🕹️ Esports 🎮 Prediction & Discussion Thread

[Mauser]

It was a really dramatic ending for Astralis indeed. Losing on Inferno and Nuke both was really unexpected for us. Because both of them were one of the maps they were the best on. Even though they were likely to be eliminated they still couldn't react to it well and lost by 2-1. Complexity were playing against ENCE which had no goal left in the group. They took advantage of it very nicely and got a 2-0 win. Even though their round difference in total was lower than Astralis they advanced to next round thanks to Astralis' losing in a critical match.

No idea what is going on with Astralis this season, I expected so much more from them. Both the loss against HEET and Complexity seemed completely unnecessary and the could have pulled both games around. Both ENCE and HEET won only 1 match in group C, against Astralis. Lost some money again during gourp C and could only recover a little with my MOUZ bets. Hopefully I can make a profit again during the Group D matches, which are starting tomorrow. The first match is going to be Cloud 9 vs Evil Geniuses, which should be a good win for Cloud 9. Their team looks really strong this year and I think they have the best chances of reaching first place in Group D. I am going to place a bet on all of their 5 matches this week.

[edgycorner]

Hey guys,

Konfig has suffered an ankle injury and will most probably be out for the next 2-3 months.
They will be playing with a reserve player from Astralis academy team.

Source: https://twitter.com/AstralisCS/status/1572148843889803267

RMR's are next for them, will they be able to qualify with a new rifler + incompetent awp + biggest baiter in Tier 1 cs KEKW

Astralis needs a miracle.

[passwordnow]

IMO, there's no difference whether it's on mid or placed as a pos 1. What they've been doing is that they'll pick pudge on the pos 1 and then will have the mid as their main carry. It's been like in Dota 1 days that the tri-lane or safe lane works like that as what they intend to do in pudge.
Dota 2 is a game of strategy and defense so as long as what they're up to works, they'll do it again and that's why they've been using it because somehow it has worked before.

Pudge is only placed on the top lane on this meta because of his flesh heap and rot buff. He's still essentially the "offlaner" because his item builds will always lead to a more utility role later down the line. They just pick a farming mid like Ember or a farming offlane like Razor/DK and that will slowly transition to carry. They placed Pudge on the safelane because of how insanely strong 4 supports and offlaners are on the new patch, and Pudge can tank those in the early game due to his 3rd and still get some farm due to his high base damage and hook which he can use to 1 shot ranged creeps or large neutral camps.

Right but on that last game of Polaris, they've picked the wrong mid. IIRC, it should be lina on their mid but Talon just read their strategy and banned it, and instead, they've taken QOP which I think is still good but they lack other utilities and help for the disables.
They didn't win with UD + KOTL combo and they need to disable those games, 4th and 5th. They didn't learn on the 4th game and still pursued that hero + pudge.

[tomahawk9]

With the qualifiers finished, I guess we're back to some CSGO while waiting for the LCQ and Worlds which is a week or two from now.  

?? dota qualifiers are finished?

me:

Konfig has suffered an ankle injury and will most probably be out for the next 2-3 months.
They will be playing with a reserve player from Astralis academy team.

⁠MistR? i don't know who that is but i'm 99% sure he's an upgrade lol
Now if only Xyp and Glaive can skip the RMR because of "reasons" then maybe Astralis will have a real chance of qualifying to Major   

[Trofo]

Konfig has suffered an ankle injury and will most probably be out for the next 2-3 months.
They will be playing with a reserve player from Astralis academy team.

⁠MistR? i don't know who that is but i'm 99% sure he's an upgrade lol
Now if only Xyp and Glaive can skip the RMR because of "reasons" then maybe Astralis will have a real chance of qualifying to Major   

Maybe I am a bit dense, but is ankle injury really such a problem for CS player? I mean professional footballers play with masks on their face or bandaged fingers and that is contact sport and much higher chance of aggravating the injury. I am quite sure he can sit on a chair and prop his foot up on another chair while playing.

