?Hokori have fallen off since early 2021, and while they’re no longer one of the top contenders in the region, this is still a solid mid-table squad. They placed top four in the previous season of the BTS Pro Series and have recently claimed bronze from Binomo Cup, which is nothing to write home about.

D2 Hustlers fall in the same basket as Hokori, as a decent team, but not quite one of the top squads from the region. They have placed third in the eighth season of the BTS Pro Series and claimed fourth from season six in June. Between those two achievements, D2 have had some flashes of greatness but lacked consistency.

The offered Dota 2 betting odds suggest this one should end in a draw, which is fair, but we wouldn’t bet on a stalemate at $1.93. While we don’t know which version of D2 Hustlers we will get on Thursday, they played well against Thunder Predator (1-1) on Monday, which is reason enough for us to take their side.

?4Zoomers are on a solid path to win their second BTS Pro Series event, and the first since March when they claimed the season five title. After four days of play, 4Zoomers have suffered only one loss, and even that came against the former NoPing e-sports roster, currently playing for Thunder Predator.

Outside of that, 4Z took down Arkosh Gaming, Black N Yellow, and simply TOOBASED, which aren’t exactly top contenders, but Nico “Gunnar” Lopez and co. are at least winning games they should. INF.UESPORTS have been equally as impressive, with wins against Hokori, simply TOOBASED, and Arkosh Gaming.

This will be a rematch from the BTS Pro Series Season 8 when the teams parted ways with a draw. While INF.UESPORTS have achieved far more over the year; they have also yet to defeat 4Zoomers (0-2-2)

There isn’t a lot to set these two squads apart quality-wise, but the 4Zoomers past success makes it hard to pass betting on them at $3.53.

?Jacob “Husky” Fifik and Nico “Gunnar” Lopez left 4Zoomers earlier this month, but they’re still part of the BTS Pro Series Season 9 Americas roster. Joining them is former SG-esports carry Guilherme Silva “Costabile” Cost��bile and two S A D B O Y S players in David “Moo” Hull and Zakari William Lee “Zfreek” Freedman, who competed under 4Zoomers’ banner during the seventh and eighth seasons of the BTS Pro Series.??

Unlike 4Zoomers, D2 Hustlers field a stable roster of five players who have been competing together since April. Since then, D2 Hustlers have achieved a lot, including a top-four finish at BTS Pro Series Season 6 Americas and a bronze medal from the last season.

While D2 Hustlers have accomplished plenty over the year, we wouldn’t say that they’re individually much better than 4Zoomers. Still, D2 have won the last two meetings with 4Zoomers, who were at the time fielding a stronger roster, which suggests D2 should be just as efficient this time out.

?Black N Yellow last met with Arkosh Gaming during The International 10 North American qualifiers in July and won 2-0. BNY have since made a couple of roster changes and now field David “dnm” Cossio and Samuel “Sammyboy” Anderson instead of Jose Esau “esK” Perez Coronel and Francis “FLee” Lee.

??Meanwhile, Arkosh Gaming have signed former pro player, coach, and analyst Kurtis “Aui_2000” Ling to the roster. Adding a Dota 2 esports veteran is the best decision Arkosh could have made to help the young roster develop, although we have yet to see any notable results from them.

Had Black N Yellow fielded their full roster for this match, we would have no issues betting on them; however, with esK and FLee missing, they might struggle. With so many question marks above both teams, it’s only reasonable to expect a close match and a high chance of a draw.

?NoPing e-sports have managed two draws in their tournament openers against D2 Hustlers and TEAM TEAM. Even though it’s hard to praise NoPing until they start winning, draws are still a good start.

Black N Yellow are 1-1-3 after five fixtures, with a win against TEAM TEAM, losses against D2 Hustlers, 4Zoomers, and Infinity, and a draw against 4Gringos. With those results, BNY are 3-1-5 since June, while their five bouts at the BTS Pro Series remain their only games since July.

Most of the teams attending the BTS Pro series are ring rusty, which explains the chaos in the standings. However, unlike most other teams, NoPing e-sports have been very active this month and placed second at Movistar Liga Pro Gaming Season 10 on Sunday.

