I'm sure it's not only rating that matters. Possible that he's there because of his ratings but C9's tournament presence this past year isn't that strong tbh. Elige is also a coin toss if he belongs to the top 4, but he's had a lot of great maps and great tournaments together with NAF.

[len01]

Its more of a dumb bet after all and I should have gone for the traditional 'safe' bet which is over 2.5 maps. Well in fact all games in EEU region ended up over 2.5 maps on all 3 games, someone would have made decent amount of profit just by betting on that single 'safe' option.


Nigma vs Tundra tomorrow, Im going for Tundra -1.5 maps on this. Totally Nigma fan boy right here but I just dont think that the current Nigma has what it takes to win against the TI winner

I thank you for telling me about "over 2.5 maps" and I did it in the PSG.LGD match
At first I didn't think about the opportunity but after I read again your reply it seems like it's worth it for me to do.

They'll for sure going to be punished.

I'm waiting for an official announcement from the organizers that Knights to be disqualified and I guess those that have lost with their bets against this team might get a refund.

And that's going to depend now on the sportsbook where you've placed the bet. But I guess, that's it, no refund is most likely going to be given if there's a policy related to such matches that have been disqualified.

for a refund i may not be expecting much because if the match is not fair its not the sportbook's fault so likely no refund.
but I'm just a little disappointed with the PSG.LGD vs Knight match why there has to be cheating in this 2023 DPC match, it's really embarrassing. causing PSG.LGD to lose even though that team is my favorite team to lose just by cheating

[dothebeats]

They'll for sure going to be punished.

I'm waiting for an official announcement from the organizers that Knights to be disqualified and I guess those that have lost with their bets against this team might get a refund.

And that's going to depend now on the sportsbook where you've placed the bet. But I guess, that's it, no refund is most likely going to be given if there's a policy related to such matches that have been disqualified.

for a refund i may not be expecting much because if the match is not fair its not the sportbook's fault so likely no refund.
but I'm just a little disappointed with the PSG.LGD vs Knight match why there has to be cheating in this 2023 DPC match, it's really embarrassing. causing PSG.LGD to lose even though that team is my favorite team to lose just by cheating

Why shouldn't there be a refund if the results are nulled due to Knights cheating? Hopefully Valve does the right thing and nullify the results of the PSG.LGD vs Knights match. There's no room for cheating in Dota 2, much more in 2023 because this is just the start of the DPC season. If they let this pass, then it's like an invitation for other teams to do the same as the punishment isn't severe and bets can be placed for monetary gain. AFAIK, the bookies should return bets on events which has their results nulled because the outcome of the event is invalid.

[Trofo]

AFAIK, the bookies should return bets on events which has their results nulled because the outcome of the event is invalid.

It is not that simple. Bookies already paid out winning bets as well. How would you refund those? Let's just say someone one 1000EUR on that game and withdrew them from account. What can you do? Void the bets and give money back to those that lost the bets and on the other hand pay put winners? Moot point anyway, every bookie has its own T&C and it is written there what the procedure is. I wouldn't hope for refund.

[ralle14]

I also agree that the PSG.LGD bets are unlikely to get refunded since the damage is already done and whenever there's a wrongly settled bet the best thing they could do is to reduce the account balance of those who bet on the other team.

On the other hand Team Secret with another 0-2 loss and at this point I feel like they're playing to avoid relegation as they're likely going to lose more series and next week they'll face Entity and Tundra. And their best chance of getting their first win would probably be against ITB.

[dothebeats]

AFAIK, the bookies should return bets on events which has their results nulled because the outcome of the event is invalid.

It is not that simple. Bookies already paid out winning bets as well. How would you refund those? Let's just say someone one 1000EUR on that game and withdrew them from account. What can you do? Void the bets and give money back to those that lost the bets and on the other hand pay put winners? Moot point anyway, every bookie has its own T&C and it is written there what the procedure is. I wouldn't hope for refund.

Yeah there's that. Casinos obviously can't just take away people's funds to recoup all the winnings from an event that has its results voided because it will certainly cause some backlash. The bookies don't know whether decisions will be overturned too so you're right, it'll be hard to get those - unless the bookie is willing to take the hit from winning bets just to make it 'even' to those who have their bets lost because of the cheating scandal. Of course they won't do that, they are in the money-making business after all. So yeah, sucks to be the guys that bet on PSG.LGD and lost the bet. :/

[passwordnow]

I watched the match between Fnatic and Blacklist Dota 2. It was a 2-1 series. The first game was won by Fnatic easily but 2nd and 3rd games were won by Blacklist too easily.
For those teams that will have a match against Blacklist, I guess they should not forget about banning Furion(Nature's Prophet). If it's not Raven that's going to use it, it is Kuku on the offlane.

