?HYDRA are expected to stomp the newly formed chekoldyriki and secure their second tournament win. That might sound fair knowing that chekoldyriki is a relatively unknown roster, but it’s fair to question whether HYDRA deserve to be $1.18 favourites.

HYDRA did well in Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Eastern Europe Tour 1 Division II, in which they finished third. They have not looked good in either of their games here, however, losing to CIS Rejects (1-2) and Entity (1-2).

Admittedly, chekoldyriki look much weaker on paper, but we haven’t seen them play more than one game, so it’s hard to explain why are they priced as $4.59 underdogs. HYDRA might be better, but they’re not that much stronger, so we have to side with the underdogs with a map advantage.

?Gambit Esports and Entity (former Creepwave) are two of the strongest teams at the tournament, but the esports betting sites seem to prefer Entity for this bout. That makes sense since Remco “Crystallis” Arets and his crew are the Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) Western Europe Division II champions, but they haven’t looked that much better than Gambit in this competition.

Entity are 4-0, but two of their wins came from forfeited games (against Into The Breach and chekoldyriki). Meanwhile, Gambit Esports are 3-0 with one forfeit win against Into The Breach, so record-wise Entity are not that much better than Gambit.

Furthermore, there isn’t much to separate these two squads talent-wise, and we expect that to show on Wednesday. Entity might come out ahead, but it won’t be a clean sweep.

?HYDRA Picked up a crucial win on Tuesday when they swept aside Nemiga Gaming to go up 4-2 with two more games left to play. Four wins are good enough for a fourth place in the standings, but HYDRA still need to deliver against Brame on Wednesday, and X3, who HYDRA will meet for the first time on Thursday.

A team with nothing to lose can be dangerous, but X3 don’t have the talent needed to compete with the best. Their only notable win of the tournament came against Brame at the start of the month, and X3 have since dropped series against CIS Rejects (0-2), Nemiga Gaming (0-2), Fantastic Five (1-2), and even IVY (0-2).

There is a chance that HYDRA won’t need to win this bout, but that doesn’t mean they will take their foot off the gas. HYDRA are much stronger, and we expect that to show on Thursday.

?Team Empire will meet with V-Gaming on Thursday for the first time since November, when V-Gaming won 2-1. It marked their second consecutive head-to-head win, following a 2-0 sweep in September, but only their second of the year from five bouts.

Regardless of their past success, Empire are priced as heavy underdogs, which is fair considering they’re 1-5 and haven’t won a single match since the first round of the tournament. Even in the regional Dota Pro Circuit (DPC) competition, Empire are 0-4 with a 2-8 map differential.

It’s tough to bet against Team Empire since this team has some solid players, but they aren’t delivering. Empire need to make some changes, and until they do so, they will continue to sink.

?HYDRA are a middle-of-the-pack team and hardly more than that. They have managed a 2-3 record so far with solid showings against weaker teams and less-than-convincing performances against Dota 2 Champions League Season 6 top dogs.

Meanwhile, Brame are 4-1 after five rounds of play, with only one defeat against X3 (0-2) at the start of the month. Their only other shaky performance of the tournament came just over a week ago when Brame dropped a map against IVY (2-1).

HYDRA won this bout in November (2-1), but it was close. We expect a similar scenario to unfold on Wednesday, and while we prefer Brame, it likely won’t be a clean sweep.

With a 0-6 record and a 2-12 map differential, IVY are guaranteed to finish this tournament in the bottom five. Meanwhile, V-Gaming still have a shot at making it into the playoffs, but they still need to win at least two games.

IVY might have the worst record at the tournament, but their performance against CIS Rejects (1-2) on Saturday gives us hope that IVY might be able to cause some damage against V-Gaming, who struggled a bit against HYDRA (2-1) and Nemiga Gaming (0-2) last week.

V-Gaming should still win, and it wouldn’t surprise us if they manage to do it in straight maps. However, IVY can have their moments and are a solid value pick with a map advantage.

