?Chiefs Esports Club claimed the sole position of the league leaders last week, with a win against PEACE, marking their seventh consecutive of the season. Even though there are still four more weeks to go, the Chiefs are currently the clear favourites to claim the league title.

Dire Wolves are far from achieving that status, and with a 5-7 record, it seems unlikely that they will manage to catch up to the Chiefs or PEACE. It can happen, but Dire Wolves have struggled against tougher opponents before.

Chiefs Esports Club are way too consistent to lose against a mid-table team, whereas Dire Wolves don’t come off as a team that can upset any of the LCO top dogs. But even though we expect the Chiefs to win, the kill line is way too high.

?The LoL betting odds on this match show PEACE as massive favourites, which is justifiable, knowing that this is the current second-best team in the league, while Kanga Esports sit in seventh place on the LCO ladder. Interestingly, PEACE have won over three times as many games (10-2) than Kanga (3-9) but are 0-1 down in the head-to-head.

So while Kanga have won only three games, one of these wins came against PEACE two weeks ago, thanks to Jerome “Chungy” Chung’s heroic performance on Ahri. Unfortunately, Kanga slipped into a four-game losing streak and finally found a win on Wednesday when they defeated Gravitas.

It’s fair to doubt Kanga, but they have shown some glimpses of greatness this season and shouldn’t be priced as high as $3.96. A smaller position on Kanga to cause an upset is worth a shot, but we’re happy with the odds we’re getting on the kill handicap.

?Gravitas enter the fourth week of LCO 2022 Split 1 with a 1-5 record, with only one win against Kanga Esports. Their next opponents, Dire Wolves, have looked better so far, but only slightly, with two wins, one of which came against Gravitas back in January.

Gravitas have not achieved much this season, but that doesn’t explain why they’re $2.62 underdogs against Dire Wolves, who might be better, but not by that much. Despite losing five games, Gravitas had their moments and have looked much better last week, following the roster changes.

Dire Wolves should be the favourites, but the kill line of 8.5 at GG Bet seems too high. Gravitas to end the game within eight kills at $1.92 is hard to pass on.

?ORDER need to find some traction quickly if they wish to join what looks like a two-horse race for the LCO title between Chiefs Esports Club and PEACE. On paper, ORDER have the talent to do so, but we’re still waiting for Ronald “Kisee” Vo to step up.

Chiefs Esports Club had a very shaky performance against Pentanet.gg last Tuesday and lost against PEACE a day prior. But despite their unconvincing showing last week, the Chiefs are still one of the best and most consistent teams in the league and a class above all squads below them in the standings.

This is one of the games where you have to trust the favourites. ORDER have the upset potential, but they have yet to show anything that would make us believe they can win.

?ORDER enter the 2022 season with jungler Shane “Kevy” Allen and ADC Nathan “Puma” Puma as the only remaining players from last year’s roster. And while keeping them was an excellent choice, it’s the arrival of the two-time LCO champion Brandon “BioPanther” Alexander that puts ORDER on the map as one of the teams to watch out for.

On the other side, Gravitas have failed to make any notable roster moves despite their less than convincing performances last term. Although judging a team before we see them in action is not fair, it’s hard to feel optimistic about the team’s chances to compete for the top spots this split.

LCO betting markets are very limited so early into the season, but Gravitas to secure the first blood of the game at $2.22 caught our attention. As heavy outsiders, Gravitas’ only chance to cause an upset is to draft an early-game composition, preferably gank-heavy junglers such as Xin Zhao or Lee Sin, which should help them get their names on the board first.

Note that this bet relies on how the drafts go, so it might be wise to wait until the draft phase.

Kanga Esports (formerly Legacy Esports) built a new roster by picking up a few experienced players and rookie ADC Samil “leemas” Kip, who has never appeared in a professional LoL game before.

