Cloud9 are 4-0 after four weeks of LCS 2024 Summer, and based on their performance stats, they’re the best team in the league. Cloud9 still have some things to iron out, but even in their current state, C9 do not seem like they can be stopped by any team not named Team Liquid or FlyQuest.

NRG secured their second consecutive victory of the split on Monday when they defeated Shopify Rebellion. Yet despite the win, NRG performed poorly and displayed no improvement from their past showings.

The market has seemingly caught up with NRG not being a great team, yet even $1.61 for Cloud9 to sweep with top esports betting sites is too generous to pass on. The kill handicap line is set at 8.5 which looks fair, so no play there.

Shopify Rebellion have been abysmal this split. They have not won a single series nor a map over the four games played; however, they showed some good things against NRG in the previous round.

It was a bizarre series that should have ended in Shopify Rebellion’s favour, yet they threw their advantageous positions too often. This is concerning information, but besides the throws, Shopify Rebellion performed well.

Dignitas did well against Team Liquid, but they got sloppy and lost 1-2. In that game and across the preview fixtures, Dignitas have proven to be resilient with some good qualities, but they’re not very good.

At the current price, Shopify Rebellion are expected to win just 29.6% of the time, which is a bit low, assuming they don’t shoot themselves in the foot again. At $1.75, Shopify Rebellion to take a map is an offer we can’t pass on.

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Cloud9 will face ENCE in the first semifinal of ESL Pro League Season 17. Both teams won their quarterfinals 2-1, winning the second and third maps after losing the first map of the series. Both organisations will be desperate for another tournament win, as their most recent S-Tier tournament victories occurred in May and June of 2022, respectively.

Cloud9, the favourite for this match and the current no.10 in the ESL CS:GO world rankings, are on an eight-match winning streak after winning the RES Eastern European Masters Spring event and their first four series at ESL Pro League 17. Cloud9 are one of the hottest teams in the world right now, and they are unquestionably one of the favourites to win the ESL Pro League trophy, alongside Heroic.

C9 defeated Evil Geniuses, G2 Esports, and Outsiders to win Group A and advance directly to the quarterfinals, where they faced MOUZ. C9 lost the first map (Inferno) 10-16 in that series, but with Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov carrying the team on his back, they won the second and third maps (Vertigo, Mirage) 16-11 and 16-10 to take the match 2-1. Ax1Le set the server record for kills (69), kill/death differential (+14), average damage per round (99.7 ADR), and overall rating (1.32). With the help of Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov, who is second in the overall player ratings in ESL Pro League 17, Cloud9 will be very difficult to beat in this series.

ENCE are on a giant killing streak, having defeated world no.1 G2 Esports in the second round of the playoffs before defeating world no.6 Team Vitality in the quarterfinals last match. ENCE’s previous series against Team Vitality followed a similar pattern to Cloud9’s, with Vitality winning the first map (Nuke) 14-16 before ENCE came back and won maps two and three (Overpass, Vertigo) 16-11 and 16-14.

Guy “NertZ” Iluz, ENCE’s newest member, has been their best player at ESL Pro League 17, averaging a rating of 1.19 and a kill/death differential of +40 for the entire event. Along with NertZ, the two top-rated players for ENCE in the past six months, Pawet “dycha” Dycha and Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia, have continued their strong run of form.

Both Cloud9 and ENCE come into this series in great form, and we look set for a cracking three-map series – so we will be taking the overs in the total maps market with GG Bet.

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The founder and CEO of Cloud9, Jack Etienne, gave a breakdown of the team’s LoL Championship Series (LCS) roster in a YouTube video. He noted that the team’s players were willing to extend their stay with the team after the 2022 run, which culminated in an LCS Summer title.

“We had a situation where pretty much every player was happy with the performance of their teammates. Of course, there were things that we could improve on, but they really wanted to run it back again. The one change that we ended up doing was just mid lane,” Etienne said.

Diplex hails from the Team Liquid academy team, and he will have big shoes to fill in taking over from Jensen. However, Etienne feels the rookie is up to the task.

“The reason our team got excited about Diplex is because he is a highly mechanical player with a ton of potential. So in my negotiations with Diplex, one of the main reasons he wanted to come here is, this is his chance to get on a big stage and be surrounded by really smart players with fantastic coaching line vigor. These are the things that will take him from an Academy player to an LCS pro and hopefully a champion,” he said.

