The Oceanic team’s roster includes signing three members of the successful Pentanet.GG lineup, which impressed at the 2021 Mid-Season Invitational in Iceland.

The trio will be reuniting on Dire’s new Oceanic roster for the 2023 LCO season. The roster will see mid-laner Jesse “Chazz” Mahoney, and the bot lane duo of Mark ��Praedyth�� Lewis and Daniel “Decoy” Ealam form the core of the Dire Wolves team for the upcoming season, with Cameron “Zorenous” Abbott and Kim Zheng “Poltron” Nicholls completing the roster.

Coach Joseph ��Valixas�� Tselios, who will be leading the team in the 2023 season, highlighted his trust in the roster.

��We��ve put together a League team I think is really f��king solid,�� Tselios said.

��Compared to last year��and don��t get me wrong, I love all those boys �� we have a very vocal voice in Praedyth there now, and we��ve built around that completely.

“Skill and veteran experience is boiled into the five-man lineup too.”

The three stars of PGG will be reuniting for the first time since the end of the 2021 LCO season. Their impressive performance during that year’s campaign, particularly during their run at the MSI 2021 tournament in Reykjavik, earned them a devoted following among League fans worldwide.

The team consisting of top laner Brandon “BioPanther” Alexander and jungler Jackson “Pabu” Pavone, alongside two other members, placed 5th-6th in the Rumble stage of the tournament alongside Cloud9. Their performance earned them recognition among notable League giants such as DWG, Royal Never Give Up and MAD Lions after finishing second in the group stage.

After their victory in Iceland, Pabu and Chazz decided to relocate to Europe to compete in the regional leagues. Meanwhile, Decoy was acquired by INTZ for a Brazil swap. Praedyth and BioPanther remained in Australia in 2022, where BioPanther experienced further success with a transfer to ORDER and represented Oceania for a second time at the Mid-Season Invitational. Praedyth, on the other hand, finished as the runner-up in Split Two this year, as PGG was defeated by the Chiefs, who ultimately qualified for the World Championship.

Pentanet.GG, formerly the home of the trio, have assembled a star-studded League roster with the aim of qualifying for the PCS and competing internationally. The most notable additions to the team include Ryan “Chippys” Short and Shern “Shernfire” Cherng Tai, who have not competed in the Oceanic Pro League since 2020 and 2018 respectively.

Kim “DONGGY” Dong-geun, the former top laner, will move to the mid lane to accommodate the return of the experienced Kiwi player. The bot lane will consist of Vincent “Violet” Wong and Yao “Apii” Jian-Jing, known for his expertise in role-swapping.

BioPanther has recently joined the reigning OCE champions, the Chiefs, for the upcoming year. And as such, Chazz, Praedyth and Decoy will engage in a series of regular-season meetings against their former Pentanet top laner in 2023. As for PGG’s last remaining member from 2021, Pabu, he is currently a free agent in Europe.

The pathways for the Oceania League have undergone changes in anticipation of the upcoming season, with the top two teams from each split gaining the opportunity to compete in the PCS postseason and potentially earn a spot in international play at the MSI and World Championship. It is the goal of the Dire Wolves roster to qualify for the Pacific Championship playoffs in 2023. Valixas highlighted that much in his statement.

��We have such a strong core [with the PGG players], and I think this whole project is a big step for myself as a coach, the org, and everyone involved,�� Valixas said.

��With what happened with ORDER [the Melbourne outfit went into administration this year] there aren��t many orgs left that will put out the dollars and back a roster like this. To mix these proven stars with learning players, I have high hopes.��

Dire Wolves’ new all-Australia roster will include Zorenous, Poltron, Chazz, Praedyth, Decoy and support substitute Rhett “Vxpir” Wiggins, who joined the team from the Sports Geek-owned franchise, Gravitas.

More esports news

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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 Latinoam��rica (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.

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ORDER’s three-game winning streak came to an end on Friday, when they had to admit defeat to Dire Wolves in what was a fairly one-sided series for George “Farmer” Normore’s squad. Although ORDER held on relatively well in the early game, they were unable to match Wolves in the late game due to their subpar draft.