Like Kanga, Dire Wolves restructured their LoL esports roster earlier this month, signing seven new members including two rookies in top laner Cameron “Zorenous” Abbott and ADC Drekani “Bulldog” Akuhata. We don’t know much about them, but Zorenous was one of the best top laners in the academy league last season, so he should be at least decent at this level of play.

There isn’t much to separate these two teams talent-wise, and it seems like the odds only favour Kanga because Dire Wolves field two players we know very little about. You can get as much as $2.20 on Dire Wolves to win at some esports betting sites, which is way too generous for the LCO 2021 Split 2 bronze medalists.

?Chiefs Esports Club made it into the LCO Split 1 Playoffs as the fifth seed, finishing the regular season with a 7-7 record. They’ve done against lower-table teams, but we have yet to see Chiefs put up any meaningful resistance against top dogs such as Dire Wolves, PEACE and Pentanet.gg.

ORDER managed a slightly better 8-6 record and ended the regular season with an impressive win against PEACE, yet the latest LoL betting odds price them as underdogs. Chiefs did not do anything of note in the last two weeks of the season, so it is hard to understand how they are favourites.

Chiefs might have a higher ceiling, but the form they’ve been showing recently doesn’t convince us they’re worth a shot at $1.62. We’re taking the plus money.

?Even though winning a best-of-one (Bo1) is not the same as winning a Bo5, it does not make much sense to have PEACE priced as favourites against Dire Wolves. These sides met last Saturday in a LCO Split 1 tiebreaker match which ended in favour of Dire Wolves, who are now 2-1 in the head-to-head in 2021.

While some may argue PEACE deserved to win last time out as they were in the lead for most of the game, there is no denying Wolves had better macro play. We would even go so far as to say Wolves were never in real danger of losing, largely thanks to their drake control.

Although Wolves’ win on Saturday does not guarantee them success here, they’re definitely worth a bet at better than even money. They have already shown they can compete with PEACE, and as long as they can avoid giving up too much in the early game, the outsiders should come out ahead.

?After losing their entire team in November, Legacy Esports rebuilt their roster with local talent who have yet to impress three weeks into LoL Circuit Oceania (LCO) Split 1. In eight games played, Legacy’s only two wins have come against ORDER and MAMMOTH.

Gravitas enter the penultimate week of LCO Split 1 on a six-game losing streak that commenced right after their narrow victory against Legacy in February. That form might suggest that Legacy should claim a revenge win on Tuesday, but the quality gap between these two sides is not nearly as big as the odds imply.

Gravitas have been holding on well in most of their games but seem unable to snowball their leads, which has cost them a couple of wins. That said, it’s not like Legacy are much more effective in closing down games, so you have to take Gravitas at higher odds.

?There is no denying that ORDER (4-4) have been doing much better than MAMMOTH (1-7) this split. MAMMOTH’s poor early-game is their biggest weakness, as it is extremely difficult to fight back from behind in the current meta. ORDER have thrown away leads a couple of times this split, but they rarely drop the ball against weaker sides.

Betting on ORDER makes little to no sense to us at this price, especially in such a volatile league. Instead, we like the favourites to secure the first blood, which they have done in 75% of their games so far, largely thanks to their aggressive jungler William “Vengeance” Blackmore.

?These teams last met in February when PEACE needed just south of 42 minutes to seal the deal with 19-13 in kills and a 5.8k gold lead. Both sides have since played six games and won four, both losing only to Pentanet.gg and Dire Wolves.

One thing to take away from Chiefs Esports Club’s performances this season is that they either completely dominate their opponents or lose very badly; there seems to be in-between with this squad. PEACE are very different in that they rarely pick up commanding wins, but they also rarely lose with huge margins.

Due to their 50/50 playstyle and the fact that they are comparable with PEACE quality-wise, Chiefs should have a legitimate chance to win here. The only thing that slightly concerns us is Matthew Lionel “Mboma” Desa’s champions pool, which doesn’t include meta ADC champions such as Kai’sa and Jinx. That said, he has a good vacuum pick into meta ADCs in Hemierdinger, which he can use to shut down PEACE’s main win condition.