Moon Studio Mid-Autumn League

Galaxy Racer made it through the Southeast Asian group without dropping a single match, although they also drew four (4-4-0), so their run was far from perfect. DeMonster saw similar success (4-4-1) in the Chinese group, with their lone loss coming from their bout with Team Sirius.

Even though DeMonster are a stack of amateur players, they should not be underestimated. They played stalemates with MagMa and LBZS – who caused serious damage to some of the best Chinese Dota 2 teams last month – so they are not a bad team and should be more than capable of defeating Galaxy Racer.

Neon Esports completed the group stage with a 3-5-0 record, but they managed to pick up a stalemate against the reigning BTS Pro Series Southeast Asia champions, Motivate.Trust Gaming. Team Sirius ended the group stage at 4-5-0, although they picked up two forfeit wins, so they really only beat MagMa and DeMonster.

These teams have met only once before – back in October 2019 – when Neon swept Sirius 2-0 during Hainan Master Cup qualifying. Neon were the stronger team back then, and it seems like that hasn’t changed. We are happy with the head-to-head price, but the -1.5 handicap on the favourites is worth a shot as well.

CDA-FDC Professional Championship

Elephant.4AM (Four Angry Men) are a newly formed team comprised of some of the biggest names in the Chinese Dota2 scene, including ex-PSG.LGD players Lu “Somnus丶M” Yao and Xu “fy” Linsen, former ViCi Gaming members in Zhou “Yang” Haiyang and Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun (aka Paparazi), and ex-Sparking Arrow Gaming support Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao.

That is a stacked roster, so it’s fair that 4AM are heavy favourites over the struggling Royal Never Give Up. However, we feel like esports bookmakers have gone a bit loose by pricing RNG at $3.50. There is huge value in siding with the underdogs here, even at the +1.5 handicap.

Nine to Five #5

Since the start of September, Hard Legion have parted ways with Erik “AKIMOV” Akimov, placed Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko on the transfer list and promoted Dmitry “rAge” Bolotov to assistant coach. Only Sergey “starix” Ischuk and Anton “DrobnY” Drobny have come in as replacements, meaning head coach Sergey “starix” Ischuk is likely to fill in for this game.

KOVA’s only recent roster change came in August when they benched Nikita “Derkeps” Sirmitev in favour of Nikita “Derkeps” Sirmitev. Since then, the Finnish squad have produced mediocre results. They’re 3-2 in their last five, including a 1-2 loss to HAVU and 1-3 to SJ Gaming.

Since HardLegion enter this match with an incomplete roster, it’s hard to trust them. HL have also recorded very shaky results this month, including two losses to Illuminar Gaming (5-16 and 13-16).

Although Lilmix have won five matches in a row, their only notable result in that run came against Giants Gaming (16-2) last Friday. While LDLC mostly play weaker, semi-amateur teams, Lambert “Lambert” Prigent and co. recently beat Movistar Riders (16-10) and before that demolished S-Gaming (16-9) and Wisla Krakow (16-4).

LDLC and Lilmix last met on October 10 at ESEA Season 35 Advanced Division Europe, where the French squad bounced back from a 6-9 deficit after the first half to secure a 16-14 win. Considering their last meeting was fairly open, we can expect another close affair with all three maps played.

China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 1

?PSG.LGD have met with ViCi Gaming three times in the past three months, winning two series (2-1 and 2-0) and losing one (0-2). The head-to-head record since March shows a similar picture with PSG.LGD winning six out of 10 meetings, but that does not justify the surprisingly high odds offered on Xiong “Pyw”‘ Jiahan’s squad.

ViCi have stolen at least one map off PSG.LGD in all but one of the last five meetings. They are also 8-5 up in map differential against PSG.LGD since May, which suggests we are in for another close affair.

Moon Studio Mid-Autumn League

?Aster.Aries are struggling with their form and have won only one of their last seven games. They have played only two games in the last 30 days, which is slightly concerning since they are facing a team who have done plenty of warming up.

Team MagMa don’t look too good on paper, but they recently defeated Invictus Gaming 2-1 in China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 1 and forced a stalemate with Phoenix Gaming at OGA Dota PIT S3 China.

MagMa have played against some of the best teams in the world in past two weeks, which should make Aster.Aries seem like an easy proposition by comparison.

?IG Vitality have lost to Team Black twice before (2-1 and 2-0), but they seem to be better prepared this time out. Not only have iG.V acquired two new players in ex-Team Sirius carry Lin “doodle”‘ Zikai and former For The Team support Cui “QYQX” Chenyang, we must also consider that Black have not been too active in recent weeks.