En route to the finals, NoPing won against Team Unknown, Infinity, and INF.UESPORTS, who are all stronger than Black N Yellow. What’s more, NoPing have not placed worse than top-four across seven tournaments on the year �C excluding a ninth-12th place finish at WePlay AniMajor. They’re not the best LATAM Dota 2 team, but NoPing are stronger than what the betting odds suggest.

Furia Jovem and Infinity last met on Sunday, when Furia Jovem came away with a 2-0 sweep, marking their first head-to-head victory against Infinity. Their only previous meeting, which happened just under two weeks back, ended in a 1-1 draw.

The Costa Rican squad are priced at $3.09, which is a tempting bet, albeit they haven’t achieved much of late and are 2-4-3 across their last nine outings. Their only two wins over that stretch came against Black N Yellow and former Spirits (and Incubus Club) core, BINOMITAS.

We could see a draw, but at the offered Dota 2 betting odds, we will gladly take a shot with Furia Jovem to recreate what they’ve produced last time out and defeat Infinity.

?These sides last met at the start of January, when Team Unknown won with 36-8 in kills and a massive 17.8k net worth lead. That marked their fourth head-to-head victory, having won all but two of the previous five (4-2-0) since June 2020.

Unknown enter this fixture with an incomplete roster due to the departure of support Junior Reyes “Yadomi” Rimari on Tuesday. They already have a replacement player lined up, and it is fair to assume Yadomi’s successor won’t be a massive downgrade.

Even though Unknown should do just fine without their departing support, some early struggles and a lack of synergy are expected. Infinity might be a weaker team overall, but they are in great form with only one loss in their last 16 outings, so we have to take a shot with the outsiders. Alternatively, you can take Infinity with a map handicap at $1.90 or better.

?With the departure of Peter “ppd” Dager, Sadboys are left with only four active members on the team and could have difficulty finding a replacement player ahead of this match. Although the core of the team has stayed together, that hardly means much considering Sadboys have not been doing well of late.

While these sides share a 2-4 record across their last six outings, Infamous have faced much stronger opponents. What’s more, Sadboys’ only wins in that stretch came against Black N Yellow and A-Team, which is hardly worth celebrating.

Ppd’s departure suggests there might be some internal turmoil at Sadboys, and if we combine that with their poor form, there is no reason to bet against the favourites in this one.

BTS Pro Series Season 4: Americas

?Team Brasil began their BTS Pro Series Season 4: Americas campaign with a narrow 1-1 draw against S A D B O Y S and a commanding 2-0 win over Arkosh Gaming. 4 Zoomers have produced equally impressive results with sweeps of 5ManMidas and Thunder Predator, while both teams are 4-4-2 in their last 10 outings.

4 Zoomers and Team Brasil have met three times this year, with each series ending in a 1-1 draw. Brasil were the better-performing side in their most recent bout, and considering they managed a stalemate against Clinton “Fear” Loomis and his crew on Tuesday, we don��t see why they can��t win least one map on Saturday.

2020 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2

?Jun “TY” Tae Yang is only one step away from his first StarCraft II Premier tournament grand final since he won 2020 Global StarCraft II League Season 3 in early November. His path to more silverware, however, won’t be easy as he faces Cho “Trap” Sung Ho, who has beaten him in all of their last four meetings.

Since the turn of the year, TY has met with Trap eight times and won only the one series back in April with 5-4. He has lost all of the remaining four with a 5-10 map differential but has managed to win three out of eight maps in their last two brawls.

Regardless of Trap’s recent success, we like our chances with TY better. He looked good in their last two meetings and should have a solid chance to cause an upset.

?Kim “Stats” Dae Yeob enters this match as the underdog, which is difficult to explain considering he has beaten Lee “Rogue” Byeong Yeol in both of their last two meetings. Even though Rogue swept Cho “Maru” Seong Ju (3-0) on Wednesday, the current no.3 in the ESL Pro Tour 2020/21 Korea standings looked a bit off on that day.

