EVIL GENIUSES vs GOLDEN GUARDIANS LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

?Evil Geniuses and Golden Guardians will clash on Friday, March 31, in the LoL Championship Series (LCS) 2023 Spring lower-bracket semifinal – their third meeting this season. Evil Geniuses won the first matchup in the opening week of the split, with Golden Guardians securing a revenge victory in the final round of Week 5.

Week 5 of LCS 2023 Spring is interesting as it was when Golden Guardians were in peak form, having won seven straight games, before cooling down and going 2-5 by the end of the split. Evil Geniuses’ journey through the season was far less exciting, as they lingered around the third-fifth spot and eventually landed in fifth with a 10-8 record, one above GG with 9-9.

In the first round of the playoffs, Evil Geniuses smashed Counter Logic Gaming (3-0), while Golden Guardians edged past 100 Thieves (3-2). Both teams showed something positive, and they look evenly matched stat-wise. Still, historically, Evil Geniuses shift into a higher gear in the playoffs, so it makes sense for esports betting sites to price them as favourites.

Evil Geniuses should win, but we don’t expect a one-sided series, so we’ll gladly take Golden Guardians with a map advantage.

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CLOUD9 vs COUNTER LOGIC GAMING LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

Counter Logic Gaming produced their best run through the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) regular season since 2019. But now they must face off against the reigning LCS champions, Cloud9, who enter the first round of LCS 2023 Spring Playoffs as heavy favourites to advance.

Cloud9 collected another LCS regular season trophy on Saturday when they defeated FlyQuest in a hard-fought tiebreaker, solidifying themselves as the strongest North American League of Legends team ahead of the playoffs. Cloud9 could’ve easily not been able to contest the top spot in the league, but the combination of FlyQuest slowing down in the final weeks and Cloud9 finding a new identity with rookie midlaner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo played a significant role in C9 reclaiming their throne.

Counter Logic Gaming were never in the conversation of the next LCS champions; however, they did extremely well for themselves, ending the season in fourth place after losing the tiebreaker match against 100 Thieves. Although an incredible accomplishment for the oldest League of Legends team, losing against 100T puts a bit of a dent in CLG’s run to the finish line.

On a more positive note, the final week of the regular season saw CLG beating Golden Guardians, Team Liquid, and Cloud9, who CLG crushed with 31-8 in kills and close to a 10k gold lead.

Still, we’re talking about a best-of-one game which is much easier to win than a best-of-three. So even though Cloud9 looked hopeless on Thursday, it was apparent they had an off-day, so we wouldn’t expect a repeat performance on Friday.

Cloud9 are significantly better than CLG, and we expect that to show in the playoffs. Counter Logic Gaming are no pushovers and will offer some resistance, but if Cloud9 play their game, it’s hard to imagine CLG winning more than one map.

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FLYQUEST vs 100 THIEVES LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

The first round of the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2023 Spring Playoffs will serve us with an exciting clash between 100 Thieves and FlyQuest, who will lock horns this Thursday.

FlyQuest ended the regular season in second place, following a rough loss against Cloud9 in the tiebreaker. However, despite losing their chance to claim the regular season crown was painful, FlyQuest were still miles ahead of other teams in the standings.

100 Thieves concludes their regular season campaign in third place, with a 10-8 record, which doesn’t look good compared to FlyQuest’s 14-8, but 100 Thieves looked like an entirely different team since Erlend “Nukeduck” Holm took over as the head coach at the start of March.

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With Nukeduck at the helm, 100 Thieves went 8-3, which includes seven straight victories across the final two weeks of the regular season. They didn’t have to face Cloud9, not FlyQuest, over that stretch, but 100T looked good in their wins against Golden Guardians, Evil Geniuses, and Counter Logic Gaming.

So for this match, we have FlyQuest, who regressed in the final weeks of the split and 100 Thieves, who found their rhythm just in time to contest the LCS crown. Now, how much weight should we put on the recent results?

100 Thieves have looked better, but teams look much different when we have a best-of-three series compared to the regular season single-map games. And unlike in one-off games, where any team can beat anyone, individual talent and preparation play a much more significant role over three maps.

This match has upset potential and might represent in-play betting opportunities, but if we zoom out and compare the teams and what they’ve shown this entire split, FlyQuest look like clear favourites to advance.

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?Team Liquid have the talent needed to compete for top spots in the league, but their games are messy. Synergy is not there, and while there’s still hope that Liquid can turn things around, we aren’t too confident that it will happen anytime soon.

