Day two of LCS 2020 Spring Split will commence this Sunday, January 26, with four fixtures featuring Evil Genuises and Team SoloMid entering the Summoner’s Rift for the first time this season. But will the two squads be able to deliver to the expectations? We will try to give our answer to that in this LCS 2020 Spring Split betting preview, where we will look over all four fixtures slated to be played on Sunday.
Dignitas vs Evil Geniuses
Sunday, January 26 – 12:00 PST
Dignitas are entering day two of the season following an exceptional performance on day one when the toppled Counter Logic Gaming to hit the ground running and are now set to clash against Evil Geniuses. Considering we have not yet seen Evil Genuises play this season it’s hard to exactly say what they bring to the table and the fact that this team looks 50/50 makes it hard to tell how strong will they be this season.
As we see it, if all the pieces in EG work as intended, they are easily a top-five team in the league. At the end of the day, EG have some great individual talent in 2019 Summer MVP Dennis “Sevenskeren” Johnsen, Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro, and the experienced ADC in Bae “Bang” Jun-sik. Will all the individual talent find a way to gel together, however, remains to be seen.
The issue we have with EG, is Colin “Kumo” Zhao, who has been a solid Academy player, solid won’t cut it against Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon, who is one of the best top-laners in the league.
Other lanes seem to be 50/50, with the sole exception being jungle, where EG should have an advantage. At least in theory.
As for our prediction, it’s hard to side with either side, however, we believe this will be a close match which can easily go over 30 minutes and possibly even 40+. When it comes to longer matches, however, we can also expect plenty of kills to be accumulated on both sides. DIG have shown they don’t shy away from getting into the opponents’ faces, while EG have some very aggressive individuals, in their roster, namely Svenskeren, which should result in a bloody match with at least 25 kills across the board.
Prediction: Over 24.5 kills – 1.94 Pinnacle
Team SoloMid vs Immortals
Sunday, January 26 – 13:00 PST
Considering how poorly Immortals played on day one of 2020 LCS Spring Split, we have a hard time believing they can do any serious damage to TSM, who are arguably one of the top four teams heading into the 2020 season.
When we talk about the win condition for IMT, they simply have none. The problem with this team is that they don’t have a carry. Yes, they have two exceptional players in the support (Nickolas “Hakuho” Surgent) and jungle (Jake “Xmithie” Puchero), but lack some serious quality in ADC and mid positions. There were a lot of expectations put on the EU import Paul “sOAZ” Boyer, but he was nearly non-existant in game one against FlyQUest, so playing via top lane isn’t an option either.
The only way Immortals can win this one is if TSM goes AFK and while it’s true that we did not see TSM in action yet, they possess a lot of individual quality which alone should be enough for them to win. Expect a dominant win from TSM who should keep IMT at bay since minute one.
Prediction: Team SoloMid -5.5 kills – 1.80 Pinnacle
Golden Guardians vs Cloud9
Sunday, January 26 – 14:00 PST
Following a dominant win against TL on day one, C9 look set to end the week with a perfect 2-0 and considering they are facing GGS, the boys in blue will surely fancy their chances to do so.
The betting odds on this match show C9 as a clear favorite and we can’t argue with that assessment. GGS looked terrible on day one and considering they were unable to stack up with 100T, they surely won’t be moving any mountains against C9 either.
The only player who showed up for GGS on day one was Greyson “Goldenglue” Gilmer, while their top laner Kevin “Hauntzer” Yarnell was disgustingly terrible and we are confident if he doesn’t significantly improve soon, he will earn himself a ticket our of the team sooner or later.
The fact that Hauntzer will face against Eric “Licorice” Ritchie is a massive reason why we rank C9 very highly in this match, while the bottom lane clash does not look promising for Goldenglue and company either. Furthermore, Yasin “Nisqy” Dinçer’s performance against TL, make us believe even Goldenglue will struggle to impress here.
If we draw a line, C9 are far superior team in all aspects of the game and while an upset win in Bo1 is always a possibility, GGS showed just too many flaws to make us believe they can even come close to defeating C9 – who by the way, defeated the four-time reigning champions in under 25 minutes.
Prediction: Cloud9 -6.5 kills – 1.826 Pinnacle
FlyQuest vs Counter Logic Gaming
Sunday, January 26 – 15:00 PST
Looking at the odds, CLG are priced as heavy favorites, yet we have a reason to believe they might be slightly overrated here.
We considered CLG as one of the best teams heading into 2020 LCS, but based on what they have shown against DIG, we had to rethink our rankings as they failed to show anything that would lead us to believe they are as strong as they were portrayed to be.
DIG had CLG backpedaling the whole match with their superior macro play, while CLG looked lost as they were unable to find a way to counter DIG advances. Despite fielding some great talent on the paper, no CLG member managed to show up on day one. FlyQuest on the other side completely trashed Immortals and with that not only showed they are not to be underestimated, but also gained momentum ahead of game two of the week.
The man to watch here is Omran “V1per” Shoura who was tearing IMT a new one on Riven and while we can expect CLG to ban his signature champion, V1per has a deep champ pool, which is why we are not all too concerned with that.
The most exciting contest of the match will take place the mid lane, where CLG will look at Lee “Crown” Min-ho to deliver and defeat Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage and while Crown might come out ahead, CLG have way too many weaknesses in other lanes for us to believe they are capable of a clean win here.
All in all, we expect a close match, which could extend into 40 minutes, however, if Crown fails to deliver and if CLG leave V1per to do his own thing at the top, FlyQuest just might end the week with a 2-0 record. Two predictions for this match.
Prediction: Over 24.5 kills – 1.94 Pinnacle
Prediction: FlyQuest to win – 2.28 Pinnacle
Best bet: FlyQuest to win – 2.28 Pinnacle
