The Esports action continues on Monday, July 26th as our resident Esports guru Michael Lee takes a look at matches from the Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 2 as well as the WePlay Academy League Season 1. Check out our Esports betting tips below!
Team Unique vs Fantastic Five
Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 2
Fantastic Five haven't had much success in this tournament. They have won only one match from four played when they swept Spider Pigz (2-0) on Tuesday. Team Unique, on the other hand, won three of their four outings against Chicken Fighters (2-0), PuckChamp (2-0), and AS Monaco Gaming (2-1).
It's very clear that Team Unique are in much better shape ahead of this match, however, that doesn't explain why are they priced as 1.36 favourites. This is still a tournament featuring second-tier Dota 2 teams, and while some might be stronger, the quality difference isn't that large.
Prior to the Dota 2 Champions League, Fantastic Five played well and were 8-3 across 11 matches. Team Unique, meanwhile, were 2-6 in games leading to the Dota 2 Champions League.
Team Unique are in better shape and should win this match more times than now, but I don't believe they'll be as dominant as the betting odds suggest. Fantastic Five looked a bit shaky last week, but this is still a solid team, and I expect them to win at least one map.
Fantastic Five +1.5 Maps
$1.63
VP.Prodigy vs Young Ninjas
WePlay Academy League Season 1
VP.Prodigy haven't had much success this tournament, and it doesn't seem like that will change anytime soon. This team has some serious problems in all areas of the game, which includes individual performances of their players.
The only player on the team with a positive rating is Ivan "lom1k" Ovsyanik, yet even he is just barely over the 1.00 HLTV rating line with 1.07. On the other side, we have VP. Prodigy's in-game leader Alexey "RuFire" Burakov, who has been averaging 0.74 HLTV Rating.
While IGLs deserve some slack for lower ratings, there is no excuse for 0.74.
On a more positive note, VP.Prodigy have had a few solid showings, namely their close series with Young Ninjas (14-16), Fnatic Rising (17-19), mouz NXT (14-16) and a 16-14 victory against FURIA Academy. Coming close to winning and actually winning the game are two entirely different things, but at least you have to acknowledge that VP.Prodigy have some talent.
Young Ninjas have looked decent so far this tournament, but they weren't exactly good. A 3-3 record from the first six rounds of play isn't where many expected this team to be, considering Young Ninjas were viewed as one of the main favourites to win the title.
Young Ninjas have clearly done much better than VP.Prodigy, however, I don't believe they should be priced at 1.40. They're better, but not that much better.
The Russians can be good enough to give Young Ninjas a run for their money and win at least 11 rounds. They might fall apart completely; however, they have done well against Ninjas last time out (14-16) and should be capable of forcing another close match on Monday.
BIG Academy vs NAVI Junior
WePlay Academy League Season 1
BIG Academy are one of the hottest teams at WePlay Academy League and have already won against NAVI Junior (16-6) in the first round of play. NAVI Junior have since looked much better with wins against Young Ninjas (16-11), VP.Prodigy (16-1), and Fnatic Rising (16-9).
The main thing to keep in mind about this tournament is that early results don't mean much. Most of these teams never met before, which resulted in a few unexpected results during the first few rounds. However, the league should find some stability now that the teams are slowly starting to figure out other teams' strengths and weaknesses.
BIG Academy have done much better thus far; however, they aren't that much better than NAVI Junior talent-wise. Their only standout player is Nico "Aqua" Kembitzky, but we have seen how vulnerable BIG Academy can be when Aqua isn't playing his best.
The Germans almost lost against FURIA Academy (16-14), when Auqa averaged 1.01 HLTV Rating, and they lost to Fnatic Rising (6-16), when Aqua managed only 0.62 HLTV Rating.
Like BIG Academy, NAVI Junior have a star player in Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, the highest-rated player at the tournament. NAVI Junior also have Eugene Yuryevich "Aunkere" Karyat, the fith-best performing player of WePlay Academy League.
If NAVI Junior manage to stop Aqua, they should win. However, they're still weak in some areas, namely their map pool, which should make this match much closer than expected.
BIG Academy +2.5 Rounds
$1.83