Cloud9 enter this match on a three-game winning streak and are 6-1 since Week 4, with wins against Dignitas, Immortals, Team Liquid, TSM, 100 Thieves, and again Dignitas. Their only loss came against Golden Guardians, but we aren’t too concerned about that due to C9’s strong showings on Friday and Saturday.

Mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo continues to improve, top laner Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami is a legitimate MVP contender, and overall, Cloud9 look really good. We don’t expect any surprises on Friday – take Cloud9 to secure a comfortable win.

?Counter Logic Gaming are 7-6 and should have an easy road to the playoffs, but with TSM, 100 Thieves, and Team Liquid all breathing behind their necks, CLG have to keep their momentum going.

A win on Friday would be massive for CLG, but expecting them to beat Evil Geniuses might be too optimistic. Evil Geniuses failed to amaze in Week 5 when they lost against Dignitas and Golden Guardians, but they bounced back last week with wins against TSM and FlyQuest.

Mid laner Joseph Joon “jojopyun” Pyun can be a bit inconsistent sometimes, but when he’s on, Evil Geniuses look like a top-two team in the league. We got a glimpse of what EG are capable of last week, and regardless of their Week 5 slump and occasional blunders, this is a very good team.

Counter Logic Gaming have shown a lot this season, but they’re not quite at EG’s level. With the wind in their sails, Evil Geniuses should come out ahead.

Dignitas have yet to escape the 10th place in the LCS standings, and their defeat against Immortals last week pushed them down even further. Things are just not clicking for Dignitas, who might have a relatively easy schedule ahead, but we don’t expect to see much improvement from them.

It’s tough to figure out what’s happening with Dignitas, but the same can be said for 100 Thieves. As stated by Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, 100T need to improve their early game, which is true, but a small part of their problems.

100 Thieves should reach the playoffs, but with how volatile this team has been, it’s tough to predict how their games will go. Although 100T are undeniably more talented than Dignitas, their games can quickly get out of hand, suggesting that we might be in for a messy affair that can drag out.

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?100 Thieves showed a glimpse of a possible rebirth at the end of Week 5 when they beat Team Liquid. But then they lost against Cloud9 and Counter Logic Gaming, once again proving that they’re not ready to compete for the LCS crown.

Golden Guardians are the complete opposite. After a shaky start to the split, Golden Guardians found momentum and are 8-5, with just one loss over the last four weeks. They did lose against Team Liquid at the start of Week 6, but that was more of a fluke than anything else.

Esports betting sites have 100 Thieves priced at $2.10, which doesn’t sound right. Their ceiling looks high, but 100 Thieves have shown nothing over the last few weeks, in contrast to Golden Guardians, who are legitimate title contenders. At $1.66, GG to win is a no-brainer pick.

?Immortals are 3-10 after six weeks of action, two wins above Dignitas (1-12) and two wins short of catching up to Team Liquid and 100 Thieves at 5-8. As their record would suggest, this split hasn’t been too kind to Immortals, who have a mountain to climb if they wish to reach the playoffs.

TSM, who many considered just as weak as Immortals, have been doing well for themselves, securing six wins from 13 games. They’re still struggling in the early game, but besides that, TSM look like a mid-table team that can be competitive.

TSM will not compete for the LCS title, but they’re fundamentally better than Immortals, who’ll be lucky to win another game by the end of the split.

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The North American squad had a fantastic start to the split, ending week four atop the standings. FlyQuest have recorded eight wins and one loss with 24 points, putting them ahead of teams like Evil Geniuses and Cloud9, both of which have earned seven wins with two losses and 21 points each.

Although FlyQuest are doing great, fans have anticipated news of a roster change because the team was forced to make some early-season substitutions. Eyla was meant to be their starting support this year; however, the Australian resident was unable to join FlyQuest due to visa issues.

READ: Best League of Legends betting sites in 2023

As a result, the team brought in Kim “Winsome” Dong-keon, who has played as starting support for several weeks. Besides Eyla, former KT Rolster upstart Lee “VicLa” Dae-Kwang, who was named the LCK Rookie of the Year, is one of FlyQuest’s most recent additions.

In an announcement video posted to the organization’s Twitter page, FlyQuest president Christopher “PapaSmithy” Smith and general manager Nick Phan confirmed that Eyla had finally resolved his visa issues and was in Los Angeles.

FlyQuest’s commendable performance thus far had left many curious as to whether the organization would bring in Eyla for week five of the LCS 2023 Spring. His replacement, Winsome, has proved to be a great team player for the duration of the split.