C9 have also been revamping their coaching staff. Tristan “Zeyzal” Stidam has moved his assistant role with the LCS team to take over as head coach of the Cloud9 Academy team, while Max Waldo has switched from head coach to a positional role.

Diplex will be joining Australian mid-lane player Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami, jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang, bot laner Kim “Berserker” Min-cheol, and support Jesper “Zven” Svenningsen on the Cloud9 roster.

Etienne also went further to give a briefing on his projection for the 2023 LCS roster, predicting the team will enjoy another strong campaign.

“Why I’m really confident about the LCS roster is that we have four players that really work well together and when you change out like one player in a smoothly like operating roster the chances of it still succeeding and keeping its identity is pretty high. Any more than that you really actually risk like the core players,” he said.

“We have a high expectation that it’s going to be a performance.”

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The LEC Summer champions, Rogue, will be kicking off their LoL Worlds 2022 campaign as the underdogs against the first play-in qualifier, DRX, who were dominant in the play-in coming out of the LCK.

This will be Rogue’s third trip to the League of Legends World Championship since their creation in 2019, with many people believing they are the top EU team at the tournament. Rogue finished third in the regular season behind G2 Esports and MAD Lions, and in the playoffs they lost to G2 Esports to put themselves in the lower bracket. However, they won their way through to the grand final against G2 again, where they destroyed them 3-0. Rogue will have brought a lot of confidence to Worlds 2022 and they will be expecting to go deep if they can beat DRX in this game.

DRX flew under the radar behind Gen.G, T1 and DAMWON Gaming, when they qualified for Worlds, but they have shown through their play-in dominance they aren’t here to make up the numbers. DRX only finished seventh in the LCK Summer split but since the start of the regional finals they have been outstanding, finishing second to qualify for the play-in stage at Worlds. During the play-ins, DRX were by far the best team. Dismantling MAD Lions and Royal Never Give Up on their way to a 5-0 record and earning direct qualification into Group C.

DRX will be confident that they can get out of Group C as the second spot is definitely up for grabs between them and Rogue. This series will be a lot closer than the bookmakers have got it, so we will be betting in the total kills market.

Cloud9 from the LCS will take on EDward Gaming from the LPL in what will be their second group stage matches in what some consider to be the ‘group of death’.

Cloud9 are the top seeded LCS team at Worlds 2022 after they took out the LCS Championship by beating 100 Thieves 3-0 in the grand final. C9 will be up against it in this match against EDward Gaming as they are the reigning LoL World champions and historically the LCS teams have struggled against LPL teams in most international tournaments.

EDward Gaming are coming off a decent LPL Summer split, where they finished fifth at the end of the regular season ending with an 11-5 record. During the playoffs EDward Gaming were very impressive, beating RNG and LNG Esports on their way to a lower-bracket final exit at the hands of Top Esports, 0-3. Even though EDward Gaming aren’t the best LPL team at Worlds this year, they shouldn’t be taken lightly by anyone. After all, they are the reigning world champions.

Both Cloud9 and EDward Gaming are high-kill teams, so we will be taking the overs in the total kills market with GG Bet.

Kicking off their League of Legends World Championship run, Top Esports will take on the VCS Summer champions, GAM Esports, in a match that could be very one-sided. The LPL Summer runners-up have opened up as the third favourite to take out Worlds 2022 at $4.00 with LoL betting sites, whilst GAM Esports are $201.00 outsiders.

Top Esports have been ultra-consistent throughout 2022 and finished second in both the LPL Spring and Summer splits, losing to RNG and JD Gaming in both of the grand finals they played in. TES only lost two series throughout the regular season and twice during the playoffs, with three of those four defeats coming against JD Gaming. TES finished in third-fourth place at the 2020 League of Legends World Championship, so they know what is needed to go deep at an international tournament.

GAM Esports have dominated the VCS during 2022, winning both the Spring and Summer splits by beating Saigon Buffalo 3-0 and 3-1 in the respective grand finals. However, GAM Esports look like they will be one of the teams who will be making up the numbers at Worlds 2022, as they don’t seem to be playing at a similar level to the top-tier regions.