Hell if it is online event he can probably attend from bed

[arallmuus]

Maybe I am a bit dense, but is ankle injury really such a problem for CS player? I mean professional footballers play with masks on their face or bandaged fingers and that is contact sport and much higher chance of aggravating the injury. I am quite sure he can sit on a chair and prop his foot up on another chair while playing.

Hell if it is online event he can probably attend from bed

I was actually going to ask the same question as well though but you did before me so I searched related information about that and it was actually an ankle fracture. He also needed a surgery so yeah he wont be able to play for sure, probably in pain right now or something. Well it might affect Astralis's performance but not to some degree I believe

[Balmain]

Hey guys,

Konfig has suffered an ankle injury and will most probably be out for the next 2-3 months.
They will be playing with a reserve player from Astralis academy team.

Source: https://twitter.com/AstralisCS/status/1572148843889803267

RMR's are next for them, will they be able to qualify with a new rifler + incompetent awp + biggest baiter in Tier 1 cs KEKW

Astralis needs a miracle.

While things aren't so bright for Astralis. The absence of a master player like Konfig in the team for 2-3 months will affect Astralis very negatively. ESL pro League couldn't get out of the group in group matches, now they will stay away from their best players. They can play very comfortably where they sit, in fact, they can reevaluate it. One should think that his foot is injured, but these players are training for hours, it will probably be problematic in terms of ergonomics, so they may have taken such a decision.

[ralle14]

?? dota qualifiers are finished?

me:

I'd also have the same reaction and am just glad that it's finally over after so many upsets happen between each region.  

I'll be going with the first two favs in group D, Cloud9 should cruise against EG and I just hope FURIA doesn't disappoint or start slow since whenever I bet on them they somehow perform worse.

[ILuckyGuyI]

Hey guys,

Konfig has suffered an ankle injury and will most probably be out for the next 2-3 months.
They will be playing with a reserve player from Astralis academy team.

Source: https://twitter.com/AstralisCS/status/1572148843889803267

RMR's are next for them, will they be able to qualify with a new rifler + incompetent awp + biggest baiter in Tier 1 cs KEKW

Astralis needs a miracle.

This is like the last thing Astralis would like to see happening these days. They are already out-of-form and losing one of their players will be even a bigger difficulty for them in the upcoming RMR. MistR is going to be the player to replace him. He has been a part of Astralis Talent team so far. His general performance has been quite decent but it will be difficult for him to adapt to the team in a short time. I think this RMR will also be problematic for them. Even if they make it to Major somehow it wouldn't be comfortable.

The last group games in the ESL Pro League are starting today. It's a candidate to be a very competitive group. Many teams have close ranks to each other. Eternal Fire are one of the attention getting teams even though their rank is lower than the majority. They have improved their team performance quite much recently and attracted the attention of people by winning the ESL Challenger qualifier. They have the strength to make some of these solid teams sad and finish the group in top 3 also. Evil Geniuses are the weakest team of the group on paper.

[Peanutswar]

Another game win for the team of Fnatic which they give all their best we know the capabilities of the TNC before but because of their poor management that doesn't want to make an invest with the team that's why they keep losing in this tournament sooner or later the TNC will now become Mineski and Vanish if they keep continuously doing this that game is already in favour with the Fnatic and to those who make a bet of odds with the 2-0 congrats guys. Now Fnatic and Boom are the strongest than the TNC.

[tomahawk9]

Well it might affect Astralis's performance but not to some degree I believe

if they start showing good cs while k0nfig is sidelined then it's very likely he will be benched indefinitely. He's too inconsistent, although, the same can be said about the rest of asstralis

?? dota qualifiers are finished?

me:

I'd also have the same reaction and am just glad that it's finally over after so many upsets happen between each region.  

I'll be going with the first two favs in group D, Cloud9 should cruise against EG and I just hope FURIA doesn't disappoint or start slow since whenever I bet on them they somehow perform worse.

https://i.imgur.com/H7ahGa7.png

is that a combo? odds around 1.6 i think, easy money 👍 FURIA at 1.4 against Eternal Trash was too generous *EDIT or maybe not, they just lost in their map pick, big throw if you ask me

I decided to sit back today and just watch how these teams play in day 1, so far the the favs are killing it so i'll probably back them tomorrow in a parlay

[dothebeats]

Another game win for the team of Fnatic which they give all their best we know the capabilities of the TNC before but because of their poor management that doesn't want to make an invest with the team that's why they keep losing in this tournament sooner or later the TNC will now become Mineski and Vanish if they keep continuously doing this that game is already in favour with the Fnatic and to those who make a bet of odds with the 2-0 congrats guys. Now Fnatic and Boom are the strongest than the TNC.