Rogue appears to have found his touch, but he still seems a bit overrated at StarCraft II betting sites heading into this match. The odds are way too short, which is why we will gladly take a shot with the outsider.

TeamLiquid StarLeague 6

?Joona “Serral” Sotala enters this match as a heavy favourite over Park “Dark” Ryung-woo, but even at $1.29, we find those odds to be a fraction longer than they should be. Serral has met Dark five times in his career, winning the last three in a row with a 9-2 map differential.

There is a world where Dark upsets Serral, but it’s hard to expect any surprises since the reigning DreamHack SC2 Masters 2020 Winter champion rarely drops games like this. Anything above $1.70 on the Finn to win with at least two maps to spare is a good bet.

?Maru enters the final international StarCraft II Premier tournament of the year off a humiliating 0-3 loss against Rogue at 2020 AfreecaTV GSL Super Tournament 2. He is now set to face Won “PartinG” Lee Sak, who seems like an easier opponent on paper, but we have a hard time believing Maru will win this clash.

Maru has met with PartinG 15 times since 2012 and won only five series, including one 2-1 win in October. Despite that result last time out, we don’t see why Maru should be priced as the favourite.

Esports multi bet tips for Thursday, December 11

ESL Pro League Season 12 Europe

?Team Spirit dropped their opening three games against Fnatic (1-2), Team Vitality (1-2) and Complexity Gaming (1-2), but they have since found their rhythm with back-to-back wins against Ninjas in Pyjamas (2-1) and FaZe Clan (2-1).

In contrast, mousesports won their first two matches but then lost two of their next three. While they can have their moments, as seen this Wednesday when they swept Complexity, mouz don’t even look all that convincing on the maps they manage to win.

On form, this should be an easy win for Spirit. While a 2-0 is a realistic possibility, we will play it safe and settle for a moneyline bet on the Russians.

There are not a lot of positive things to say about FaZe Clan, who have yet to win a single match and hold a poor 1-10 map differential. They forced Spirit to three maps on Tuesday, but that’s hardly an achievement since they managed only 18 rounds across the last two maps.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are in a similar situation, as they are 1-4 and already eliminated from the competition. Their only win came a week ago when NiP defeated mousesports (2-1), but they have since lost to Spirit (1-2) and Astralis (0-2).

The odds suggest NiP should win, which is more than fair given FaZe are in shambles. Even though NiP have had their own struggles, there is definitely value in backing the Swedes to cover the map line.

Astralis enter this match as favourites, which is nothing unusual. While the Danes had their iffy moments early in the tournament, they are looking like serious title contenders right now.

Fnatic desperately need a win to avoid an early elimination. That might inspire a stronger effort from the Swedes, but their 0-2 loss against Team Vitality on Tuesday does not give us much confidence.

Since Fnatic managed only 21 rounds against Vitality, we can assume they will struggle even more against Astralis. Back the favourites for a clean sweep.

ESL Pro League Season 12 North America

Even though Cloud9 are not a terrible squad, their upcoming roster rebuild – which will see the entire playing list let go after this tournament – surely isn’t helping the team’s morale.

We are not too confident about Team Liquid either. They were shaky in their 2-1 wins against Chaos Esports Club and 100 Thieves, and they were downright humiliated in the 0-2 loss to FURIA on Sunday with two of their players averaging below 0.80 in the match ratings.

Liquid are still the most likely victors, but we have a hard time believing they will manage a clean sweep.

BTS Pro Series Season 3 Southeast Asia

?On paper, Fnatic are a far superior team to Execration. Since they already defeated Ryan “Bimbo” Jay Qui and co. in June during BTS Pro Series S2 SEA, it may seem fair to assume they can do it again.

The reality, however, is that Fnatic are playing extremely poorly and will struggle to repeat that success. They lost to New Esports (0-2), 496 Gaming (0-2) and TNC Predator (0-2), whereas Execration managed two (1-1) draws against 032 and Motivate.Trust Gaming but lost to NEW Esports (0-2) on Tuesday.

Even though Fnatic are still the better team, we like our chances with Execration to win one map and force a draw.

