Today's Esports betting predictions take a look at three different matchups from the League of Legends Pro League and the ESEA Season 36: Premier Division – Europe. Check out our full preview and betting tips from Michael Lee below.
Esports Betting Tips: Tuesday, March 2nd
Bilibili Gaming vs Invictus Gaming
League of Legends Pro League
Invictus Gaming dropped the ball big time on Sunday when they suffered a 0-2 loss against Suning, however, that game was more Suning wining rather than IG losing. Overall IG put up a solid fight and simply got outplayed by Suning who showed us a glimpse of their 2020 League of Legends World Championship form.
With that loss, IG are now ninth in the league with a 5-5 record and a 55% map win rate, which more or less means they won't be competing for the regular-season title. Regardless of their mediocre record, IG are not a bad team and their placement hardly does justice to the quality players they field.
This will mark Bilibili Gaming's first match in over a week, which is not optimal since they will likely be a bit ring rusty. However, they also had more than enough time to prepare themselves for this bout, which is a plus.
In their last match, Bilibili lost to EDward Gaming (0-2), however, the series were much closer than what the score might suggest. BLG held on well in the early game, but simply got outclassed by a stronger opponent, who on top of that entered the match with superior team compositions.
The betting odds suggest IG will win this match with ease, which might happen, but I tend to be very careful when siding with IG. The 2018 LoL world champions tend to be very unpredictable and it's not like they're facing a very weak team. If BLG can recreate what they have shown against EDG and fix some minor issues, they will have a realistic chance to cause an upset.
Suning vs ThunderTalk Gaming
League of Legends Pro League
Suning found their long-lost form against Invictus Gaming on Sunday in what was arguably their best performance of the season. The whole team played extremely well, but it was jungler Lê "SofM" Quang Duy, who had a standout performance, akin to what he has been showing during the LoL World Championship.
ThunderTalk Gaming managed only two wins this season and have lost all of their last three fixtures against LGD Gaming (0-2), Rare Atom (1-2) and JD Gaming (1-2). Although stealing one map off JD Gaming seems good enough, the LPL 2020 Spring champions aren't doing too well this season, so I wouldn't overreact to that result.
I would rank TT Gaming as a mid-table team that is not playing particularly poorly, but they aren't doing extremely well either. The question for this match is mostly what version of Suning will we see - if Suning return to their old ways and play as they did throughout most of the season, I could imagine TT Gaming winning one map, however, if Suning showcase the same form they have against IG, TT will stand no chance.
One good performance alone isn't enough to make me believe Suning are really as good as they looked last weekend. I'm taking a shot with TT Gaming to win one map, even though I might look back at this match and wonder what I was thinking.
TT Gaming +1.5 Maps
$2.24
Nemiga Gaming vs AGO
ESEA Season 36: Premier Division – Europe
Nemiga and AGO last met back in June 2020, when Nemiga bested the Polish squad 16-11 during the 34th season of ESEA Premier Division. Both teams have made roster changes since then, although those were far fewer on the side of Nemiga.
The Belarus squad's only new arrival in the last two years was Anton "speed4k" Titov, who has joined the team at the end of January. On the side of AGO, there were three new signings in the last two months alone, including Michał "snatchie" Rudzki, Paweł "reatz" Jańczak and Karol "rallen" Radowicz. The only player who has remained with the team since AGO's last meeting with Nemiga is Damian "Furlan" Kisłowski, essentially meaning Nemiga have yet to face this version of AGO.
Nemiga enter this match in better shape, having won all but one of their last five outings, whereas AGO managed only two wins in the same stretch. That said, Nemiga suffered a 0-2 loss against Movistar Riders and struggled against Nexus (2-1), while AGO stomped Movistar 2-0 with 16-10 on Mirage and 16-9 on Train.
This seems like a 50/50 match that can go both ways. Nemiga are priced as the favourites, but I just don't see it, so I have to side with AGO to continue their solid form and lock in their third win in a row.