Considering how inconsistent Team Empire have been this season, it may be wiser to avoid betting on the games they’re involved in. However, it’s hard to ignore a match where you’re getting $2.51 on Fantastic Five to hand Empire their fifth loss of the tournament.

We expect Team Empire and Fantastic Five to finish inside the bottom five, and if we had to pick which team is better, there would be no clear answer. Team Empire might have more individual talent, but the Russian-Ukrainian roster is not living up to its potential.

Fantastic Five at $2.51 to cause an upset is too good to pass on.

Khan are 2-2 after four rounds in this season of the Dota 2 Champions League . While we can’t say they are one of the bottom teams since they’ve beaten Nemiga Gaming and Team Empire, they also can’t be viewed as proper contenders due to their losses against Brame and Creepwave.

While we don’t know where to place Khan, it’s fairly easy to evaluate B8, who are evidently one of the weakest teams at the tournament. You can forgive them for losing against Creepwave, but it’s hard to defend B8 for getting swept by NoMarci and Nemiga Gaming.

There’s always room for an upset, but it’s hard to believe that B8 can defeat Khan. This bout has a 2-0 sweep written all over it, and we’re getting good odds with the top esports betting sites on that outcome.

HellRaisers have managed only two wins from four outings, and even those came against NoMarci and HYDRA last week. Since then, they have played only one game, losing 0-2 against Team Empire.

V-Gaming are in a similar spot with a 3-2 record; however, unlike HellRaisers, they won against Team Empire on Tuesday (2-1). What’s more, V-Gaming are the only team at the tournament to take a map away from Creepwave.

V-Gaming had an iffy start to the Dota 2 Champions League tournament, losing to HYDRA (1-2) last Monday, but they have since looked much better, suggesting that Aybek “Naive-” Tokayev and his crew might have found their stride. Based on recent showings, V-Gaming should win, but it will likely be a closely contested three-map series.

?Team Empire have had some moments over the tournament, but they haven’t achieved much. Empire have won only one game after five rounds (1-4) and lost their third consecutive game to HYDRA (1-2) on Sunday.

HellRaisers enter this match with a 2-1 record and a 4-3 map differential, which isn’t terrible nor excellent. Over that stretch, HellRaisers lost against Brame (0-2) and won against NoMarci (2-1) and HYDRA (2-0), who they beat on Friday.

Team Empire are 26-19 up in the head-to-head with HellRaisers and 3-0 on the year, but that doesn’t mean much, knowing that Empire are a much different roster from September when they last won this bout. Outside of their previous success, there isn’t much to suggest Empire can win, albeit they have been consistent in winning at least one map so far this tournament, so we have to trust them to do the same here.

?
Brame are one of the top teams at the tournament, while B8 are clear favourites to finish inside the bottom-two. However, $6.71 on B8 still seems a bit too generous.

B8 haven’t had the best start to Dota 2 Champions League Season 5, but they also had to face tough opponents, namely Creepwave (0-2) on Friday. And even though B8 ended up losing the bout, they were in a good spot to win the first map and nearly came back from a 3.9k net worth deficit on map two.

The CIS squad looks a bit shaky and will need more time to form a strong bond with the new players, but they’re slowly getting there. We don’t expect B8 to cause an upset, but they should be able to win one map.

?NoMarci look like the weakest team at the tournament, and they have a lot of catching up to do if they wish to escape relegation. On the other hand, Nemiga Gaming have done better across their opening four outings, with wins against Brame (2-1) and HYDRA (2-0) and losses against Team Empire (1-2) and Khan (1-2).

As their results would suggest, Nemiga can be unpredictable, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re fundamentally better than NoMarci. Betting on Nemiga is an obvious choice, but we wouldn’t bet on them at $1.32, so we have to explore the map handicap market.

