Our Esports expert Michael Lee is back for a new week of Esports excitement from around the globe. Today's best bets come from the AOC Play Dota2, the OGA Dota PIT Season 3: China and the LOOT.BET Season 8, so check out his preview and Esports betting tips below.
ESports Betting Tips: Monday, October 12th
Nemiga Gaming vs Cyberium
AOC Play Dota2
Nemiga Gaming and Cyberium will clash in the upper bracket finals of AOC Play Dota2 tournament, which will mark their first meeting since February when Nemiga swept Cyberium 2-0 during Winter Madness. A lot has changed since that bout, however, so I would not put too much weight on that result.
Cyberium have made quite a few roster changes last week when they brought back Abdimalik "Malik" Sajlau from EXTREMUM and signed three academy players in Stoyan "lil pleb" Kostov, Azamat "Samsam" Baitasov and Ivaylo "Mastermind" Petkov. With those changes, Cyberium are entering their next bout with a completely new roster, however, that does not necessarily mean they're weaker.
With the new-look team, Cyberium already picked up two wins against NOVA (2-0) and Ensis Academy (2-1), which are decent results for a team of this calibre. Nemiga, on the other side, won against Burning Fire (2-1) and Winstrike (2-1), which I would say are equally impressive results to what Cyberium have shown.
Cyberium are priced as massive favourites over Nemiga, which I don't know how to feel about. Although Nemiga have had their fair share of mishaps last month, I don't believe Cyberium will have an easy time winning here. A three-map series is definitely something we can expect, but at the provided odds, we will side with Nemiga. Bet on Nemiga to win!
PSG.LGD vs ViCi Gaming
OGA Dota PIT Season 3: China
PSG.LGD and ViCi are set to clash in the finals of OGA Dota PIT Season 3: China this Monday, which will mark their 16th meeting of the year and the third of the tournament. Historically, these two sides match up nicely and usually produce close affairs, but as of the last couple of months, it's PSG.LGD who have consistently came out ahead of ViCi.
Out of their last four meetings - dating back to DPL-CDA League S2 in July - PSG.LGD won every time with an 8-1 aggregate map score. At this point, it's worth noting that ViCi won three out of four meetings before PSG.LGD's commanding run but overall, it's PSG.LGD who usually come out ahead (10-5).
In terms of what PSG.LGD and ViCi have shown in the playoffs, ViCi started their run throughout the final stage of the competition with a 2-0 win over Team MagMa, lost the second round against PSG.LGD (0-2), but bounced back in the lower bracket with wins over Royal Never Give Up (2-0), EHOME (2-1) and Team Aster (2-1).
PSG.LGD, on the other side, played only two teams in ViCi and Aster, and won them both with clean sweeps. With those two wins, PSG.LGD are the only undefeated team at the tournament (5-0) and on top of that hold a very impressive 10-2 map differential. The only two maps PSG.LGD have lost came against ViCi (2-1) and RNG (2-1) in the group stage.
These two teams know each other very well and usually produce exciting bouts, which is exactly what I expect to see this Monday, however, since the grand finals will be played as best-of-five (BO5) we are likely not in for any upsets. PSG.LGD have been looking like a much better team as of late and while I do expect ViCi to put up a fight and make PSG.LGD work for the W, I don't see how they can win more than one map.
C0ntact Gaming vs Team Heretics
LOOT.BET Season 8
C0ntact and Heretics last met in September during the DreamHack Open Fall 2020 Closed Qualifier, when c0ntact swept Heretics 2-0 with 16-8 on Mirage and 19-17 on Nuke. It was a fairly easy match for c0ntact who won largely due to the superb performance of Owen "smooya" Butterfield, who ended the series with 50 frags and 1.35 HLTV rating.
Other players on c0ntact did not fail to deliver either, especially Lotan "Spinx" Giladi and Otto "ottoNd" Sihvo who locked in 1.23 and 1.21 HLTV ratings respectively. On the side of Heroic, the only player who looked decent was Lucas "Lucky" Chastang with 39 frags and 1.15 HLTV rating.
Across the last three months, c0ntact won only 40% of their games, however, considering they have made a massive roster change not long ago, I would not overvalue their past results. Since c0ntact put together a new team, they have produced a 3-4 record, but some of their losses were quite close so I am confident saying this squad has potential.
Heretics, on the other side, won 61% of their matches across the last three months which is a fairly impressive number, but they mostly played low-rated teams such as KPI, UCAM, Sprout, SKADE and Winstrike.
C0ntact are the favourites to win here and I don't have a problem with that. They are a fairly solid team with a lot of firepower, who in a way could be viewed as a weaker version of FaZe Clan. Like FaZe Clan, c0ntact are on the upwards trajectory and since they have already defeated Heretics last month, I see no reason why they can't do it again. Bet on c0ntact to win 2-0!
