🕹️ Esports 🎮 Prediction & Discussion Thread

[Distraction]

Vitality's losing to Astralis today was a really big surprise. Astralis actually seemed really vulnerable against Eternal Fire and I thought that Vitality would finish them off. However things went really interesting in the series. Vitality won on Nuke by 16-12 first and captured a 1-0 advantage already. However Astralis' comeback was really incredible. Dust2 and Inferno were successful maps for Vitality also but Astralis defeated them 16-9 and 16-8 anyway.

blameF has been one of the impressive players at Astralis these days. He played a huge role in the win on Inferno by 30 frags. 138.0 ADR was a really impressive statistics of him. I don't really know what went wrong with Vitality today. Actually BLAST Premier is also among the biggest tournaments so I would have expected them to fight harder than this.

[arallmuus]

I might pull the trigger on OG -1.5 vs Gladiators since the odds seem too good as they already 2-0'd Gladiators during the groups before. I just hope they wouldn't be shaken up after that loss from Tundra though.

I have a pretty bad record so far in this TI. Its like everything was completely out of what I imagined it would be. All those top teams keep on losing and heck yeah normally I would have made some money from over 2.5 maps but all of the games so far ended up as 2-0 which completely faze me so far

I probably think Im going to take Entity -1.5 and OG -1.5 just for the sake of going with the flow because all games ended up like that so far lol

[emrecemsan]

Well done by Astralis, They beat world champion Vitality 2-1. On the Inferno and Dust2 map, the tactics given by Gla1ve on the T side were really consistent, and BlameF carried the team very well. Even though Astralis is the underdog in these tournaments, making it a good evening for those who trust Astralis. They are in the semi-finals now. They will play with the winner of the Heroic Sangal match. Sangal had beaten BIG, but I don't give Sangal a lot of chances against Heroic.

~snip~

Astralis continue to surprise people indeed. As you know their performance was actually in decrease for a long time and I wasn't expecting any impressive effort from here also. Eliminating the absolute favourite like Vitality is a huge work they have done so far. After this result I think that they deserve to qualify for the Fall Final. But they will most probably have HEROIC as their opponent in the final round. I guess Sangal wouldn't do the same to HEROIC also.    HEROIC would be another challenging matchup for Astralis and we will see if Astralis will keep up the good work then.

Vitality must be focused on Major Challengers Stage now and this might be the reason why they lost this easy to Astralis. Otherwise there was no other reason that would drop their morale in this matchup.

[passwordnow]

Who's feeling sad about the lost of RNG?

Losing a very long game feels bad for sure and it sucks that covid made their situation worse since they're cruising at the start of the groups.

True, only xNova was present on the stage and his teammates were represented by teddy bears with masks and headsets. The feeling when the game has ended and xNova has to meet and shake hands with Entity feels really sad. Somnus has already made a post that he's quitting or much better to say retiring after all of those failures in TI, he didn't get one to be a champ. I can see that the Dota 2 community feels bad for the team and they're all admiring not just xNova but the whole roster for RNG. Also, the roster of RNG-LOL has also contracted covid, the 5 of them.

[execijutiere]

Astralis won the Vitality match. Honestly, I was surprised that they lost when vitality was so good. Zywoo did his best but they played badly as a team. Astralis won with better team play and made it to the finals.
In north america tournament evil geniuses played fluxo. The score was 1-1 and it went to the decider map. I think EG will win the decider and eliminate their opponent.

[ralle14]

Big congrats, please share your tips for tomorrow, I am not trusting myself

Really dropped the ball in this tournament but that is sort of understandable since I watched way too little matches. First 2 games come in the middle of the night for me and rest are while I am working in real life. Too make things even worse I just switched to new company so it is not like I can watch DOTA while working. Been waiting for this tournament for so long and now when it is here I can't properly enjoy it and profit from it.

Good thing the weekend is approaching so I plan to bet a little and watch everything tomorrow and then bet a shitload on Sunday

I was also struggling on the first day of the playoffs then that perfect second day was more than enough to put me back on track. 