Top Esports will win this match. But at $1.07 with GG Bet, we cannot suggest betting on them, so we will be taking them at the kills handicap.

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Owing to the 2-1 loss, Finn “?karrigan?” Andersen and the rest of the team were robbed of their Intel Grand Slam dreams.?

https://twitter.com/ESLCS/status/1575585325874675712?t=Bfd-QdmmNWPlyePElE2q9Q&s=19? ?

Cloud9 will once again face off against Team Liquid on Saturday in their semifinal match. The North American CSGO squad emerged from Group D in third place and went on to defeat both Fnatic and MOUZ in the event’s playoffs.

Cloud9 are heavy favorites to win the game, with odds set at $1.52 at esports betting sites.? ?

ESL Pro League Season 16 has seen a number of upsets among teams, and now with FaZe.

The tournament has so far lived up to the billing of being one of the stiffest competitions in CSGO.? ?The series between Cloud9 and FaZe started with a narrow 13-16 win for FaZe on Inferno.

Cloud9 then went on to reverse sweep, winning Ancient with a 16-9 scoreline and 16-11 on Mirage.

The high-octane bout was a repeat performance of the FaZe and Cloud9 clash at IEM Dallas.? ?

As a result of the loss, FaZe will be unable to participate in the Intel Grand Slam. FaZe emerged from the B group with a 4-1 record and advanced to the quarterfinals after a hard-fought win against Complexity.?

?The Russian squad started Inferno by winning the opening pistol round, earning them a 4-0 lead. FaZe quickly caught up to Cloud9 after three impressive holds of the A bombsite, which served to prepare the CT economy for the rest of the half.? ?

FaZe’s Helvijs “?broky?” Saukants performed notably well and helped the team reach an 8-7 score by map’s half. The player recorded a 1.59 rating and a 100% KAST.?

?After both squads switched sides, neither were in the lead for long, and the scores remained as close as before. Sergey “?Ax1Le?” Rykhtorov kept up his impressive play from the first half, and FaZe’s Dmitry “?sh1ro?” Sokolov held it down on the CT side.

Cloud9 were able to reach a 13-12 advantage, but FaZe produced four wins in a row on the B site, pushing them to win the map 16-13.? ?The next map, Ancient, saw Cloud9 in top form, and while they could not build up on their pistol victory, the team reached an eight-round winning streak after exploiting FaZe’s B site defense.

FaZe’s broky was unable to do much in the first half of the map and produced only one frag and a rating of 0.46 CT. The half ended with a 6-9 scoreline.? ?

https://twitter.com/ESLCS/status/1575578715270119425?t=XLn3kX8dQSLvi50j-px66A&s=19? ?

The European team won the second pistol round, but they could not find solid footing in the second-half. In the 17th round, their opponents managed to execute a force buy and put an end to the European team’s B-site offense.? ?

FaZe won only one round before Cloud9 rushed forward with a 16-9 win. The victory was notably the Russian squad’s seventh consecutive LAN-Ancient win.? ?The deciding map was Mirage, and Cloud9 started with some aggressive rounds on the T side.

FaZe were put at a 4-9 disadvantage after their opponents’ offense placed a number of hits on the A bombsite. The first half of the map ended 6-9 with Cloud9 in the lead.?

?After FaZe moved to the CT side, sh1ro seemed to make a play for his team, but Ax1Le was there to foil his plans. The player recorded a 1.99 rating during the second half and led his team to a 16-11 finish, moving Cloud9 up to the semifinals.? ?

These esports franchises include powerhouses such as Cloud9, Fnatic, NAVI, Ninjas in Pyjamas, NRG, SK Gaming, T1, and Team Liquid.

The forthcoming Guild of Guardians is a fantasy mobile blockchain role-playing game (RPG) in which users can compete against one another by playing as, owning, or trading characters. Over 250,000 people have already pre-registered for the game.

Vice President and Game Director for Guild of Guardians, Derek Lau, said the alliance is a great chance to feature and work side by side with the world’s best esports organizations.

“This is an incredible opportunity to team up with some of the most prominent and recognisable names in the professional esports space. GOG is a mobile team RPG which is built for players and designed as a highly accessible game, making it the perfect gateway into the world of web3 for all players.”