?Motivate.Trust Gaming are a much better team than many give them credit for. However, they’re still a level below BOOM Esports, who have emerged as one of the best SEA Dota2 teams with their runner-up finish at ESL One Thailand 2020 Asia at the start of the month.

Alfi “Khezcute” Nelphyana and co. carried over some of that momentum into the BTS Pro Series, where they have already defeated Neon Esports and 032. They also produced a solid 1-1 stalemate with TNC Predator.

BOOM Esports look set for another podium finish, and we don’t see how Motivate.Trust Gaming can stop them. Take advantage of the generous odds and side with the favourites.

BTS Pro Series Season 3 Europe/CIS

Vikin.gg have gone from eternal underdogs to a team everyone fears to face. During the OMEGA League, they defeated FlyToMoon (2-1), NiP (2-1) and Team Liquid (2-1), and they even forced OG to three maps (1-2). That form has continued at BTS, where Vikin.gg have swept Unique, B8 and 5men alongside a draw with HellRaisers.

NiP usually have no issues defeating lower-ranked teams, but they tend to struggle against tough opponents. We don’t expect that to change here, and at $2.29, we don’t need to think twice before siding with Vikin.gg.

Khan have met with Team Unique six times this year and won four series, including a 2-0 sweep at the end of August during the OMEGA League. Even though the head-to-head record favours Khan, we have to note Unique have won seven out of their 15 games.

Neither side look like serious title contenders, as they both lack individual quality and tend to struggle closing out their games. Team Unique have shown a bit more, so they’re rightfully priced as the favourites, but they’re not consistent enough for us to believe they can avoid dropping a map.

China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 1

ViCi Gaming have won six of the last nine meetings between these teams, including both of the last two at BEYOND EPIC (2-0) in June and DPL-CDA League S2 (2-1) in July.

These meetings, however, are rarely as one-sided as the H2H record would suggest. Royal Never Give Up have won nine out of 22 maps and forced a three-map series four times, including all but one of their last five clashes.

Since this will be the first official game for ViCi and RNG in over two months, we can expect a very open affair, so there are arguments to be made in favour of the underdogs.

Further details are yet to be revealed as the investigation in ongoing. Valve Corporation will continue to study the case and then decide whether additional sanctions are necessary.

Team PlusOne’s ousting from the BTS Pro Series means their previous results in the competition have been nullified, thus awarding forfeit wins to 4 Zoomers, Evil Genuises, Quincy Crew, beastcoast, Midas Club, CR4ZY, Plasma, business associates and Thunder Predator.

“Team PlusOne have been removed from BTS Pro Series due to multiple, confirmed incidents of match fixing. All previous match results will be nullified,” read the announcement from Beyond The Summit.

“We have provided relevant information and evidence to Valve. PlusOne are currently banned from all future BTS tournaments.”

Team PlusOne are relatively unknowns in the Dota2 esports scene since they do not field any high-profile players. The only two members of the roster that have some sort of international recognition are the Argentinian support Nicol��s “Wij” Moreno and Canadian-Chinese support Yixaun “xuan” Guo.

Wij began his Dota2 career in July 2016 with Vultur and later played for Gorillaz-Pride, Infamous Young and Team Unknown, who he represented at the MDL Chengdu Major, World Electronic Sports Games 2019 LatAM North and Epulze Global Dota 2 League: South America Division 1.

Xuan, whose career began in October 2014, has previously played for Boreal eSports, Void Boys, ROOT Gaming, EverNova, Demon Slayers and T1. He has featured at numerous Dota2 Major qualifiers, while his most notable achievement to date is a runner-up finish at DreamLeague Season 12 with Demon Slayers.

The remaining three players on the Team PlusOne roster – Alejandro “Jano” Moreno, Chedrin “Ched” Asinas and dnm – are still largely unknown in the professional Dota2 scene.

Although the whole team was ejected from the BTS Pro Series, the tournament organisers confirmed that only Xuan, Ched and Jano had been permanently suspended from participating events affiliated with Beyond The Summit. It is still unclear whether dnm and Wij were involved in any match-fixing activity.