So far I only have OG 2-0 (already lost tight game 2 loss by OG), i'm likely going to take Team Secret and Aster 1.5 on the other series. Undecided on Team Liquid vs Entity though as I feel like their series is a toss-up and might do some live betting as I prefer to see the drafts of both teams first.

[sunsilk]

It would be idiotic if the players can hear the casters.

It's actually true though as one of the players a few days ago confirmed that they can hear what the casters are saying but i'm not sure if PGL already has a solution though.

Oh, I did not know that. PGL is idiotic then I would never think that after hosting 10 TIs they would still commit this type of blunder. They removed the enclosed booth and now they have defective noise-canceling headsets too. Are they skimping too much that they are risking the integrity of the tournament? I wonder how they would solve this problem because it is advantageous to English-speaking teams.

I don't like the setup of PGL and I thought that no one has noticed that with the early stage of the TI that the players are on open area with the audience in front of them. They don't have sound proof unlike the past TIs. PGL is a thumbs down organizer and it's inappropriate to have that setup because the players can hear the casters.

The setup should be like the sound proof room where the players can't hear the casters and cheers outside. This is the result when Valve is on a tight budget and took a budget meal from the organizers. Many fans aren't satisfied or is it because it's on Singapore? They don't take seriously if the venue is from the SEA?

[boltz]

Entity are putting up a fight it seems as they just won map 2 against Liquid and I'm worries about Liquid because they have the same drafts since group stages and teams kinda figured them out by now.

Yesterday all games went 2-0 and today it seems we are going 2-1 ? because so far it looks like it. 

[blue_hurricanger]

It would be idiotic if the players can hear the casters.

It's actually true though as one of the players a few days ago confirmed that they can hear what the casters are saying but i'm not sure if PGL already has a solution though.

Oh, I did not know that. PGL is idiotic then I would never think that after hosting 10 TIs they would still commit this type of blunder. They removed the enclosed booth and now they have defective noise-canceling headsets too. Are they skimping too much that they are risking the integrity of the tournament? I wonder how they would solve this problem because it is advantageous to English-speaking teams.

I don't like the setup of PGL and I thought that no one has noticed that with the early stage of the TI that the players are on open area with the audience in front of them. They don't have sound proof unlike the past TIs. PGL is a thumbs down organizer and it's inappropriate to have that setup because the players can hear the casters.

The setup should be like the sound proof room where the players can't hear the casters and cheers outside. This is the result when Valve is on a tight budget and took a budget meal from the organizers. Many fans aren't satisfied or is it because it's on Singapore? They don't take seriously if the venue is from the SEA?

Caused quite a storm of dramas on reddit. As I said, everyone agreed it was very unfair for teams that didn't utilize it and made the whole match become lame. You guys had seen the final results of some matches recently, a lot of upset games there or swift victories for underdog teams. With this no soundproof booth on top of it, hola, teams that lose become bitter because they would argue that other teams have unfair advantages against them in critical moments like smokes and such. Yeah, 'unfair advantages' that usually bet sites cited to invalidate your bet slip. Time to stop betting on this TI event cause there are too many variables against our bet.

I don't think Singapore, a place that held many events around the world is looked down upon by PGL. It was fully PGL's incomplete about headsets for the noise canceling or soundproof booth for players. Even if a player with good conscious and want to play it fair, he can't just turn off his hearing from the sound leak from casters and audiences.

[Pulsar77]

Eternal Fire have only two tournaments left in their hands now. This evening they are going to play against IKLA in CCT North Europe Series. This is a comfortable matchup for them normally but we should consider that they were eliminated by an even worse team like Websterz in another tournament recently. I don't know how much Eternal Fire would care about this tournament also. Otherwise technically they are the closest team to be the champions in this.

Elisa Invitiational Fall is important on the other hand. Because the finalists are going to the main tournament, Elisa Masters Espoo. In the main tournament the prize pool is $200k so Eternal Fire must be targeting to qualify for it. They really need some achievements to improve their look now.

[jakelyson]

I probably think Im going to take Entity -1.5 and OG -1.5 just for the sake of going with the flow because all games ended up like that so far lol

I hope you did not push through this. The opposite happened. Instead of winners sweeping the series, the series is taking all 3 games to finish. It is the exact opposite of the first two days of the main event.

