The Dota Pro Circuit Summer Tour kicks off on Tuesday, June 7, and Michael Lee is here with his top betting picks for two China Division I and one Western Europe Division II matches. Today, he looks at Aster vs Aster.Aries, EHOME vs PSG.LGD, and Nigma Galaxy vs IVY while providing you with his best bets for the three Dota 2 games.
Esports Betting Tips: Tuesday, June 7th
Aster vs Aster.Aries
DPC China Tour 3 Division I
Two sister teams in Aster and Aster.Aries will kick off the third tour of the Chinese DPC on Tuesday, June 7, when the two teams will meet for the first time since January. Aster won that game; however, the academy lineup did not go down without a fight and won one map (1-2).
Since Team Aster are the main lineup and Aster.Aries the academy roster of the Chinese organisation, it's fair to expect the primary squad to win again. And I can agree, but the question is whether Aster.Aries can win at least one map and make the defeat more bearable.
On paper, it doesn't seem like Aster.Aries stand a good chance to achieve that, but I wouldn't say Aster.Aries are very weak. They dominated the second division of China DPC in March-April and have lost just one gamer throughout the entire tour.
Their only defeat came in the first game of the tour and Aster.Aries have lost just two maps across the six series they've won. So clearly, Aster.Aries are too good to be competing in the second division. Sadly, that doesn't mean they're good enough to compete in China's top league.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Aster.Aries win a couple of games in this division, but that is highly unlikely to happen against Team Aster. The latter have been phenomenal across the last few months, and even though I wouldn't say that they're the best Chinese Dota 2 team, Team Aster are not that far from it.
In the regional finals last month, Aster won against Dandelion (2-0), Xtreme Gaming (2-1), and even defeated PSG.LGD (2-0) in the semi-finals. Unfortunately, they lost the rematch against PSG.LGD in the finals (0-3), but you can't really criticise Aster for failing against one of the world's best Dota 2 teams.
There is no question that Team Aster should defeat its academy team, but we have to consider that Team Aster has not played a single match since the start of May. Likewise, Aster.Aries have not been involved in an official match in over a month. With ting rust playing a big factor here, I'm ready to take Aster.Aries to win a map.
They're good enough to put up a fight, and who knows, maybe Team Aster will take it easy against its sister team and give them a fighting chance.
Aster.Aries +1.5 Maps
$2.50 (1 Unit)
EHOME vs PSG.LGD
DPC China Tour 3 Division I
EHOME are not quite as strong as they used to be back in the day, but this is a capable team. Unfortunately, EHOME are also a very streaky team, so if things go as planned, they'll look strong, but there's also a chance EHOME will slip and struggle to regain traction.
On the other side, we have PSG.LGD, one of the top Dota 2 teams in the world and the current favourites to win The International 11. It's still early to make those claims, but realistically, PSG.LGD are one of the top-three teams in the world – or perhaps even top-two.
If you need a confirmation for that, you just need to check what PSG.LGD have achieved this season. If I keep it very brief – PSG.LGD won both DPC regular seasons and the regional finals and collected a bronze medal from Intel World Open Beijing in January.
The only event in which PSG.LGD did not finish inside the top three was OGA Dota PIT Season 6: China, where they could only manage a top-six finish. Still, it was evident that PSG.LGD did not care about that tournament, so I wouldn't even count it as a disappointing result.
There isn't much to talk about here. Although the teams are a bit ring rusty, which should work in favour of EHOME, I don't see how PSG.LGD can lose. They've been the most dominant anc consistent team in the region for the past two seasons and have lost just six games throughout 2022 – three of which came against Team Aster.
A clean sweep for PSG.LGD is the only result you can expect and the only wager you can take and feel good about it. EHOME have not beaten PSG.LGD once since April 2021, and I don't expect that to change.
PSG.LGD -1.5 Maps
$1.61 (2 Units)
Nigma Galaxy vs IVY
DPC WEU Tour 3 Division II
Nigma Galaxy had an atrocious journey through the DPC WEU Tour 2 Division I. They own just one of seven games and ended the tour in last place, earning a direct relegation into the second division.
It was a shocking outcome, especially since NIgma Galaxy actually has a capable roster that is more than good enough to compete at the top level. But, unfortunately, something did not click within the team; hence Nigma Galaxy stumbled.
But things are about to change, or so we can hope. After a previous tour's disastrous performance, Nigma Galaxy signed Syed Sumail "SumaiL" Hassan from Team Secret, adding one of the world's best Dota 2 players to an already potent squad.
I don't know how this roster change will play out, knowing that SumaiL hasn't had the best time at Team Secret. But let's be real, SumaiL is a world-class player who has yet to miss The International. And now, he will be competing against Europe's second-tier teams.
Obviously, there are other great players on Nigma Galaxy's roster, but as he has shown in the past, SumaiL can be the X-factor that elevates the team's level of play. And I expect that to be particularly obvious in the second division.
I did not talk much about IVY because I didn't feel like I needed to. They barely survived DPC WEU Tour 2 Division II with just two wins (2-5) and did not come even close to competing for the promotion. In short, IVY are one of the weakest teams in this division, taking on the main favourites to win the title.
Nigma Galaxy should stomp IVY on Tuesday, as anything less will raise some serious questions about Nigma Galaxy and their plans going forward.
Nigma Galaxy -18.5 Kills
$1.83 (1 Unit)