ORDER haven��t been doing too well this season but they��re still a very strong early-game team, especially when it comes to securing first bloods. They boast the league’s best 72.7% first blood rate, however, they��re still a team that fails to translate these early leads into something meaningful.

We don’t feel comfortable betting on ORDER to defeat Pentanet.gg, while it makes no sense to side with the favourites at the provided odds. That said, the proposition bet on ORDER to get first blood at $2.14 is worth a shot, considering Pentanet.gg are not particularly effective in doing so themselves (54.5% FB).

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Legacy Esports have not been looking too hot this season and have definitely not impressed in their losses against Pentanet.gg and PEACE. Although the reigning Oceanic champions were in a good position to win both bouts, they were unable to seal the deal largely due to their poor mid-late game.

Dire Wolves are a momentum-driven team, meaning they usually win games in which they gain early leads, but often lose badly when they fall behind. Due to this trait, we can imagine a world where Wolves lose against an early-game oriented team such as Legacy, however, we can’t trust a squad that seemingly has no idea what to do when the laning phase ends.

We don’t feel comfortable betting on Legacy to win and at $1.19 there is no reason to take DW either, so we will take the same approach as with the previous prediction. Legacy are priced as high as $2.27 to secure first blood, which is very generous considering they have managed to get their name on the board first in 63.6% of their games, whereas DW did the same in only 54.5% of their bouts.

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Chiefs Esports Club and Gravitas last met just over two weeks ago, when Chiefs won with 21-6 in kills and over 13k gold lead. Chiefs have since played five games (+ one forfeit against MAMMOTH) and lost all but their clash with Legacy Esports.

Gravitas have managed one win out of six outings during that stretch, and even that sole victory came against MAMMOTH, which is hardly worth celebrating. Regardless of their lack of success, Gravitas aren’t much weaker than Chiefs, who have yet to prove they can consistently win games – even against weaker sides.

This is a clash between two sides that are struggling with their form, so it doesn’t make much sense to see such a big price gap. At the provided odds, we will take Gravitas, not necessarily because they’re playing better than Chiefs, but rather because Chiefs are performing just as poorly.

PENTANET.GG vs CHIEFS ESPORTS CLUB LOL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

PENTANET.GG vs CHIEFS ESPORTS CLUB OPL SPLIT 2 BETTING PREVIEW

Pentanet.GG and Chiefs Esports Club will meet yet again on Friday in the second round of playoffs in League of Legends Oceanic Pro League (OPL) Split 2.

Chiefs fans can’t be too excited about their team’s performance through the 2020 season. Having bowed out in the OPL Split 1 semi-finals, this term they fell to tied-fourth with a 12-9 record. That marks Chiefs’ worst win-loss tally since the Oceanic Pro League transitioned to a triple round-robin format at the start of 2019, and their worst-ever finish in a regular season.

Despite all that, Chiefs entered the playoffs as one of the favourites to reach the finals. For that to happen, however, the four-time OPL champions will need more from their key players in mid laner Brandon “Claire” Nguyen and ADC Robert “Katsurii” Gouv.

While Claire’s 4.4 KDA, 8.3 CSPM, and +85 GD @15 suggest he’s had a decent split, those marks are well below expectations for one of the most talented players in the region. And although Katsurii’s 5.5 KDA and 8.2 CSPM look solid, his league-worst figures of GD @ 15 (-81), CSD @ 15 (-12) and XPD @ 15 (-185) highlight his vulnerability in the laning phase.

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Hoping to stop Chiefs in their tracks will be Pentanet.GG, who entered the 2020 season as one of the most exciting teams in the OPL due to the arrival of Jackson “Pabu” Pavone and ADC Mark “Praedyth” Lewis. Both players have performed well so far, averaging 4.2 and 4.6 KDAs respectively, while their teammates have also delivered the goods.

Support Jake “Rogue” Sharwood ended the split with the second-highest KDA (4.8) in his role and the highest WPM (1.57) out of all players in the league, playing a pivotal role in Pentanet.GG’s superb vision control. Brandon “BioPanther” Alexander had the highest marks out of all top laners (4.3 KDA), while mid laner Jarod “Getback” Tucker showcased just how potent his Kassadin pocket pick (100% win rate, 23.0 KDA) can be.