The setup should be like the sound proof room where the players can't hear the casters and cheers outside. This is the result when Valve is on a tight budget and took a budget meal from the organizers. Many fans aren't satisfied or is it because it's on Singapore? They don't take seriously if the venue is from the SEA?

SEA or not, they should take the set up and the venue seriously. It is not like it's just a few thousand dollars prize pool events. It is a multi-million-dollar prize pool. It should reflect the venue and production. And the audience paid to view the event. They should get their money's worth. How could they enjoy the event if they can't hear the casters? I think this is the worst TI so far not just about this but also the players getting covid during the tournament.

[Trofo]

Entity are putting up a fight it seems as they just won map 2 against Liquid and I'm worries about Liquid because they have the same drafts since group stages and teams kinda figured them out by now.

Yesterday all games went 2-0 and today it seems we are going 2-1 ? because so far it looks like it. 

Yeah I finally had a winning bet during the night, nothing much, just OG to win and Entity to take at least one map at combined odds @2.0. Reinvested all of it in over 2.5 maps in the upper bracket games. Would have felt better if TA took first map, it will be difficult now to take something away from Secret but I sort of like TA draft with Zeus for game 2. We shall see, they just started.

[Coin_trader]

Entity are putting up a fight it seems as they just won map 2 against Liquid and I'm worries about Liquid because they have the same drafts since group stages and teams kinda figured them out by now.

Yesterday all games went 2-0 and today it seems we are going 2-1 ? because so far it looks like it.  

Yeah I finally had a winning bet during the night, nothing much, just OG to win and Entity to take at least one map at combined odds @2.0. Reinvested all of it in over 2.5 maps in the upper bracket games. Would have felt better if TA took first map, it will be difficult now to take something away from Secret but I sort of like TA draft with Zeus for game 2. We shall see, they just started.

It’s given that the fights between WEU teams will be 2-1 since they are fighting toe to toe even on there division. I thought Liquid will be reverse sweep since Entity already have the momentum after winning game 2 but they play the long game despite there hero is very weak late game while Liquid has an Ember LS that is very strong late game.

On the Upper Bracket match. Secret has the gold and kill advantage but still Thunder Awaken pos1 is Slark and 2nd on the net worth. There’s still a possibility for a comeback if they give an opening. BTW I have +1 on TA here so I’m shaking rn. 

[execijutiere]

The matches of the cct tournament continue. Today eternal fire will fight with IKLA. I expect a clear 2-0 win from eternal fire. Although it makes their fans sad, I think they will be a little more ambitious today.
He is currently playing with sangal - heroic. Sangal made a good start on vertigo, the map of his choice, but we can say that heroic came to himself.

[jakelyson]

On the Upper Bracket match. Secret has the gold and kill advantage but still Thunder Awaken pos1 is Slark and 2nd on the net worth. There’s still a possibility for a comeback if they give an opening. BTW I have +1 on TA here so I’m shaking rn. 

Team Secret did not give them a chance to recover. They keep on pressuring them until they collapsed. Even when Slark was on top of the net worth, there is nothing he can do because Team Secret is already in the roll and snowballing.

Tundra also showed their prowess against Team Aster as they demolished them in a sweeping fashion. The top bracket is still keeping the sweep in their matches. From the first day of the main event until now, nothing but sweeps.

Team Secret and Tundra just need a win to get into the Finals. Team Secret against Tundra will be an epic match but we still have to wait a week before we see them play.

[execijutiere]

Sangal lost to heroic as expected. I have to say that they didn't perform badly against a team like Heroic. This is the maximum that could have been achieved from this roster. Astralis-heroic match will be waiting for us in the final. Honestly, it is hard to predict which side will win this match. Because astralis can win matches when their individual performances are good, but heroic does team play well. It should be said that I think we will see 3 maps in this match.

[dothebeats]

Later this day, it will be a very hard match between Team Liquid and OG. Up until now I cannot gauge who of these two will remain victorious in the end. Liquid literally trashed OG back in the group stages, but OG somewhat bared their fangs against Team Liquid however it isn't sharp enough to do much damage against the said team. Liquid's play is still as composed and as organized as possible whereas OG relies on the explosiveness of bzm or Yuragi in the early game in order to make the mid game be in their favor.