Trusting Nemiga to win in straight maps is a bit risky since they have become known for dropping unnecessary games. Still, looking at the way NoMarci have been playing, we have no faith in Nikita “Daxak” Kuzmin and his crew to put up much of a fight on Tuesday.

?Nemiga Gaming haven’t had the best start to the tournament. They lost to Team Empire (1-2) on Wednesday but bounced back with a 2-0 sweep of HYDRA on Thursday, yet even that win is hardly worth celebrating.

Nemiga have yet to impress, which is reasonable since they are playing with two stand-ins in Yevgeny “Heaven” Ponomariov and Ivan “VANSKOR” Skorokhod, which is far from optimal. And it doesn’t help that their core hasn’t won anything of note this entire year.

Khan can hardly be viewed as a better team purely looking at their roster, but they’re still 1-0 up in the head-to-head and have looked much better so far in this competition. The Dota 2 betting odds on Khan are not great, but they’re fair.

?Even though Team Empire are good, they have yet to show anything suggesting they might be better than Creepwave. Remco “Crystallis” Arets and co. hold a perfect 3-0 record after three rounds of play; however, they have dropped a map against Khan and came close to losing against NoMarci on Wednesday.

So while Creepwave have won more games, they have also shown some cracks. These two teams last met during the ESL One Fall 2021 qualifiers in August, when Empire won 2-1, albeit with a different roster.

Creepwave should win, but they have yet to produce a clean game this tournament, signifying they might drop a map. Over 2.5 maps at even money or better is a great choice.

?Khan are without a win after two rounds of play, which isn’t great; however, they deserve some slack for their poor start to the tournament since they had to face two frontrunners in Brame and the reigning Dota 2 Champions League winners, Creepwave. On the other side, V-Gaming defeated NoMarci but on Monday lost against HYDRA.

Two games aren’t enough to form a strong opinion on which team is better, but we would rank Khan’s performances slightly higher since they did fairly well against tougher opponents. Khan came very close to beating Creepwave, and they had a legitimate chance to win at least one map against Brame.

This match can go both ways, but we don’t believe Khan’s Dota 2 betting odds are fair. Over 2.5 maps is a decent alternative, but we will side with the outsiders to get it done.

?B8 and Creepwave last met during the fourth season of Dota 2 Champions League just over a month ago, when Creepwave won 2-1 and 2-0. Creepwave have since rebuilt their roster, but they haven’t lost that much quality.

Last week, Creepwace brought in Vladislav “Suzuya” Semenov, Daniel “Stormstormer” Schoetzau, and Tobias “Tobi” Buchner as replacements for Bozhidar “hansha” Georgiev Bogdanov, Ammar “ATF” Assaf, and Evgenii “Chu” Makarov. The current iteration of the team looks weaker on paper, but with the core players remaining with the team, Creepwave should be able to take down weaker teams with ease.

We have yet to see B8 play at this tournament, making it hard to figure out how good this team really is. And it doesn’t help that B8 made huge roster adjustments at the end of October, adding three unproven players in Alexander “V1olent” Park, Nikolay “Bb3px” Evdokimychev, and Brz.

B8 might prove us wrong, but we will take the established talent of Creepwave to win 2-0 over a roster featuring unknown names with questionable synergy at $1.64 any day of the week.

?V-Gaming should win against Brame on Friday, but we wouldn’t price them at $1.59. At those odds, V-Gaming’s implied probability of winning is at 62.9%, which is pretty high considering they haven’t looked much better than Brame.

V-Gaming have done well in their opening bouts with wins against Nemiga Gaming (2-1), Khan (2-1), qwerty (2-0) and Galactic Aliens (2-0). That’s a solid record on paper, but V-Gaming have only looked good against the bottom four teams at the tournament.

Brame enter this match with a 5-1 record, with wins against Nemiga (2-0), PuckChamp (2-0), Galactic Aliens (2-0), qwerty (2-0), and B8 (2-1). Nothing spectacular, but Brame have been very dominant in their wins.