PapaSmithy and Phan stated that while the decision was hard, Eyla’s visa issues could not be held against him and he will take his place in the lineup. Winsome, meanwhile, will return to the Challengers team.

With FlyQuest’s roster now complete, they are all set for the LCS 2023 Spring’s second round-robin phase.

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?Despite a solid start to the season, 100 Thieves crumbled during the super week and lost against Evil Geniuses, Counter Logic Gaming, and Golden Guardians, worsening their season record to 4-5. 100 Thieves still have plenty of time to bounce back, but we don’t see it happening on Thursday.

This week, 100 Thieves will meet with FlyQuest, who suffered a shock defeat against TSM last week but have otherwise been unstoppable. With an 8-1 record, FlyQuest are one win ahead of Cloud9 and Evil Geniuses in the LCS 2023 Spring title race and are currently playing like the top title contenders.

100 Thieves and FlyQuest are very close across most performance metrics. They’re efficient in taking drakes (2.89 per game) and have a similar gold differential at 15 minutes (692 – 737). Still, FlyQuest are more efficient in the mid-late game with a high gold differential per minute (266), Herald control (61.7%), and Baron control (83.3%).

With how poorly 100 Thieves performed last week, it’s tough to find a good reason to back them for this match. Talent-wise, they’re good enough to go toe-to-toe with anyone in the league, but until we see some improvement, we have to trust FlyQuest to get it done.

Like 100 Thieves, Team Liquid lost all three of their LCS 2023 Spring Week 4 fixtures – against Counter Logic Gaming, Evil Geniuses, and Cloud9, pushing them to eighth place in the league table. Yet even with a three-game losing streak, Team Liquid are priced as massive favourites for this match with all esports betting sites.

That isn’t too surprising, considering Immortals enter this match with four straight losses against Golden Guardians, FlyQuest, TSM, and Evil Geniuses. Immortals also already lost against Team Liquid during Week 2 of LCS 2023 Spring in a pretty one-sided affair.

Team Liquid have a lot of work to do before we can consider them LCS title contenders, but they’re still a class above Immortals. We expect a repeat of the teams’ first meeting – a fast game with under 24 total kills.

Golden Guardians had an amazing run last week, beating TSM, Dignitas, and 100 Thieves, showing a completely different side of this team compared to what we saw from GG across the first two weeks of the split. The most apparent things from Golden Guardians – which we already saw glimpses of earlier this season – are their strong team fighting and consistency.

Support Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun, jungler Kim “River” Dong-woo, and mid laner Kim “Gori” Tae-woo have all been showing solid individual performances for most of the split, but the most important player for Golden Guardians throughout the super week was ADC Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes.

Despite Golden Guardians’ strong performances, they’re expected to struggle against Cloud9, which isn’t too surprising considering Cloud9 are one of the top LCS teams. However, the reigning champions will play this game with a new mid laner Jang “EMENES” Min-soo, who has been outstanding in the academy team, but we don’t know how he’ll do in the big league.

At $2.75 with GG Bet, a smaller position on Golden Guardians to win isn’t a wrong choice. They’re one of the league’s most consistent teams, and the way they’ve been playing lately, GG have a realistic chance to upset Cloud9.

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Team Liquid’s journey into the 2023 season has been up and down, but we’ve yet to see them produce anything remarkable three weeks into the split. With wins against Immortals, Dignitas, and Golden Guardians, Team Liquid have managed to beat only the current bottom three teams in the league, yet they were far less impressive against FlyQuest, TSM, and 100 Thieves.

Their next opponents, Evil Geniuses have looked better this season, but they have their weaknesses – not necessarily with the talent, but rather with drafts.

EG have yet to figure out the current meta, which has put them in rough spots throughout the split and backfired when faced with stronger opponents. This also puts a question mark above the offered LoL betting odds knowing that Liquid are good enough to exploit the draft gaps and put themselves in a winning position.

Team Liquid’s performance figures are also very impressive. With the league’s highest Herald control (75%), tower difference at 15 minutes (0.8), gold difference at 15 minutes (2437), and average tower plates per game (7.67), Liquid are doing something right. They’ve yet to figure things out, but this is a quality team worth taking at plus money.

Counter Logic Gaming had an explosive start to the season, beating Dignitas and Evil Geniuses in the first week of the split, but have since dropped games against Cloud9, Immortals, Golden Guardians, and TSM. With four straight losses, CLG are back where many expected them to be before the split started, and looking at their schedule, things likely won’t change.

With Team Liquid, 100 Thieves, and FlyQuest as their Week 4 opponents, there’s not a single game where you can confidently say that CLG can win — especially if they don’t improve their early game (-691 GD@15).

