ACEND vs TEAM LIQUID VALORANT BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

?Acend and Team Liquid will cross paths in the semi-finals of VALORANT Champions 2021, marking their first meeting since Team Liquid celebrated a 3-1 victory in the finals of Red Bull Home Ground #2 in November. With that, Liquid are 1-0 up in the head-to-head, but the fixture was not nearly as one-sided as the final score would suggest.

Team Liquid won that match with 15-13, 13-11, and 13-11, so while they were the better team, the game could have easily ended the other way had a couple of rounds ended differently. Regardless, we have no issues seeing Liquid priced as the favourites for this bout.

Team Liquid have been great this tournament, losing only one map across three outings and even that came against Sentinels (2-1) in the group stage. Most notably, Liquid swept Cloud9 with 13-10 and 13-11 on Wednesday, largely thanks to Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, who posted 1.54 and 1.24 ratings across the series.

Like Liquid, Acend topped their group with a flawless record, while their most notable result was a 2-0 sweep of Team Envy. To that, Acend added a quarter-finals sweep of Team Secret (13-9, 13-6) on Wednesday with the help of Mehmet Ya??z “cNed” ?pek and Aleksander “zeek” Zygmunt, who ended the series with 1.50 and 1.45 ratings respectively.

Talent-wise, you could say Liquid are stronger, but Acend are on a hot streak, having suffered only one loss (1-3 against Liquid) since reaching the quarter-finals in Berlin. Expect a closely contested series with all three maps played.

KRü ESPORTS vs FNATIC VALORANT BETTING & MATCH DETAILS

?Thursday’s VALORANT Champions 2021 quarter-final bout between KRü Esports and Fnatic will see the two teams cross paths for only the second time in their history.

KRü eliminated Sentinels (2-1) from the tournament on Monday, producing what might be one of the biggest upsets of the year in VALORANT esports. The Chilean-Argentinian roster put on an incredible display, but we have to note that Sentinels did not play that well.

Fnatic stormed through Group D, picking up two closely fought wins against Cloud9 Blue (2-1) and Vision Strikers (2-1). Admittedly, five of six maps were very close and could have gone either way, but the European squad undeniably deserved to win both fixtures.

Fnatic enter this bout as the favourites on the esports betting sites, which is fair knowing that KRü had to produce a reverse-sweep to defeat FURIA Esports, while their only notable win came against the struggling Sentinels. But while KRü weren’t particularly clean, we disagree with the odds in this case.

Fnatic should win, but we don’t expect it to be 2-0. There is even a world where KRü spring an upset, but again, a 2-0 score is unlikely. A bet on overs makes the most sense.

Europe’s second seed, Acend, enter VALORANT Champions 2021 after a quarter-finals appearance at the Berlin Masters, to which they added a silver medal from Red Bull Home Ground #2 at the start of November. What’s more, Acend hold an 86% win rate across their last 80 matches (69-11).

Much of Acend’s success is due to their consistency, but also their unique playstyle. As showcased in Berlin, Acend like to play an aggressive, high-tempo style, which helps them take over map control and slowly suffocate opponents in chokes. However, they’re still very iffy on CT-side and seem to rely too much on Mehmet Ya??z “cNed” ?pek.

Keyd Stars achieved middling success in Berlin in September, showing great execution as attackers but struggling to defend retakes. The Brazilians are objectively weaker than Acend, and we don’t expect them to cause an upset, but their style of play should match nicely with their opponents’, leading us to believe we could be in for a close affair.

Team Envy haven’t achieved much early into the season, but things have started falling into place for them since the arrival of Jaccob “yay” Whiteaker in August. Although they have yet to win any trophies, Envy made it to the finals of the Berlin Masters, which is testament to their quality.

Like Acend, Envy prefer a high-tempo playstyle, but they seem to be a bit smarter with their decision making. Synergy was still a problem in Germany, but it’s been almost three months since, so we expect some improvement in that department.