“At this time, we are indefinitely suspending xuan, Ched, & Jano from competing in all BTS events.”

“The other two players, dnm & Wij, are permitted to compete in future BTS tournaments at this time.”

This is, unfortunately, just one of many recent match-fixing scandals in professional esports. Just a month ago, Cyber Legacy’s Dota 2 academy team, CyberTRAKTOR, were involved in suspicious activity during WePlay! Pushka League Division 2.

The BTS Pro Series Season 2: Americas group stage continues this Wednesday, when CR4ZY will clash with Plasma and business associates will take on 4 Zoomers. The playoffs are slated to kick off on Thursday with top eight teams duking it out for the largest slice of the US $50,000 prize pool.

CLOUD9 VS FURIA DOTA 2 BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

CLOUD9 VS FURIA BTS PRO SERIES: AMERICAS BETTING PREVIEW

Cloud9 and FURIA are set to meet this Friday on day eight of the Beyond The Summit Pro Series: Americas tournament, where both sides will hope they can break their dry streak.

After six matchdays, Cloud9 sit at the bottom of the tournament standings with a 0-4 series record and an equally abysmal 1-8 map record. While those numbers are far from encouraging, they are hardly surprising.

C9 returned to the Dota2 esports scene in January when they acquired Andrei “skem” Ong, Cheng “vtFaded” Jia Hao, Francis “FLee” Lee and Johan “pieliedie” ?str?m, and they have failed to achieve any notable success since. The organisation��s first Dota2 appearance in over two years came at the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 Southeast Asia Open Qualifier, where C9 lost to Motivade.Trust Gaming in round two.

That defeat ushered immediate roster changes. FLee left the team in early March, while skem and vtFaded both found themselves benched in favour of Marcus “Ace” Hoelgaard and the former Fighting PandaS pair of Jingjun “Sneyking” Wu and Jacky “EternaLEnVy” Mao.

Even with the new-look roster, C9 crashed out of DOTA Summit 12 without winning a single map against the likes of Evil Geniuses, Fnatic, OG Seed, Team Liquid and Thunder Predator. Their woes continued into WeSave! Charity Play – North America, where MISERY and co. lost in round one against CR4ZY.

FURIA had a much more colourful journey in the last three months. While they failed to win anything, the Brazilian squad at least looked competitive in a couple of their endeavours.

FURIA kicked off 2020 with a seventh-eighth finish at WePlay! Bukovel Minor 2020, to which they added a third-place finish at the ESL One Los Angeles 2020 South America Closed Qualifier and a silver medal at the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor Season 3 South America Qualifier. In March, Heitor “Duster” Pereira and his crew picked up an underwhelming top-six finish at No Major No Problem and a day later crashed out of WeSave! Charity Play – South America in round one.

While those results are not all that promising, FURIA have looked slightly better in recent weeks. They made it to the finals of Aorus League 2020 – StayAtHome Edition Brazil and went on to pocket a bronze medal at ESL One Los Angeles 2020 – Online: South America, where they claimed a commanding 2-0 win against Thunder Predator and even forced beastcoast to a three-map series.

As for their journey through the BTS Pro Series, FURIA suffered a reverse-sweep loss to regional rivals Thunder Predator (1-2) and later went down to Evil Geniuses (0-2) without putting up much resistance. EG are currently the strongest North American team, however, so perhaps it’s not fair to judge FURIA too much for that result.

CLOUD9 VS FURIA BTS PRO SERIES: AMERICAS BETTING PREDICTIONS

Esports bookmakers have FURIA priced as slight favourites, which is fair when you consider Cloud9’s horrendous form. It is worrying that C9’s only win since their re-entry into Dota2 esports came against Uprising, a little-known Singaporean stack, while their 11-game losing streak has seen team morale sink to an all-time low.

If Cloud9 don’t start producing at least half-decent results soon, they might as well disband the team and focus on their League of Legends and CS:GO projects. In their current state, this squad seem like they would struggle even against a team of amateur players.

With all due respect, we have no expectations for Cloud9. Until they start showing something, any bet against them is a good bet in our books.