True. I think the management of TNC never really took much attention and care for the Dota 2 team after the departure of those who made the name big (Kuku, Armel, Tims, Gabbi, etc.). They barely join and qualify tournaments nowadays, and if they ever win, it's from a small tournament that barely has any prize money to be divided between them and the management. I guess if TNC actively invested on seeking out players that has the talent and are hungry to be number 1 even on SEA, they will still be standing as a prominent Dota organization until now but that is just not the case.

[blue_hurricanger]

Well it might affect Astralis's performance but not to some degree I believe

if they start showing good cs while k0nfig is sidelined then it's very likely he will be benched indefinitely. He's too inconsistent, although, the same can be said about the rest of asstralis

?? dota qualifiers are finished?

me:

I'd also have the same reaction and am just glad that it's finally over after so many upsets happen between each region.  

I'll be going with the first two favs in group D, Cloud9 should cruise against EG and I just hope FURIA doesn't disappoint or start slow since whenever I bet on them they somehow perform worse.

https://i.imgur.com/H7ahGa7.png

is that a combo? odds around 1.6 i think, easy money 👍 FURIA at 1.4 against Eternal Trash was too generous

I decided to sit back today and just watch how these teams play in day 1, so far the the favs are killing it so i'll probably back them tomorrow in a parlay

Hehe, we got map 3 inferno, bois. Furia and Eternal Fire are at even with 1-1 right now. Not so much trash or easy wins, you bet. Inferno's going to be fun as both teams are under pressure now. Tho I've watched Furia play in inferno a lot to know their rush is absolutely insane. And their timing is also very weird, caught off guard a lot of pro teams, turn the tide of the games thanks to that, especially in eco or force-buy rounds. Eternal Fire is going to be under fire in map inferno here, literally.

[Balmain]

?? dota qualifiers are finished?

me:

I'd also have the same reaction and am just glad that it's finally over after so many upsets happen between each region.  

I'll be going with the first two favs in group D, Cloud9 should cruise against EG and I just hope FURIA doesn't disappoint or start slow since whenever I bet on them they somehow perform worse.

An awesome start, Guaranteed and it was a good bet, in my opinion, not bad at all. I missed the EG vs Cloud 9 match on the Inferno map, but I watched the dust 2 map. They were very good on Cloud 9 dust2 and I was guessing that because on this map they usually do well, it was easy they only lost five rounds. In the Eternal fire vs Furia match. I know how much vertigo Eternal Fire has been working on, yet the game went to overtime. Even going to overtime was actually thanks to captain Maj3r. The guy carries the captain and the team and tries to provide motivation all the time, I respect him for being so determined. It was predictable that Furia would win, the odds were really good, I'll think about it for tomorrow's games.

[Distraction]

It was really hard to understand Eternal Fire today. I mean that they could have done much better than this for certain.

First of all, they were really bad in the second half of Nuke. After winning the first half 8-7 as T, I waited for Eternal Fire to win the map. This map's being the most played one for them was one thing and its being a CT-sided map was another. But somehow they played really poorly and got only three rounds in the other half. They didn't start well to Vertigo but they managed to recover later. They carried their hopes to the last map by winning after OT. Inferno was one of the most successful maps for Eternal Fire. I was waiting for them to be better but the opposite happened. FURIA really destroyed them by 16-5. XANTARES showed once again how important he is for the team. If it wasn't for his help today the result would have been worse. MAJ3R was incredible on Vertigo by 37 frags and finishing as top fragger. It was a quite extra effort for an IGL.

This is an unexpectedly worse performance by Eternal Fire but they must have learned their lesson from their mistakes. The next matchup is even more difficult which is against Cloud9 tomorrow.