The enrollment for Guild of Guardians will be made available to esports audiences worldwide, and each esports brand will have playable characters. While at it, sponsors will work together to establish the development of web3 gaming.

The World Esports Association (WESA) was noted as having a part in the collaboration. According to the body, this innovative integration will spearhead the esport community to a higher realm than it is already.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Guild of Guardians in what we believe to be a hugely symbiotic relationship for both our industries – gaming and esports. We firmly believe that esport brand integration into games is the future, enabling closer interactions between fans and teams,” said Chairman of the Executive Board of WESA, Pietro Fringuelli.

“We’re excited by the notion of digital ownership and the ability to earn and trade in-game characters.”

The association members of WESA include five of the teams that are taking part in the collaboration: Ninjas in Pyjamas, Fnatic, Natus Vincere, and NRG Esports. G2 Esports was also a founding member.

In spite of the fact that Guild of Guardians is unreleased at the moment, it has already garnered significant attention in the competitive gaming community.
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Their attempt to throw their hat back in the ring has gone well so far, as they swept the Golden Guardians last night. Coming into the game, Cloud 9 were $1.27 favorites on GG Bet, and they delivered.

The LCS Spring 2022 commenced on February 5 with the group stage, and teams have since tried to claw their way to the top to be huge beneficiaries from the $200,000 prize pool. Although it is an online event, it is limited to North America, with the Grand Final scheduled for April 24.

Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami was pretty confident after the game and was full of smiles. The Australian commented on the characters he used and how fun it was, especially playing against a team that “sucks”.

“I think playing Viktor feels really nice, playing LeBlanc when the enemy team sucks is pretty nice.”

The mid-laner played a crucial role in C9’s victory and reveled in his performance.

The team have advanced to the next round and would be looking to continue building on their momentum. However, it is worth pointing out that the challenge will only get tougher as they have two more rounds to navigate before qualifying for the Grand Final.

In the Losers’ Round 2, Cloud 9 will play against Evil Geniuses, who claimed a 3-1 victory over FlyQuest on Sunday.

Cloud9 will have an extra day to rest and plan for their clash with EG, and a victory in that best-of-five game will see them qualify for the Losers’ Final.

At that point, they will play against one of Team Liquid and 100 Thieves. Team Liquid are favored to win at $1.65 with esports betting sites, but it is undoubtedly going to be a close contest. If the favorites win, Cloud9 would face a familiar foe, one that bested them in the semi-finals.

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The LOL betting odds on Team Liquid have been dropping quite rapidly over the last few days, which does not surprise us. Even though there is this narrative about how Cloud9 are the best team LCS has had in years, we don’t believe they’re that much stronger than Liquid, and would even go so far as to say that they are slightly weaker.

C9’s biggest strength comes from their mid-jungle duo, but the current meta does not prioritise the mid 2v2 as much as team fighting and top laners. And that is why we are a bit concerned with Cloud9, largely because Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami isn’t at the level of Barney “Alphari” Morris.
What’s more, C9’s bottom lane has been very 50/50 and while they’re still one of the best duos in the league, it wouldn’t be fair to rank them higher than Edward “Tactical” Ra and Jo “CoreJJ” Yong-in.

Even stylistically, you have to favour Team Liquid, who have been extremely efficient in creating and maintaining gold leads and we don’t believe C9 will be able to slow them down – unless we see a heroic performance from jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang in the early-game.

This match can still go both ways, but looking at how these two teams have been playing recently, we have to give Team Liquid a slight edge. A 3-2 win for Liquid is something that can happen, and at the odds available at esports betting sites, we have to take a shot with the correct score bet as well.

Immortals enter the 2021 LCS season with four new members on their squad including three ex-OG (now Astralis) members in jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir, support Mitchell “Destiny” Shaw and coach André “Guilhoto” Guilhoto.

Even though they have not signed any big names, Immortals’ rebuild project looks fairly promising and while we don’t believe they can achieve any remarkable heights, it’s not unlikely they might drag their way into in the playoffs.

Evil Genuises have made quite a few drastic changes to their roster as well, and like it’s the case with IMT, their new squad does not look all that bad. The only issue we have with EG is that most of their players – namely Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro – are very volatile, effectively making EG one of the most unpredictable teams in this LOL league.