OG +1.5 will be my pick, although I'm also inclined to get Liquid +1.5 since the latter is a more viable option than the former based on recent results. I might watch it live and take other lines but for now, I'm inclined to take OG just for YOLO.

On the side of PSG.LGD vs Beastcoast, the logical choice is to get PSG.LGD as the series winner however Beastcoast is showing a lot of crazy dota recently that it's hard to just ignore what they can do. I'll probably just place a bet on Beastcoast to win the series with small amount. Getting some out-of-the-box picks sure seemed to be the theme of TI11.

On the Upper Bracket match. Secret has the gold and kill advantage but still Thunder Awaken pos1 is Slark and 2nd on the net worth. There’s still a possibility for a comeback if they give an opening. BTW I have +1 on TA here so I’m shaking rn. 

Team Secret did not give them a chance to recover. They keep on pressuring them until they collapsed. Even when Slark was on top of the net worth, there is nothing he can do because Team Secret is already in the roll and snowballing.

Puppey played a lot of games against Slark all throughout his entire professional career. This man knows that Slark, even on the top net worth, still isn't a force to be reckoned with especially if the supports can't keep up and the other 2 cores can't do much follow ups in damage or even in lock downs. He's a very squishy hero when it comes to magic damage and that's why Puppey opted for a Lesh core to go against this Slark. Nyx is a pain in the ass on the early engagements but his utility fell off when the Ursa became online and it all went downhill from there.

Team Secret and Tundra just need a win to get into the Finals. Team Secret against Tundra will be an epic match but we still have to wait a week before we see them play.

Tundra's drafts are more on the comfort lane style compared to Secret's counter the enemy style. Both are extremely great in reading the map and making plays, and I think it's the draft that will matter on their fight next week. I'll go all in for Secret here given that Puppey has the experience and the brains to get the better drafts against Tundra.

[arallmuus]

I probably think Im going to take Entity -1.5 and OG -1.5 just for the sake of going with the flow because all games ended up like that so far lol

I hope you did not push through this. The opposite happened. Instead of winners sweeping the series, the series is taking all 3 games to finish. It is the exact opposite of the first two days of the main event.

Welll actually I did and it ended up losing. In my defence on taking this high risk bet, Entity never lose a single game on the regional qualifiers both against Team Secret and Team Liquid so yeah I thought they would do well against Team Liquid.


Last 4 games for tomorrow before we have a break for close to a week (?) Idk if this is correct but whats with the 1 week break though



Took these two bets for tomorrow

[CLS63]

Sangal lost to heroic as expected. I have to say that they didn't perform badly against a team like Heroic. This is the maximum that could have been achieved from this roster. Astralis-heroic match will be waiting for us in the final. Honestly, it is hard to predict which side will win this match. Because astralis can win matches when their individual performances are good, but heroic does team play well. It should be said that I think we will see 3 maps in this match.

Yeah it wasn't a surprise that HEROIC defeated Sangal by 2-0. I accept that Sangal did a great work by defeating BIG because it was a totally unexpected result. However I thought like this wouldn't happen once again right after this matchup. HEROIC were a much more consistent team than BIG above all else. They showed a consistent performance against Sangal on both maps and beat them by the same scores, 16-11.

I liked Soulfly today despite the defeat. He made a solid effort on especially the first map and there were two lovely clutches of him on Vertigo:

- 1v3 clutch in pistol round : https://clips.twitch.tv/MotionlessDistinctNostrilPipeHype-E70cZzUofDFcco68?tt_content=url&tt_medium=clips_api
- 1v2 clutch with low hp : https://clips.twitch.tv/ZealousColdbloodedBadgerNononoCat-cTlYQdWyNj8RzTD4?tt_content=url&tt_medium=clips_api

[boltz]

OG vs Liquid should be a 3 map game as both teams have played good in this TI but a Liquid is playing a slight better than OG.

I don't see BC taking a map from PSG. Beastcost played well but teams like PSG will figure them out pretty soon like Secret did with Thunder and a 2-0 seems the reasonable score for this game.