Our esports tipster Michael Lee returns with his top esports betting picks for Monday, August 22nd. Today, he looks at three League of Legends matches in Top Esports vs EDward Gaming, Chiefs Esports Club vs ORDER, and T1 Challengers vs Nongshim RedForce Challengers.
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Esports Betting Tips: Monday August 22nd
Top Esports vs EDward Gaming
LPL 2022 Summer
The current LoL world champions EDward Gaming haven't had the best regular season, finishing in fifth place with an 11-5 record. But they found momentum in the playoffs, having demolished FunPlus Phoenix (3-1) and Royal Never Give Up (3-1) to set up a meeting with the regular season champions Top Esports.
In both of their opening LPL 2022 Summer playoffs bouts, EDward Gaming looked dominant and seeing how they have made it so far while losing just two series should catch anyone's attention. Moreover, by beating Royal Never Give Up 3-1, EDward Gaming proved themselves as serious title contenders, but they still need to show up against Top Esports.
Top Esports were by far the best team of the regular season, which they finished 14-2, losing just two series against JD Gaming and Victory Five in the final week. But besides those two losses, Top Esports have looked unstoppable and have dropped just five maps across 14 wins, meaning they've collected nine clean sweeps.
Considering how dominant Top Esports have been, I see no problem with bookmakers pricing them as favourites, but I wouldn't say they're deservingly priced at only $1.61. Had this game been played a month ago, the price would look right, but considering how much better EDward Gaming have looked during the playoffs, you could say that the bookmakers are overestimating Top Esports.
This is a match that should end in Top Esports' favour, but it can just as likely end the other way. I expect to see a close and highly competitive series that can easily go to map five.
Over 4.5 maps
$2.62 (1 unit)
Chiefs Esports Club vs ORDER
LCO 2022 Split 2
Based on what we've seen in the LCO 2022 Split 2 regular season, Chiefs Esports Club are the undisputed best team in the league. They ended the season with a perfect 21-0 record, which is very impressive and a strong testament to Chiefs Esports Club's quality.
ORDER haven't achieved the same heights, but they finished the season as runners-up, with a 14-7 record and a four-game winning streak. And they added one more victory to their name last week when ORDER defeated Pentanet.GG (3-2).
Had ORDER swept Pentanet.GG in the first round of the playoffs, we could start talking about a possible upset, but seeing how ORDER haven't managed to dominate the third-seeded team, it's fair to say that they're still weaker than Chiefs. That is a fact, but it doesn't explain why the Chiefs are $1.071 favourites for this match.
At that number, the Chiefs are all but guaranteed to win, but as history has taught us, the LCO playoffs tend to be much closer than expected. And even if ORDER fail to upset Chiefs, they're good enough to win at least one map, especially on the blue side.
I wouldn't say that ORDER have a realistic chance to win, but we're getting $1.72 on the underdogs with a 2.5 map handicap, which seems too generous.
ORDER +2.5 maps
$1.72 (1 unit)
T1 Challengers vsa Nonshim RedForce Challengers
LCK CL 2022 Summer Playoffs
Regular season champions T1 Challengers and the fifth-seeded Nongshim RedForce Challengers will meet in the second round of LCK CL 2022 Summer Playoffs on Monday, August 22. These two academy teams last met on August 8, when T1 won with plenty to spare, and if that performance is any indication, T1 should win the rematch as well.
Even though T1 Challengers lost Kim "Berserker" Min-cheol to Cloud9 and Choi "Ellim" El-lim to Kwangdong Freecs last season, T1's academy team continued to make waves in the academy league. Even more impressive is that T1 have looked even better in the summer with their current roster compared to their LCK CL 2021 Summer run, which they finished in 10th place.
Nongshim RedForce have also achieved some success this split, but they barely made it to the playoffs with only two wins to spare, and they ended the regular season with seven fewer wins than T1. Regarding the teams' form, Nongshim have won just one of their last three games, while T1 has won all of their last four.
Although winning a BO3 is entirely different than winning a BO1, T1 have proven themselves as the superior team this split. Barring any surprise performances from RedForce, this series can easily end in a 3-0 sweep.
T1 Challengers -2.5 maps
$2.62 (1 unit)