EG should win this match, but at $1.37, they’re not worth a bet, especially so early into the season. Over 25.5 kills is the safest bet to take here, both due to the current fast-paced meta and the fact that neither team is known for a slow-paced playstyle.

With all due respect, Golden Guardians are by far the weakest team in the league, whereas we would have no issues ranking Team SoloMid amongst the top-four, so it’s easy to see how this game should go.

There is a world where GG grow and emerge as playoffs contenders down the line, but we can’t expect much from them in the first split of the season.

The main reason why we are not too high on GG is the lack of star players and questionable quality of their rookie squad. Although we must give them some praise for trying to put together a more development-oriented project, the execution was not all that good.

TSM’s raw quality alone should be enough to make this match a very one-sided one. Unlike GG, they field world-class players, which should be enough for a comfortable win.

Both teams are well-coached and should have a solid macro play, so the best way to approach predicting this match is comparing the players lane-by-lane. Starting in the top lane, FlyQuest should have an advantage, namely because Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami is an unproven player whereas Eric “Licorice” Ritchie is easily one of the best top laners in the league.

Moving down to the jungle role, we could give C9 an edge, but if we consider Brandon “Josedeodo” Joel Villegas’s performances at 2020 LoL World Championship, there is a world where FlyQuest can at least go even in that matchup. Much of the same holds true for the bottom lane, largely due to Johnson “Johnsun” Nguyen’s incredible growth as a player in 2020, although we are a bit concerned with the quality of his support.

The biggest quality gap can be found in the mid lane where we are giving Cristian “Palafox” Palafox zero to no chance of defeating Luka “Perkz” Perkovi?. Letting Perkz establish his lane kingdom will be more than enough for C9 to secure a win, but we don’t expect a large kill lead.

FlyQuest to open Second Weekend of LoL Worlds

FlyQuest will open the next stage of the 2020 League of Legends World Championship on Saturday when they face Top Esports in Group D. The Americans are underdogs with LoL betting sites, as their Chinese opponents are outright favourites for the title and come into this clash on a winning streak.

As it’s the opening match of the group stage, whoever wins this matchup will have a significant advantage going forward. FlyQuest will be hoping for a big display from Lucas “Santorin” Larsen, who was ranked the best LCS jungler last season.

Asia esports news

NG Pulling Together New CS:GO Squad

NG Esports are putting together an international superteam of Asian Counter-Strike stars. The first member to join the Thai CS:GO team is Anthony “ImpressioN” Lim, who will take the role of team captain and rifler.

We’re still awaiting news on further additions, but with ImpressioN leading the pack, it’s looking good already. We won’t have to wait too long for updates as NG intend to participate in the IEM Beijing-Haidan qualifier. If they plan to meet that goal, they’ll need to get some serious practice in by mid-October.

Africa esports news

Where Will Cloud9’s Departing CS:GO Players Go?

Rumour has it that Ricky “?floppy?” Kemery has received an invite to remain with Cloud9’s new-look CS: GO roster, but we’re still awaiting confirmation.

After a poor performance over the year, the North American organization decided to recruit a new team. However, they’ve committed to finding their current roster new homes.

Among those leaving are three South Africans: Johnny “JT” Theodosiou, Aran “Sonic” Groesbeek, and coach Tiaan “T.c” Coertzen.

Europe esports news

Dozens of CS:GO coaches cop bans from ESIC

In the first phase of investigation into the use of a spectator bug during CS:GO matches, the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has banned 37 coaches from professional teams. Thus, we can expect some big CS:GO betting swings for games involving the affected rosters.

Some have received more severe bans than others: a few have copped 3.75-month suspensions, while others will sit out for 10 months. Aleksandr “?MechanoGun” Bogatiryev was hit hardest of all, receiving a 36-month ban.

The ESIC reported that only a small portion of the investigation is complete, and more news will come towards the end of October. The Commission is also investigating several match-fixing cases.

Oceania esports news

100 Thieves are Officially Coachless

After quite a bit of speculation, Chet “?ImAPet” Singh has officially left his coaching post at 100 Thieves. Several sources reported last week that the Counter-Strike tactician was looking for an opportunity in the VALORANT community.

He announced his departure to the world in a Twitter post, but we’re still in the dark regarding his next move. In the meantime, 100 Thieves will continue playing without his guidance.