Those strong individual efforts helped Pentanet.GG claim third place with a 13-8 record and 62% win rate. However, they have a few questions to answer after their humiliating 1-3 loss to ORDER in the first round of the playoffs.

As the final score would suggest, the match was fairly one-sided even though Pentanet.GG won the opening map convincingly. They fell apart in the remaining three games and looked surprisingly bad in the final bout, which they lost in just 25:34 with a -12.3k gold deficit.

PENTANET.GG vs CHIEFS ESPORTS CLUB OPL SPLIT 2 BETTING PREDICTIONS

Chiefs ESC have made it to the OPL grand finals in eight of the competition’s 11 splits to date, so it makes sense to expect another deep run this term. Having said that, they don’t look anywhere near as solid this year as they have in the past.

Claire is not playing at the level expected of him. While the Chiefs mid laner’s numbers are better than those of Getback, the difference is marginal. Also, Pabu has been statistically a better jungler than Park “Croc” Jong-hoon, so things could get a bit scrappy for Chiefs in that matchup. Even the top lane looks to be ever so slightly in favour of Pentanet.GG, while Katsurii’s strong showing against Dire Wolves suggests Chiefs have a slight edge in the bottom lane.

When it comes to individual quality and objective control, these sides look equally matched. Chiefs are a little more aggressive than Pentanet.GG, who tend to focus more on scaling and the late-game, but there is not a lot to separate the two.

This match will likely come down to which team can execute their drafts better, so there is no point in siding with the favourites. Chiefs are not nearly as likely to win as the odds would suggest, making Pentanet.GG the far more appealing option in the head-to-head betting.

PENTANET.GG vs AVANT LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

PENTANET.GG vs AVANT OPL SPRING SPLIT BETTING PREVIEW

A spot in the playoffs is on the line as Pentanet.GG and Avant Gaming clash this Friday in the final competitive week of the League of Legends Oceanic Pro League (OPL) 2020 Summer Split.

Pentanet.GG enter Week 9 with a 6-9 record to sit fifth in the league standings, a win behind ORDER and one ahead of their next opponents. While Jarrod “Getback” Tucker and co. have struggled to find any real consistency, they have shown just enough to keep themselves in contention for a top-five finish.

Pentanet had quite a difficult schedule in Week 8, where they lost to two league frontrunners in Chiefs Esports Club and Dire Wolves. They were far from embarrassed, however, and might have beaten Wolves had they drafted more late-game options.

Avant, too, have left a lot to be desired with their performances this split, as an underwhelming 5-11 record leaves them in sixth place. That said, Avant kept their playoff dreams alive last week when they pocketed an upset win against Chiefs.

A strong teamfight-oriented draft and solid individual displays were the key factors in the win over Chiefs. The standout player was Avant’s rookie jungler, Thomas “LeeSA” Ma, who has endured an inconsistent season but pulled out the bug guns when it mattered.

That result has given Dragon “Dragku” Guo and his crew a huge morale boost heading into the final week of the split, where they will have to produce nothing less than a perfect 2-0 run to reach the playoffs.

PENTANET.GG vs AVANT OPL SPRING SPLIT BETTING PREDICTIONS

Pentanet.GG enter this bout as heavy favourites with esports betting sites, but we would not count out Avant just yet. While many will mark down their win over Chiefs as a fluke, the quality of that performance suggests there is more to come.

Avant’s chances this Friday may rest on LeeSA, who could be either a huge nuisance for his opponents or a total non-factor. The spotlight will also be on Jesse “Chazz” Mahoney. The Australian mid laner has the potential to become the main carry for the team, but his tendency to play control mages means he focuses more on keeping his team in the game instead of helping them win games.

There are a lot of question marks above Avant ahead of this bout, but the added pressure should inspire this team to new heights. They have already beaten Pentanet this season, so there is no reason they can’t do it again.