[len01]

It's time for PSG.LGD to see the next game Tundra vs Liquid.
To be honest, I was confused about these two teams when Liquid recently had a very good performance after Nisha joined Liquid and Tundra as the strongest team in TI dota 2 last year. This map 1 match, both of them played very carefully and had the same kill points.
please someone give me a recommendation to place my bet on this

[boltz]

Sekrekt is 0-6 in DPC ...they need to change something or it's Puppey who really lost the love of playing Dota 2 ? or maybe a really really bad mode for Secret and a Dota 2 patch as well.

Liquid vs Tundra first game was a lesson from Liquid of how to play aggressive even if you don't control the game for such a long period. Tundra , really thought they could out play ursa just by ignoring him for the first seconds of the fight and it worked for quite a while until Zai and Micke got the necessary items to survive and keep Ursa alive and that was GG already. Second game, we might see a new Tundra strategy and I'm curious about it as AUI2000 has a massive IQ when it comes to dota 2 strategies.

[Trofo]

Sekrekt is 0-6 in DPC ...they need to change something or it's Puppey who really lost the love of playing Dota 2 ? or maybe a really really bad mode for Secret and a Dota 2 patch as well.

Liquid vs Tundra first game was a lesson from Liquid of how to play aggressive even if you don't control the game for such a long period. Tundra , really thought they could out play ursa just by ignoring him for the first seconds of the fight and it worked for quite a while until Zai and Micke got the necessary items to survive and keep Ursa alive and that was GG already. Second game, we might see a new Tundra strategy and I'm curious about it as AUI2000 has a massive IQ when it comes to dota 2 strategies.

Watched that first map and it was very good DOTA, if it were some other team and not Liquid I think Tundra would have just stomped over them. That 5 man vacuum in the end was thing of beauty even though I don't think it was even necessary at that point in the game.

I hope Tundra have it in them to take map 2 since I am waiting just for over 2.5 maps to land my multi ticket.

[dothebeats]

Sekrekt is 0-6 in DPC ...they need to change something or it's Puppey who really lost the love of playing Dota 2 ? or maybe a really really bad mode for Secret and a Dota 2 patch as well.

Dude's a history by now, and maybe he's slowly losing interest for the game, or that the captains around him have got a better grip in the current meta than he has. A lot of teams with younger captains tend to have better strats on new metas that Valve is favoring in their new map version. But yeah, experience cannot easily be defeated, but sometimes thinking outside the box can. 

Liquid vs Tundra first game was a lesson from Liquid of how to play aggressive even if you don't control the game for such a long period. Tundra , really thought they could out play ursa just by ignoring him for the first seconds of the fight and it worked for quite a while until Zai and Micke got the necessary items to survive and keep Ursa alive and that was GG already. Second game, we might see a new Tundra strategy and I'm curious about it as AUI2000 has a massive IQ when it comes to dota 2 strategies.

I think what Tundra wants to do here is to isolate Ursa as much as they can. That hero is notorious for being bad at chasing, and can easily be kited like Sven and Troll. They can transition Tusk to buy aghs to kick him out of the playing field and the rest of the team will kill supports then Nisha. Unfortunately though, Zai already knows how to play this and just got greaves to survive for quite a bit and use CK illusions against the enemy to pick off supports.

Pretty sure Tundra will get a map here and we'll reach a decider map based on the performance of both teams earlier.

EDIT: watched it live. Tundra is getting beaten SOOOO bad.

[boyptc]

Sekrekt is 0-6 in DPC ...they need to change something or it's Puppey who really lost the love of playing Dota 2 ? or maybe a really really bad mode for Secret and a Dota 2 patch as well.

I still look at it as a normal thing.

Yeah, there could be his end that's starting to fade but I can't blame all of it to him, they're just having a fresh start with a new mid laner. There are still 4 matches left for them until the end of the month.

And they can't just lose all of it or else, this DPC is going to be put into waste for one of the most loved teams in the world and hitting the 2nd place on the last TI.

EDIT: watched it live. Tundra is getting beaten SOOOO bad.

On the other teams with former Team Secret mid laner - Nisha on Liquid now, they're doing it and just won straight 2 games against Tundra.

[CLS63]

We are nearing the end in HLTV's list of top 20 players. The 7th name was M0nesy, the 6th name was Broky, and the 5th name was Niko. Only 4 names left. 4. name, to be announced on January 13, 22:00. The Player of the Year will be announced on January 14 as part of the HLTV Awards Show. Can anyone guess who is in 4th place?

S1mple is definitely among the top three names and I think it can even take the title of the first best player again, but this year it seems a little difficult because Navi has gone down a bit.

It looks like m0nesy is the victim of his team's being unsuccessful for a long time. Otherwise he has made a huge effort in many tournaments so far. I think he is undoubtedly the best player of his team although there are great names like NiKo. This is like a proof that this list is made considering team successes as well.

I don't know if this is fair though. Because they are saying that this is a list of top 20 players but they take their teams into account as well. Some players deserve higher ranks because of this.