Team SoloMid vs Immortals
With all due respect, Immortals’ performance against Dignitas was laughably bad. And it was not so much that Dignitas are a far better team, but instead, it seemed like Immortals did not take the match too seriously. They made way too many mistakes some of which just made it seem like they’re in a solo queue game.
Team SoloMid, on the other side had to admit defeat to Cloud9 on Saturday, which is not too shocking, considering Cloud9 are by far the best team in the league. Now it’s hard to judge TSM’s humiliating (4-13) loss, but it’s clear that this squad is still searching for their rhythm. They’re currently ranked third in the league with a 6-3 record, which sets them up nicely to compete for a top-two finish, but before we start talking about the direct semi-finals bye, we will need to see some more cohesion from them.
Despite TSM’s struggles, they’re still a level above Immortals, who I can’t trust after their display against Dignitas. Even though they have improved as of late, TSM will punish their mistakes much harder, which makes me believe this game is unwinnable for Immortals.
Prediction: Team SoloMid -5.5 kills – 1.800
Team Liquid vs Golden Guardians
Team Liquid are coming into this match after a fairly solid win against Counter Logic Gaming, who Liquid took down in 38 minutes with 10-5 kill differential and +9.9k gold lead. Even though a win is a win, it was Impact and Jensen who did most of the job and I’m not sure how to feel about that. While Impact managed a 7/0/2 record and Jensen a 3/0/5, Broxah, Tactical and CoreJJ managed only 0/1/7, 0/2/7 and 0/2/5 records respectively.
To see Liquid win that match was quite shocking especially considering Impact managed to perform so well, which I did not expect, albeit he did play aganst Deus instead of Ruin so that arguably played a role.
Golden Guardians, on the other side defeated Evil Genuises in their most recent bout, in what was a bloodbath of a game. GG ended the game with 26 kills to 18 and a narrow 1.5k gold, lead and even though they almost lost the game at around 38-minute mark, they managed to pull ahead thanks to a game-ending team fight at 43 minutes.
Closer had an exceptional performance that day on Lee Sin (12/3/11) and his approach to the game was very clean. He pressured Svenskeren every time he could, while also acknowledging his limits. If we can see the same level of play from him here, I would have no issues saying he will outperform Broxah, which could be a huge problem for Liquid, since they rely heavily on the jungle pressure to win.
Liquid are entering this match as massive favourites, which doesn’t seem fair to me. Even though Golden Guardians still have a lot more to prove, their recent performances were far better than that of Liquid, who narrowly won all of their last three fixtures. Sooner or later they will stumble and fall and I would not be surprised if we see Liquid fall on their face here.
Prediction: Golden Guardians to win – 3.05
Counter Logic Gaming vs Evil Geniuses
Neither team managed to impress with their recent performances, which especially holds true for Evil Geniuses, who seem to get worse and worse as the season progresses. In their last four games, EG managed to win only against Immortals and even there, they struggled to edge out a win.
There is no denying EG have far better individual quality on their roster compared to CLG, but their performances just don’t show that and I am seriously concerned how far this team can go. They lack consistency and from the looks of it, all five of their players are hit-or-miss in any game they play.
CLG, on the other side somewhat underperformed against Liquid this Saturday, in a sense that I expected more from them. Having said that, their loss really came down to Impact’s surprisingly strong performance and had he not have such a strong impact on the map, no pun intended, CLG might have won that day.
Since neither team managed to show up, it’s hard to say how this game will go. At the end of the day, I’m still leaning towards EG, since they need to win here, however, I would not be surprised if this game extends a bit longer.
The problem with EG is that they started making way too many mistakes, which usually results in them dying for no reason. Across the last three games, they gave up on average 13 deaths, while they picked up 9.3 kills. CLG, on the other side, gave up 14.6 deaths and picked up 12.3 kills.
Considering we can expect a slightly longer game here, betting on over 20.5 kills seems like the safest bet. Both teams tend to make mistakes and both know how to punish those mistakes, and even though EG held onto the lowest DPG ration in the early stages of the split (~ 8.0), they are not the same team they were throughout the first three weeks.
Prediction: Over 20.5 kills – 1.80