• LoL betting odds: Pentanet $1.67 at GG Bet | Chiefs $2.11 at GG Bet
• When: January 31, 2020 at 18:00 AEDT
• Watch live: Lolesports, Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/riotgamesoce)

PENTANET.GG VS CHIEFS ESPORTS CLUB OPL SPLIT 1 BETTING PREVIEW

In this betting preview, we will take a look at the clash between four-time Oceanic Pro League (OPL) champions Chiefs Esports Club and Pentanet.GG, which will take place on the opening day of the sixth season. This match will mark the first-ever OPL appearance of Pentanet.GG, who have acquired their OPL spot from the now-disbanded Bombers.

Chiefs Esports Club enter the new campaign following a very successful 2019 season, where they finished third in Split 1 and second in Split 2. They narrowly missed out on making their first-ever LoL World Championship appearance after losing to MAMMOTH in Split 2 playoffs.

In a bid to enter the 2020 season of OPL stronger, Chiefs overhauled their roster by signing four new players, only keeping hold of their star top laner Romeo “Thien” Tran. Joining Thien will be mid laner Brandon “Claire” Nguyen and former Dire Wolves ADC Robert “Katsurii” Gouv. Adding to the Australian trio, Chiefs welcomed two Korean players – jungler Park “croc” Jong-hoon and support Kang “KoreaCK” Cheol-gyu.

Alongside the roster changes, Chiefs also parted ways with their support/coach Andy “Cupcake” van der Vyver, who joined Dire Wolves, and signed a Korean-born head coach Christopher “SeeEl” Lee, who previously led Griffith University, UQ Union and Emprox.

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Looking at the roster changes, there are more questions than answers, namely the possible communication issues. Croc previously played in China (LGD Gaming) and Japan (Rampage Quintet), while KoreaCK has zero experience playing in a professional LoL esports team.

Seeing how neither have played in a team with English-speaking teammates, there is a possibility neither are proficient enough in English for smooth and efficient communication. That becomes an issue because they play two roles that heavily rely on communicating with their team. Furthermore, KoreaCK��s lack of professional experience could be a problem as we don’t know how he will fare when pushed in a competitive environment.

On the other side of the Rift, newcomers Pentanet.GG will field former Bombers support Jake “Rogue” Sharwood, ADC Mark “Praedyth” Lewis from Legacy Esports, former Dire Cubs mid laner Jarod “Getback” Tucker, jungler Paris “Souli” Sitzoukis from ORDER and top laner and ex-Dire Wolves player Brandon “BioPanther” Alexander. Coaching the quintet will be former Excel Esports analyst Scott “Westonway” Farmer, who previously coached Bombers and won the OPL 2019 Split 1 regular season and playoffs.

Looking at the roster, there is not a single player that stands out based on his performance last season. BioPanther was a mediocre top laner at most. He finished 2019 OPL Split 2 with a 57.1% win rate and 2.88 KDA (fourth-worst). Souli we can’t really rank, because he played only one match in Split 2.

Then there is Praedyth, who will have a lot to prove this season. He finished last year’s OPL Split 2 with a 4.8% win rate (1-20) and 2.57 KDA (second-worst). It is worth noting, however, he had played as a top laner for the entirety of his career before switching to ADC in December 2018, which is the hardest role switch to execute efficiently. Last but not least we have Getback, who also had an iffy season in 2019 with a 57.1% win rate, 3.17 KDA, 62.5% KPAR and league-worst CSPM (7.44) in OPL Split 2.

PENTANET.GG VS CHIEFS ESPORTS CLUB OPL BETTING PREDICTIONS

On one side we have Chiefs, who might suffer from communication issues, and on the other we have Pentanet.GG, who field a roster assembled from players of very questionable quality.

This one can go either way, but we are seriously concerned with what Pentanet.GG’s plans for this season are. They don��t have a player to carry this team, which will become a serious issue. One of their players will have to step up, but based on what they have shown in 2019, we would not count on it.

With esports bookmakers offering very generous odds on Chiefs, we don’t need to think twice about backing the outsiders here.

Prediction: Chiefs Esports Club to win – $2.11 at GG Bet