[ralle14]

It was really hard to understand Eternal Fire today. I mean that they could have done much better than this for certain.

I agree, it felt like they could've won that series if they won the first map but they're losing a bunch of crucial rounds against FURIA.

is that a combo? odds around 1.6 i think, easy money 👍 FURIA at 1.4 against Eternal Trash was too generous *EDIT or maybe not, they just lost in their map pick, big throw if you ask me

I decided to sit back today and just watch how these teams play in day 1, so far the the favs are killing it so i'll probably back them tomorrow in a parlay

Yup it's a combo, I decided to play it safe with the ML for now as I was expecting some teams to be initially shaky.

After that sweep from Cloud9, i'll be fading EG here and even though Team Liquid failed to sweep Movistar on their first series and made some mistakes I still think these odds should be lower since these odds are very similar to the Movistar series and I don't think EG is somewhat close to Movistar's level.

[ILuckyGuyI]

I really don't get it. Eternal Fire did the same again. On both maps, they started very good against Cloud9. It was a much better start than I expected considering how strong their opponent was. However their performance dropped down too much in the second half of both maps. They couldn't even get one round in the other half on Overpass. How can this happen after they dominated the first half of it and demoralized Cloud9 players a lot?

Suddenly Eternal Fire started to make big mistakes and all the team effort in the first half was gone. This was definitely a matchup that they could have won. They just can't use their potential effectively and they need to work on this seriously. Nothing has finished for them yet. They can still finish the group in top 3 if they win their remaining matches. Their next matchup is against Evil Geniuses and this is a big opportunity for them to boost their morale.

[ralle14]

I really don't get it. Eternal Fire did the same again. On both maps, they started very good against Cloud9. It was a much better start than I expected considering how strong their opponent was. However their performance dropped down too much in the second half of both maps. They couldn't even get one round in the other half on Overpass. How can this happen after they dominated the first half of it and demoralized Cloud9 players a lot?

Maybe it's because of the EF players' underperforming or overconfidence. There are teams that wouldn't mind making mistakes after building up a good lead and those little mistakes could be enough for the other team to gain momentum. Then again I don't think the Cloud9 players would be demoralized that easily since they've been playing together for a very long time though.

Also i'm surprised that FURIA got a perfect 15-0 half against Movistar Riders' map pick while Team Liquid was struggling so hard against the same team.

[dothebeats]

I really don't get it. Eternal Fire did the same again. On both maps, they started very good against Cloud9. It was a much better start than I expected considering how strong their opponent was. However their performance dropped down too much in the second half of both maps. They couldn't even get one round in the other half on Overpass. How can this happen after they dominated the first half of it and demoralized Cloud9 players a lot?

Maybe it's because of the EF players' underperforming or overconfidence. There are teams that wouldn't mind making mistakes after building up a good lead and those little mistakes could be enough for the other team to gain momentum. Then again I don't think the Cloud9 players would be demoralized that easily since they've been playing together for a very long time though.

Also i'm surprised that FURIA got a perfect 15-0 half against Movistar Riders' map pick while Team Liquid was struggling so hard against the same team.

These teams can easily get shaken and are not strong mentally. Most players nowadays got the raw aim, skill, and movement to be in a team, but not everyone joins a team with a mindset that is so strong that it can't easily be distracted even if they are being pummelled left right and center. EF is a great team when it comes to rotations, aims, and retakes. They just lack the mental fortitude that seasoned teams like Cloud9 has.  You can see how they shifted from being happy leading the map to not communicating/celebrating at all when they win once C9 caught up to them.

[tomahawk9]

a bit risky. I'm starting to see some signs of improvement here and there from EG, especially on their most played map inferno. Still, GL!

Also i'm surprised that FURIA got a perfect 15-0 half against Movistar Riders' map pick while Team Liquid was struggling so hard against the same team.

Ancient is very, very CT sided so you pretty much always see some crazy numbers in the first half, main thing is that the t side should at least get like 4 rounds to stay competitive in the 2nd half once they change to ct side, that's just how the map works right now. Riders actually put up a good fight in the 2nd map, just super unlucky in Ancient