The Dota 2 betting odds should be much closer to even money. So we don’t have to think twice before siding with Brame.

?Danil “Dendi” Ishutin and his crew have not achieved much this year, but they have placed third at Dota 2 Champions League 2021 Season 3. Admittedly it was a minor success but a step towards establishing B8 as a solid tier-2 team.

B8 are 4-2 after six rounds of play and 7-3 across their last 10 outings. Even though their record isn’t as impressive as Winstrike Team’s (5-1), it still indicates good form.

Winstrike Team are a better team overall and should win against B8, but we wouldn’t bet on them at $1.41. We don’t expect B8 to cause an upset; however, they have enough talent to put up a fight and win one map.

?Nemiga Gaming and qwerty will clash on Tuesday for the fifth time of 2021. Nemiga have won all previous meetings with qwerty (7-2 aggregate maps), most recently at the start of the month, with 2-1.

Even though Neimga have proven to be the better team, there is no reason to have them priced at $0.00. At the offered Dota 2 betting odds, Nemiga’s implied probability of winning is at 93.5%, which is way too high if you consider that Nemiga are winless after five rounds of play.

It’s also worth noting that qwerty field Nemiga’s former support Petr “Petru44o” Mitrokhin, which should give the outsiders an edge. Even though that hasn’t helped them last time out, Neimga are now in a far worse shape than they were at the start of the month. This is a match between two struggling teams where anything can happen.

?PuckChamp and Khan have yet to meet on the battlefield, but it’s easy to see why the top esports betting sites favour PuckChamp for Tuesday’s bout. Although not a particularly strong team, PuckChamp have achieved much more than Khan in recent weeks and are in much better shape.

Khan’s new project (trial roster) has yet to bear any fruit. Even though they have won a fair amount of games since August, most of their success came during Dota 2 Champions League qualifiers against Tier-4 teams. PuckChamp’s record across the last two months is hardly more convincing; however, they at least had games against good teams.

Clean sweeps are fairly uncommon at this level of play, but at the offered Dota 2 betting odds, PuckChamp to win in straight maps is a far more appealing option than Khan with a map advantage. Note that you might get better odds on the correct score market as opposed to the map handicap.

Nemiga Gaming haven’t achieved a lot this season. Still, they have performed reasonably well during the European last-chance qualifiers for The International 10, reaching the fourth round of the lower bracket where they lost to PuckChamp (2-1).

The same team handed Nemiga Gaming their fifth consecutive loss on Thursday, keeping them winless (0-3) at Dota 2 Champions League Season 4. Their other four losses came against Galactic Aliens (1-2), V-Gaming (1-2), Team Empire (1-2), and HellRaisers (0-2).

Creepwave are in much better form, and while they haven’t won a single match across five heading into the Dota 2 Champions League (0-0-5), those bouts all happened at ESL One Fall 2021. Before that stretch, Creepwave have been tearing through the second-tier tournaments, proving that they might be strong contenders for the title here.
Nemiga might have a higher ceiling, but that doesn’t mean much. Creepwave have been playing better in recent weeks and should grab a win on Saturday.

Brame made a name for themselves in the European Dota 2 scene in May, when they nearly made it out of the DreamLeague Season 15 DPC Western Europe Upper Division group stage. The Greek squad have since cooled down, and they haven’t produced anything spectacular at this tournament.

They lost to Team Winstrike last Saturday and have since won against qwerty (2-1) and B8 (2-1) but with some struggles. Brame’s next opponents, Galactic Aliens, are 2-2 with two losses against Winstrike Team (1-2) and V-Gaming (0-2) and wins against qwerty (2-0) and Nemiga Gaming (2-1).

The esports bookmakers are giving Brame a lot more respect, mainly because they’re a more established team. However, they are not much better than Galatic Aliens form-wise and shouldn’t be priced as such big favourites.