?Team GamerLegion and SKADE have met four times this year – most recently in the fourth open qualifiers for PGL Major Antwerp at the start of March, when GamerLegion won 2-1 with 16-14 on Inferno, 12-16 on Mirage, and 16-13 on Nuke. It marked their first and only victory against SKADE since November 2021, meaning the Swedes are still 1-3 down in the head-to-head.

GamerLegion enter this match as $2.62 underdogs despite going 3-0 in the Swiss Stage, but we have to note that they’ve only beaten Bad News Bears (2-0), SINNERS Esports (2-1), and Apeks. Meanwhile, SKADE have made it to the playoffs with a 3-2 record, with defeats against Isurus (1-2) and ECSTATIC (1-2) and wins against 4glory Esports (2-1), SINNERS (2-0), and AGO (2-0).

Since the end of the Pinnacle Cup Swiss Stage, SKADE have won six straight games, albeit against lesser teams, so we wouldn’t put too much weight on that. But we have to acknowledge that GamerLegion lost their last two outings against INDE IRAE (1-2) and Lilmix (14-16).

Based on what we’ve seen from these two teams, SKADE should come out ahead, but they’re not a good bet at $1.44. Instead, we’ll take over 2.5 maps and trust GamerLegion to show some resistance and win a map.

?There is very little cross-regional data to look at, and there are no past meetings between K23 and Isurus for us to check. Still, the esports betting sites have K23 priced as $1.33 favourites, which sounds right, but the offered odds are way too low.

Admittedly, Isurus didn’t look too clean during the Swiss Stage with three-map victories against SKADE, MASONIC, and Wisla Krakow, but it’s not like K23 have shown much more. The CIS squad ended the first stage with a 3-1 record and have only beaten Dynamo Eclot (2-1), SINNERS Esports (2-1), and AGO (2-1) – three teams that didn’t even reach the playoffs.

Talent-wise, there is very little to separate K23 and Isurus, and even though we favour K23 to win, the value is with the Brazilian squad.

?Team Spirit recently completed an incredible run at the Antwerp Major, where they reached the semi-finals and lost only two series across the entire tournament – against G2 Esports in the group stage, and to eventual champions FaZe Clan in the semis.

Moreover, Spirit had a realistic chance to upset FaZe, and they came just a few rounds of that incredible feat. The Russian squad fell short in the end, but their 23-25, 13-16 series against FaZe did leave a strong impression.

Team Finest have never come close to achieving as much success at the highest level of play, and with the current roster, they likely won’t ever do it. There isn’t much to compare in this match, knowing that we have a B-Tier team that has not won a single tournament since October 2021 going against one of the top-performing CS:GO esports squads in the world currently.

You could argue that Spirit are worn out and won’t care too much about this tournament, but we’re not ready to follow this narrative. Anything less than a 2-0 sweep for Spirit would be a disappointment.

?More esports betting tips

?DWG KIA and T1 have made it to the LCK 2021 Summer finals as two of the strongest Korean LoL teams. T1 had to make it past Liiv SANDBOX (3-0) and Gen.G (3-1), while DWG KIA only had to face Nongshim RedForce (3-0).

DWG KIA’s performance metrics over the regular season show 4% Average Gold Spent Percentage Difference (GSPD), 0.38 Gold Percent Rating (GPR), 52.7 Early Game Rating (EGR), 14.7 Mid-Late Game Rating (MLR), and +337 Gold Difference at 15 min (GD@15). In comparison, T1 numbers show 3.5% GSPD, 0.74 GPR, 58.6 EGR, -1.7 MLR, and +1065 GD@15.

If we look at only the figures from the playoff matches, DWG KIA have managed 8.5% GSPD, 1.98 GPR, 80.6 EGR, 19.4 MLR, and +2574 GD@15, while T1 produced 1.7% GSPD, 0.91 GPR, 56.6 EGR, 29.1 MLR, and +940 GD@15. Even though DWG KIA’s metrics include only three games, we have to keep in mind that they have been gaining serious traction for a few weeks now.

DWG KIA seem like the most likely victors, largely due to their improvement in the latter stages of the season, but we wouldn’t bet on them at the offered LoL betting odds. Instead, we like T1 on the first blood (FB) market across all five maps at $1.94. This is an excellent price, considering T1 have averaged the highest FB% in the league at 68%, while DWG KIA’s is at only 47%.

