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DWG KIA are the most fundamentally sound team in the world, boasting some of the best players in each position. Their biggest strength, however, is the ability to play against their opponents rather than having their own set style.

Any team can look bad when compared to DWG KIA, so it wouldn’t be fair to say Cloud9 are no good. But while they were the best team in the LoL Championship Series (LCS) during the spring, it’s not like they romped to the title unopposed.

C9 rely way too much on Luka “Perkz” Perkovi? and Robert “Blaber” Huang to do all the heavy lifting. That might have earned them good results domestically, but it won’t work against the likes of DWG KIA, who can and will exploit their weaknesses elsewhere.

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The Liga Latinoamérica (LLA) has become a much stronger league since it combined Latin America’s North and South competitions a few years back, but the quality of play is still miles off the world’s strongest domestic competitions. For that reason, we don’t rank Infinity Esports too highly, but there are arguments to be made that they are stronger than Detonation FocusMe.

DFM are the strongest team from Japan, but that doesn’t mean much when there is only one other team in the region – Rascal Jester – that can match them. As such, they have not evolved and rely on outplaying their opponents on individual talent rather than winning via strong macro play.

Detonation are your typical ‘win lane, win game’ team and rarely show anything outside of that. If they step up on the individual level, DFM could see some success in Iceland, but they lack too much in other areas for us to trust them.

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Although the Oceanic teams aren’t terrible in international competitions, you can’t make a case for Pentanet.gg when faced with the reigning LoL Pro League (LPL) champions. No matter which way you slice it, the skill gap between the two leagues is simply too great.

Royal Never Give Up are a class or two above all wildcard regions and would have to severely underperform for this match to be even remotely close. This should be an easy win for the Chinese representatives, but that doesn’t mean Pentanet.gg are a lost cause in other matchups.

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Even though the CIS teams usually do well internationally, Unicorns of Love haven’t been as dominant domestically this year as they were in 2020. UoL struggled a bit after the departure of Ilya “Gadget” Makavchuk due to communication issues with their new ADC Antonio “Frappii” Botezatu, although that problem was soon fixed with the signing of Stanislav “Lodik” Kornelyuk.

While UoL looked better in the LoL Continental League (LCL) playoffs, we don’t quite agree with the esports betting sites that have them as $1.35 favourites for this fixture. The Oceanic region has delivered talented players in recent years, and with the success Pentanet.gg have had this season in the LoL Circuit Oceania (LCO), they should do relatively well against other wildcard representatives.

Pentanet.gg are a fundamentally solid team, which should work well against the aggressive style of UoL. As a best-of-one (Bo1) match, there is a serious chance for an upset at odds.

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On paper, paiN Gaming look very good, but it’s important to understand that their numbers are a bit inflated due to the style of play in the Campeonato Brasileiro de League of Legends (CBOLO). That’s not to say that Brazilian LoL matches aren’t entertaining, but you would be hard-pressed to find quality gameplay.

Istanbul Wildcats hail from the Turkish Championship League (TCL), which is a league that has done well on the international scene in recent years. The competition in the TCL is much tougher than in most other wildcard leagues, which is basically all you need to know when comparing these two sides.

We don’t believe Istanbul can make it far in Iceland, but they should win games like this with relative ease.

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PSG Talon had to replace their starting ADC Wong “Unified” Chun Kit – who suffered a collapsed lung – with Chiu “Doggo” Tzu-Chuan, which obviously isn’t ideal, but that doesn’t justify the latest LoL betting odds. The LoL Pacific Championship Series (PCS) is a strong league that doesn’t get the acknowledgement it deserves, and that might explain why Talon are viewed as the weaker side.

MAD Lions are a very momentum-driven team that can play extremely well when they hit their peak, but most of the time they’re mediocre – largely because their bottom lane likes to coin-flip. If MAD show up, they’ll win, but we like PSG Talon’s consistency better.

?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.

NOPING E-SPORTS vs INFINITY ESPORTS DOTA 2 BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

NOPING E-SPORTS vs INFINITY ESPORTS MOVISTAR LIGA PRO GAMING SEASON 4 BETTING PREVIEW

The first round of the Movistar Liga Pro Gaming Season 4 playoffs will see NoPing e-sports and Infinity Esports duke it out for a spot in the second round of the winners’ bracket.

NoPing enter the playoffs following a perfect run through the group stage, where they defeated 0-900, SandBlood and SadBoys without dropping a single map. The numbers only tell part of the story, however, as Thiago “Thiolicor” Cordeiro and his crew faced only amateur teams.

Although NoPing are not quite the strongest South American Dota2 team, they’re up there with the best. The Brazilians have made some noise on the big stage since the turn of the year, most notably when they finished as runners-up at ESL One Los Angeles 2020 – Online: South America. In that run they defeated beastcoast, FURIA and Thunder Predator in the group stage without losing a single map, but beastcoast had their revenge with a dominant 3-1 victory in the finals.

Since then, NoPing won the Betsafe Invitational and made a deep run at Realms Collide, where they lost to beastcoast and Infamous en route to fourth place. Thiolicor and co. have finished outside the top four in only two of their nine events this year, with their worst being a seventh-eighth result at the StarLadder ImbaTV Dota 2 Minor in March.

NoPing acquired two ex-paiN Gaming players, Thiolicor and Adriano de Paula “4dr” Machado, in February as replacements for Pedro “mini” Rezende and Caio “Nuages” Oliveira. They have not made another roster change since.

SEE ALSO: BEST DOTA2 BETTING SITES

Infinity Esports finished the group stage with a 1-2-0 record. Eduardo “RayKill” Nu?ez and co. defeated Real Deal E-Sports (2-0) in their opening match, then drew with both Incubus Gaming (1-1) and Thunder Predator (1-1).

While their record is not as encouraging as that of NoPing, it would be fair to say that Infinity were placed in a much tougher group. Nonetheless, their draw with Incubus is a big concern, especially since the Peruvian minnows managed to win the second map in just over 15 minutes.

Infinity also attended Realms Collide a few weeks ago, but they did not make it far. RayKill and his crew lost to beastcoast (1-2) in opening round and again to Real Deal (0-1) in the lower bracket to wind up tied for last place in a field of eight teams.

Infinity assembled their roster in April, when they signed Jeremy “Jeimari” Ruiz Aguinaga, Benjamín “Benjaz” Lanao Barrios, Junior Reyes “Yadomi” Rimari, Bernardo “Berna” Rocca Alarcón and RayKill. Last Tuesday, the team parted ways with Berna and replaced him with Juan “Atun” Ochoa, who =served as a stand-in player against Thunder Predator in the group stage and left a positive mark with his signature hero, Alchemist.

NOPING E-SPORTS vs INFINITY ESPORTS MOVISTAR LIGA PRO GAMING SEASON 4 BETTING PREDICTIONS

NoPing e-sports are clearly the more successful of these two teams so far in 2020. The comparison is a little unfair, however, since Infinity Esports just recently assembled their roster.

While Infinity failed to impress in the Movistar LPG group stage and showed nothing special at Realms Collide, that does not necessarily mean they are a bad team. All members besides Raykill have experience playing at some of the strongest Dota2 teams in their region, while Benjaz alone has over six years of experience under his belt.

Infinity might not become one of the top South American teams anytime soon, but they have the potential to make some noise in their region. They forced Thunder Predator and beastcoast to three-map series, so there is no reason to believe they can’t put up a strong resistance against NoPing and take it all the way.