Michael Lee returns with his esports betting previews for Monday, June 6. Today he looks at two Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches in hellslayerz vs K23 and SKADE vs Sprout, who will meet in the lower bracket of REPUBLEAGUE Season 3: Closed Qualifier and one Dota 2 EUW Division 2 match between Brame and EU Rejects.
Esports Betting Tips: Monday, June 6th
Hellslayerz vs K23
REPUBLEAGUE Season 3: Closed Qualifier
Hellslayerz nearly directly qualified for REPUBLEAGUE Season 3, but they fell at the final obstacle, losing against ECSTATIC (1-2). Hellsayerz actually took the series lead with 16-14 on Dust 2, but they convincingly lost the next two maps with 6-16 on Ancient and 11-16 on Overpass.
That defeat saw hellslayerrz drop down to the lower bracket, where they’re now given a final chance to qualify for the tournament. However, that might be easier said than done. Even though K23 are – like hellslayerz – in the lower bracket of the qualifiers, they dropped down here only because K23 had to forfeit their first match against Entropiq Prague, who they would have easily beaten.
So as far as their results in this tournament are concerned, K23 have just one victory against Ngentium, who they beat with 22-20 on Ancient and 16-9 on Inferno. It wasn’t a spotless game from K23, but they still got the job done. But I don’t particularly care about how good K23 have looked over the last few months due to the departure of fame and n0rb3r7, who left the team on May 31 to join Virtus.pro.
This leaves K23 in a rough spot, as they not only lost two of their best players but are now also left with two vacant spots, which we don’t know which players will fill. But no matter who joins K23, he will undoubtedly be a downgrade to fame and n0rb3r7.
Given the recent circumstances, it would seem obvious to favour hellslayerz, but I’m not sold on this team, and I don’t see them as a solid pick even against weakened K23. But they can do some damage, so I’m ready to take over 2.5 maps.
SKADE vs Sprout
REPUBLEAGUE Season 3: Closed Qualifier
SKADE and Sprout both stumbled in the upper bracket, Sprout against MOUZ NXT, and SKADE against Into the Breach. Sprout have since edged past Team Sampi (2-1), while Sprout didn’t have to play a single game in these qualifiers, as their only defeat came in the second and final round of the upper bracket.
Sprout and SKADE last met in November 2021, when Sprout won 16-11, but that was when Sprout were playing with a much different and arguably stronger roster. The same holds true for SKADE, but I wouldn’t say their their current lineup is much stronger or weaker.
So by that logic, SKADE should have a better chance of defeating Sprout, which is perfectly displayed in the betting odds, seeing how Sprout is priced as 2.00 underdogs and SKADE as 1.72 favourites. Still, I don’t believe the odds are fair.
SKADE might have a better chance to defeat Sprut than they had in November, but that doesn’t mean that they’re stronger. Besides that, SKADE are in terrible form, having won just two of their last six games, while Sprout have lost just one over the same stretch.
This is very close to a 50/50 match, and even without their former players, I still consider Sprout as the better team. At 2.00 or anything over even money, Sprout are an easy choice.
Brame and EU Rejects
DPC WEU Tour 3 Division II
EU Rejects (formerly Into The Breach) will clash with Brame on Monday, June 6, in the first round of DPC EUW Tour 3 Division II. These two teams last played way back during TI10 qualifiers in July 2021, when ITB won 2-1, but with different players on both sides.
But there are not many games from EU Rejects that we can analyse, seeing how their last official match happened during the second tour of DPC WEU Div II, in April. On the contrary, Brame have been very active since the conclusion of the previous tour.
Not only that, but Brame also won Dota 2 Champions League Season 10 just three weeks back, proving that while they have dropped back into the second division, Brame are more than ready to climb back into the big league. And I don’t really doubt their chances to do so.
Brame could have and should have retained their spot in the first division, but they lost a very close tiebreaker match against Entity, despite showing some good performances throughout the tournament. We can’t know how the long break will affect the teams, but if we compare Brame and EU Rejects, Brame are clearly a much superior team.
Whether they will manage to show that and solidify themselves as one of the main candidates to win DPC WEU Tour 3 Division II remains to be seen. But at 2.00, they’re a good bet to defeat the former Into the Breach lineup without dropping a map.