Team Black played their last game at the start of August, meaning this bout will mark only their second official match in almost two months. This suggests they will be a bit ring rusty, making iG.V a great longshot pick.

R6S Oceanic Nationals 2020

?Okami enter the sixth round of the R6S Oceanic Nationals following an impressive 7-3 win against Noble esports on Wednesday. It marked Okami’s second consecutive triumph after they defeated LFO 7-4 last Friday, and their third overall including a 7-3 win over Rhythm in round one.

Pittsburgh Knights got off to a strong start to the season but saw their perfect 4-0 record snapped on Wednesday when they lost 2-7 to Wildcard Gaming. Even though that loss is not too shocking on paper, it was a poor performance that doesn’t bode well for this bout. Okami are far from tournament favourites, but they look much more stable than the Knights.

We tipped against Elevate in our daily esports betting predictions for September 30, but they proved us wrong with a very convincing 7-2 victory over Team Ferox. Elevate are now 3-2, which sits them in a three-way tie with Okami and Noble in third place.

LFO will look to win their first game of the tournament, but that is easier said than done. The form coming into this is worrying, as they went down 4-7 to Rhythm on Wednesday in what was a poor display from the losers rather than a strong performances from the winners.

Unless LFO come up with something outstanding, this game is Elevate’s to lose. We expected odds on Elevate to sit around $1.50, making them a great value bet at $1.64.

China Dota2 Pro Cup Season 1

?These teams last met on Tuesday, when we saw Phoenix Gaming surprise Royal Never Give Up by taking the series lead. They failed to keep up the pace, however, which allowed RNG to come out triumphant thanks to a phenomenal reverse-sweep.

Since then, RNG have played two games against PSG.LGD (0-2) and EHOME (2-0). Phoenix have played five games in that time and produced a few impressive results, most notably a 2-1 win over ViCi Gaming as well as clean sweeps against Aster and Invictus Gaming.

Even though RNG are the better-known team, we shouldn’t undervalue Phoenix and their results across the last week. Phoenix have pushed RNG to their limits before, and there is no reason to believe they can’t do it again.

?EHOME stumbled a bit throughout the group stage and narrowly made it out alive with a 2-2 record, although that includes an impressive 2-1 win over ViCi Gaming.

LBZS looked much better in the first stage of the competition and trumped their group with a perfect 4-0 run. However, Zhuang “xiaofu” Yongfu failed to extend their momentum into the playoffs, where they lost 0-2 to ViCi to drop into the lower bracket.

The odds at Dota 2 betting sites for this match are hard to understand. While EHOME are a far more successful team, we can’t ignore just how dominant LBZS have been throughout the tournament. They defeated Invictus Gaming and Sparking Arrow Gaming and swept PSG.LGD, who beat EHOME 2-0 in the first round of the playoffs.

The $2.09 offered on LBZS seems far too high considering what they have shown, which is why we have no problems siding with the underdogs.

Moon Studio Mid-Autumn League

?Neon Esports have met with Execration eight times since July, winning three games, drawing two and losing the remaining three. Execration won two of the last three meetings, although they lost 0-2 to Neon just over a week ago during BTS Pro Series Season 3 Southeast Asia.

The odds heavily favour Neon, but there is a strong possibility we could see an upset. Execration recently signed Karl “Karl” Jayme, who has settled in well at his new team and could make a big impact on Thursday’s clash.

496 Gaming enter the Moon Studio Mid-Autumn League after finishing in seventh-eighth place at BTS Pro Series Season 3 Southeast Asia. Cignal Ultra haven’t seen any notable success since late August, when they finished fifth-sixth at the LUMO Cup.

Cignal have met with 496 five times in 2020 and won three series, although they lost the last two at the Moon Studio Asian League Southeast Asia Qualifier and OMEGA League Asia Divine Division. While there are some concerns with Cignal’s form, their previous meetings with 496 were very close. Since the favourites have won only one match in their last six, there is great value in siding with the underdogs.

R6S Brasileir?o 2020

MiBR head into this match with a 2-1-0 record and +4 map differential, whereas INTZ are 1-2-1 with the same differential. This will mark the first meeting between these two Brazilian Rainbow Six Siege squads since mid-July, when INTZ defeated MiBR with a 6-6 tie on Oregon and a convincing 7-3 win on Villa.

Even though MiBR seem stronger – largely due to their results against Santos (2-0) and Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-1) last weekend – we have to remember INTZ consistently push them to their limits. As with any strong rivalry, this one can go either way, which makes the outsiders a much better bet.