Michael Lee brings you his esports betting previews for Tuesday, August 16, with his picks for three League of Legends games. Today he looks at LPL 2022 Summer playoffs match between OMG and FunPlus Phoenix, LDL 2022 Summer Playoffs bout between Top Esports Challenger and Joy Dream, and LCO 2022 Split 2 Playoffs fixture between Dire Wolves and Kanga Esports.
Esports Betting Tips: Tuesday, 16th August
OMG vs FunPlus Phoenix
LPL 2022 Summer
The regular season head-to-head between OMG and FunPlus Phoenix shows 2-1 in favour of OMG, albeit it was an extremely close match that could have gone either way. But regardless of OMG's H2H lead, the performance numbers are in FPX's favour.
I am not a big fan of OMG even though they've finished the season relatively high, and I don't have anything against the team, but rather how they play. OMG are notorious for their poor early game, having trailed by 20 minutes in nearly 60% of all their matches this season.
That is obviously bad, but it also shows that OMG know how to fight back from a losing position, which serves as a counterweight for their abysmal start to their games. Still, I would not like to be on the side of a team that will start most of their matches in a losing position.
It's also important to note that FPX have much better performance starts across all metrics but neutral objective control, where OMG are solid. And that is also the main reason why OMG are able to fight their way back into the games despite trailing in gold early.
These are two teams with little to no chance of competing for the LPL title, so I wouldn't expect anything spectacular on Tuesday. It could be a crazy match because both teams have very shaky fundamentals, but that doesn't mean the game will produce many kills, so I'm not a big fan of betting on overs.
Final result-wise, nothing would surprise me, and I view this match very close to a 50/50; therefore, I'm definitely not backing OMG at the offered odds. FunPlus Phoenix to win at 2.00 isn't that bad since I believe they're the better team, but if I believe FunPlus Phoenix are all-around stronger, we might as well take them on the map handicap market.
FunPlus Phoenix -1.5 Maps
$3.25 (1 Unit)
Top Esports Challenger vs Joy Dream
LDL 2022 Summer
Top Esports Challenger ended the regular season in second place with a 19-11 record, while Joy Dream finished Group A in third with a 25-14 record, which are, win rate-wise, similar figures. However, despite achieving just as much this season, Top Esports Challenger enter this game as 1.53 favourites.
That doesn't surprise me since Group B is much tougher than Group A. Besides that, Joy Dream have struggled to perform against other top teams in their group, which should make you worry about how they'll do against one of the main candidates to win the league.
Had this game been played a month ago, I would consider Joy Dream as a potential winner, but things have changed over the last few weeks, namely for the better for Top Esports. They've appointed a new ADC in Zi "JiaQi" Jia-Qi, who had previously served as the team's starter in 2021.
And while he's still fairly inexperienced, JiaQi has quickly found his place in the team and is now the big reason Top Esports Challenger is in an excellent spot to make a deep run. Joy Dream have a solid ADC in Li "1xn" Xiu-Nan, but their bottom lane has been struggling of late, and unless we see some improvement, Top Esports Challenger can just play around JiaQi and come out ahead.
Top Esports Challenger -1.5 Maps
$2.20 (1 Unit)
Dire Wolves vs Kanga Esports
LCO 2022 Split 2
Dire Wolves and Kanga Esports last met at the end of LCO 2022 Split 2 Week 8, when Kanga Esports won quite comfortably, and have since produced two wins and two losses to end the season in fifth place. Dire Wolves have experienced a similar run to end the regular season, winning one game and losing their final three, but they still finished one spot above Kanga in the standings.
Even with the team's shaky form across the final two weeks of LCO 2022 Split 2, there isn't much to set them apart. But I can see why many people would prefer to side with Dire Wolves.
They might have lost their last three regular season matches, but their defeats came against ORDER, Chiefs, and Pentanet.GG, which are some of the best teams in the league. Interestingly, Kanga's last two losses came against the same two opponents in ORDER and Chiefs.
People are high on Dire Wolves, but I wouldn't say that they should be priced as 1.40 favourites. This is a winnable match for Kanga, who have beaten Dire Wolves before. And even if Kanga don't come out ahead victorious, they have shown enough for me to believe they can force a five-map series.
Kanga Esports +1.5 Maps
$1.80 (1 Unit)