CLG do well in the mid-late game, but so do 100 Thieves, who are on top of that, the third-best early-game team in the league (+1964 GD@15). Comparing the two teams talent-wise, 100T again come out on top with a stable bottom lane and solid top side – two things CLG are lacking.

We don’t expect to see any surprises on Thursday. Take 100 Thieves to win with at least eight kills to spare.

TSM have shown some flashes of greatness this split, but their true test comes on Thursday when they clash with the undefeated FlyQuest. But as the latest LoL betting odds suggest, this should be a very lopsided match.

While we don’t like overhyping a team that shows good form early into the season, FlyQuest are perhaps one of the best teams the LCS has seen in years. They have the highest drake and Baron control (74.2%, 91.7%) and first tower rate (100%). In other metrics, FlyQuest don’t shine, but they are efficient in closing out games and field some of the top players in the league.

TSM’s poor early game is our biggest concern for this match, as it’s highly unlikely for FlyQuest to give up the early lead they’re bound to get. If FlyQuest were a bit less consistent, this would be an underdog play, but this looks like a one-sided affair that should end quickly.

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100 Thieves are doing much better than expected, largely thanks to Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng, who is performing exceptionally well for someone who hasn’t competed professionally for two years. And just like how Doublelift is better sooner than expected, so is top laner Milan “Tenacity” Oleksij, who didn’t need long to prove his talent.

Holding the same 4-2 record, Evil Geniuses looked good in their win against Cloud9 on Saturday, and their loss against FlyQuest a day prior was painful but avoidable. Evil Geniuses are a good team with issues, mainly in the draft, which is fixable. But until they find a way to draft better, EG will likely start their games at a disadvantage.

Assuming Evil Geniuses draft well here, they should be able to defeat 100 Thieves, so this game comes down to how EG will do rather than what 100 Thieves can show. Either way, this should be a close affair that can drag out for well over 30 minutes.

TSM have shown some flashes of greatness this season, and they might be one of the best teamfighting units in the league. But before we can start talking about TSM as one of the top teams, they’ll need to improve their early game.

With a -1940 gold differential at 15 minutes, TSM’s early game is abysmal, and their tower differential at 15 (-0.3) isn’t that much better either. Their next opponents, Golden Guardians, aren’t that efficient in the early game either (-711 GD@15, 0.0 TD@15), but they have shown improvement.

Kim “River” Dong-woo’s pathing has improved, and Choi “huhi” Jae-hyun started roaming much sooner in Golden Guardians’ recent games, which puts a lot of pressure on the opponents. We would also argue that the way GG play shows that they’re much better than what their record (2-4) would suggest.

Esports betting sites have priced TSM as slight favourites, but the eye test will prove that the odds should be reversed. TSM can be deadly in mid-late game, but they often reach that stage with a massive disadvantage.

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?FlyQuest are the only undefeated team in the LCS (4-0), and based on what they’ve shown over the last two weeks, FlyQuest might be the strongest squad in the North American LoL league. It is impressive that they didn’t need long to gel, and with wins against Cloud9 and Team Liquid, there seems to be just one more team that can potentially challenge FlyQuest – Evil Geniuses.

In 2022, Evil Geniuses emerged as one of the top LCS teams, and they continue to carry this tag into the 2023 season. They had a rough start to the year, going 1-1 in Week 1, with a defeat against the surging CLG, but Evil Geniuses have since looked much better, picking up wins against TSM and Dignitas.

As the latest LoL betting odds suggest, this is FlyQuest’s game to lose, and their latest showings make it hard to argue with it. Still, the moneyline odds are a bit too low, and the kill line (5.5) seems too high for us to pick FlyQuest’s side of this market. EG can come out ahead, but at the very least, they should force a close game.

?100 Thieves continue to get hyped up by the LCS community, and even though they’re 3-1, there’s more to that record than meets the eye. The combined record of the teams 100 Thieves have beaten so far — Immortals, Dignitas, and TSM — is 3-9, so it’s not like we can praise 100 Thieves too much for their 75% win rate.

Team Liquid are 2-2, which doesn’t look too good, yet they looked better last week when they bounced back from a 0-2 start and defeated Immortals and Golden Guardians. Much like 100 Thieves, Team Liquid, have only beaten lesser teams, so they enter this bout with a point to prove.

This is a challenging game to predict, as neither team gave us much to feel excited about. But we know that both squads like to fight (+14 kills per game), and with not much to separate them, this could be a drawn-out and bloody affair.

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