Formerly known as X10 Esports, X10 CRIT are the no.1 seed from the Southeast Asia region, where they have been stomping teams left and right. But while they have achieved plenty domestically, X10 don’t have the talent needed to be competitive in international tournaments.

There’s a good chance X10 CRIT will end VALORANT Champions 2021 without a win, and we can confidently say that they won’t come close to double digits on Friday.

?Team Liquid are Europe’s fourth seed at the tournament, but that number is misleading. Indeed, Liquid underdelivered in Iceland (4th) and did not even make it to the Berlin Masters, although they beat most other European teams en route to the Red Bull Home Ground #2 title at the start of November.

Latin America’s top seed, KRü Esports, are known for stomping weaker teams. Likewise, they’re known for struggling against the elite rosters, which is unfortunate since they are in the group of death with Sentinels and Liquid.

Had this been Liquid’s first match since the VCT 2021 EMEA Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs, we would consider KRü with a map advantage; however, given how much better Liquid have looked with Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom, we have to take the favourites to cover the round line.

?FURIA Esports have done reasonably well in domestic competitions and enter VALORANT Champions 2021 as Brazil’s third seed. But while FURIA have looked good in the Brazilian scene, they likely won’t achieve much on the international stage.

Sentinels dominated the Valorant esports scene in early 2021 but have fallen off recently, failing to make much noise in Berlin. Still, this is an extremely stacked roster that can easily win the title if they get back on track.

With players like Tyson “TenZ” Ngo on the team, it’s tough to doubt Sentinels, who shouldn’t struggle against second-tier teams such as FURIA. If they play at their best, we could even see a 13-0 map, but in any case, Sentinels shouldn’t drop more than seven rounds.

?Vision Strikers have gained recognition as Korea’s best Valorant esports team with their insane 102-game win streak in VCT Korea and other small regional tournaments. What’s more, VS enter VALORANT Champions 2021 with a 94% win rate in the past 78 games (73-2-3).

While those numbers are impressive, it must be said that the region doesn’t really offer any tough opposition outside of NUTURN GAMING and DAMWON Gaming. Still, Vision Strikers have done well in international competitions and reached the quarter-finals in Berlin in September before they lost to the eventual champions, Gambit Esports (1-2).

FULL SENSE are the strongest Taiwanese squad, with plenty of achievements to show for it. But their most impressive run came in the APAC Last Chance Qualifiers last month, where FULL SENSE beat some notable names such as NUTURN and DAMWON.

FULL SENSE have had some solid showings domestically, but their region is still very weak. Anything less than a 2-0 sweep will be a disappointment for Vision Strikers.

?Team Vikings are priced as $1.72 favourites to defeat Crazy Raccoon, which we find fair since they are expected to make it out of the group. While we hadn’t seen Vikings in action since August when they lost to Keyd Stars in VCT Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs, it’s hard to ignore how dominant they’ve been inside their region this season.

Crazy Raccoon won the fan’s hearts in Iceland, where they showed solid performances against stronger teams, and they won one match in Berlin in September. Still, Crazy Raccoon haven’t achieved anything of note this season.

As much as it’s great to see underdogs succeed, Crazy Raccoon should have no business beating Team Vikings. The Japanese squad have shown improvement, but we have to take the favourites.

?Fnatic and Cloud9 Blue are two of the strongest teams in Group D, but things could get messy if Vision Strikers show up. As a result, this is a must-win match for both squads, so we expect an exciting affair.

Assuming we see the teams play to their full potential, Cloud9 Blue should win; however, we wouldn’t be surprised if they get swept, because C9 have very high highs and very low lows.

Fnatic seem not to be getting much respect, even though they have proven many doubters wrong with a finals run in Iceland, exposing everyone to the world of Jake “Boaster” Howlett. Admittedly, Fnatic are here only thanks to Gambit, who earned an additional spot for EMEA, but that’s more of an advantage for the black and orange since other teams haven’t been able to study Fnatic while they have more than enough film on other squads.
This could be a very close game, but at $2.62, we have to take Fnatic.