?100 Thieves outperformed Cloud9 in the LCS 2021 Summer regular-season; however, they have yet to impress during the playoffs. So while we have to praise them for beating Evil Geniuses and forcing Team Liquid to five maps, 100T could have done much better in their last two series.

On the other side, we have Cloud9, who have had quite a few slip-ups this season, most notably their 1-3 loss against Team Liquid in the 2021 LCS Championship opener. However, the boys in blue have since improved quite drastically and seem to have found their stride just in time to compete for another LCS title.

Individually, there is not a lot to set these two teams apart, so it will all come down to their players’ clutch factor. And that is where Cloud9 should have an edge, largely thanks to Luka “Perkz” Perkovi?.

It could be a close match, and there is a solid chance we might see five maps, but if we had to pick a side, Cloud9 are a better bet.

?Fnatic achieved what many believed was impossible and made it into the LEC 2021 Summer playoffs lower bracket finals. It is a miracle run of sorts, but it wouldn’t be fair to say that Fnatic don’t deserve to be where they are.

Many will be quick to point out that Fnatic needed five maps to win their playoffs bouts, which might make you believe that Fnatic were only slightly better than Team Vitality, Misfits Gaming, and G2 Esports. However, that’s not necessarily the case.

Fnatic should have beaten Misfits and G2 Esports with 3-1, yet they – in their own style – threw away massive leads and gave up a map. So, the quality is there; however, you can feel slightly concerned with Fnatic’s over-aggression.

Their next opponents, Rogue, were billed as the main favourites to win the LEC 2021 Summer title, but it was soon made clear that Rogue were perhaps a bit overrated due to their regular-season success. They first struggled against Misfits Gaming (3-2) and then completely fell apart against MAD Lions, who beat them 3-0 on Saturday.

You could argue that Fnatic overachieved; however, you can’t really defend Rogue for what they have produced in their last two playoffs bouts either. Rogue come off as an individually better team and should win as long as they can prevent Fnatic from playing their own game, but as Vitality, Misfits, and G2 can confirm, that is easier said than done.

FunPlus Phoenix made it into the ESL Pro League S13 playoffs with a solid 3-2 run through Group A. Even though FPX lost against Complexity (0-2) and Heroic (0-2), they deserve some praise for being very consistent against weaker teams.

FURIA did struggle too much during the group stage either, although they were far from perfect. The Brazilians picked up wins against Team One (2-0), Natus Vincere (2-0), and MiBR (2-0), but they did not see the same success against Gambit (1-2) and the recently disbanded Cloud9, who bested them 2-0 with 16-6 on Overpass and 16-1 on Nuke.

FURIA should be viewed as the stronger team for this bout, but we don’t believe they should be priced as low as they are. FPX are good enough to win at least one map and perhaps even cause an upset, which is why we are placing our money on over 2.5 maps.

Team Liquid ended the ESL Pro League group stage with an impressive 4-1 record, having swept the likes of Fnatic, Virtus.pro, Endpoint, and Evil Geniuses. Their only loss came against Astralis (0-2), but even there Liquid forced overtime on both maps, so it’s not like they performed poorly.

G2 exited Group B with a 3-2 record, which is not all that bad considering they took down Ninjas in Pyjamas and Team Vitality, but it’s hard to be too excited about a team that struggled against ENCE (1-2) and mousesports (0-2).

Even though we must give some praise to both teams, we find it difficult to trust G2 with this one. They might steal one map, but this match is Liquid’s to lose.

?The second LEC 2021 Spring playoff match of the season promises to be a very one-sided affair. Schalke 04 finished the regular season in a very respectable fourth place, yet LoL betting sites have them priced as massive underdogs for their clash with G2 Esports this weekend.

While we have seen S04 succeed in this matchup before, winning a one-off clash is significantly easier than doing the same in a best-of-five environment – especially against one of the most efficient best-of teams in the world. G2 are exceptionally versatile and possess the ability to play many different playstyles, which makes them a tough team to prepare for.

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S04 found plenty of success with more teamfighting-oriented compositions throughout the regular season but started to struggle once switching to a Tristana-Nidalee setup, so they will likely look to use the former approach here. The problem is that G2 have found success with many different playstyles and are better at teamfighting than S04.

Schalke 04’s other strength is their flexibility with their picks, but that comes more in scaling and teamfighting rather than early-game strength, which is a huge stylistic problem for this bout. While we believe S04 have the tools to make the series exciting and close, G2 are a much stronger team and shouldn’t drop a map.