Team Liquid vs Dignitas
Monday, February 23 – 17:30 PST
While I’m not ready just yet to say Team Liquid are a bad team, it would also not be fair to say they’re are particularly strong. At least not so far this season. Their poor start of the season was understandable, given their visa issues, however, now it seems like they still need time to gel together with their new jungler.
On Sunday, Liquid lost to Evil Genuises in a humiliating fashion, which might be considered as an upset win, however, we can’t praise the reigning LCS champions too much for their performance either. They better find their rhythm soon, otherwise, Team Liquid are set for one of the worst splits ever.
Dignitas on the other side seems like a hit-or-miss team. They field some very experienced players, which allows them to decimate weaker teams, but from the looks of it, they still lack the quality to compete against the top dogs of the league. The question here is, whether Team Liquid are one of the top teams or not with their questionable form.
Dignitas are priced at 2.610 to claim the spoils here, which might underestimate them a bit. Then again, this match seems very volatile, as both teams tend to either completely underperform or show up big time. Yet the over 18.5 kills line seems appealing at 1.909 (Pinnacle).
Should Dignitas start strong and pocket a couple of kills we might be in for an interesting match with plenty of kills on the board. If, however, Team Liquid get ahead, we can expect a complete stomp. This is a hit-or-miss match, but as long as you can get over 18.5 kills at 1.9, it’s worth a punt.
Prediction: Over 18.5 kills – 1.909 at Pinnacle
Team SoloMid vs Evil Geniuses
Monday, February 23 – 18:30 PST
Just like the first match of the day, this one can easily end both ways. Evil Geniuses are over performing and their win over Team Liquid does not tell us anything about their strength. Team SoloMid, on the other side, are still searching for their rhythm and it seems like they’re slowly running out of time.
Much of Evil Geniuses’ strength in their win against TL came via their bottom lane, where Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng completely underperformed and allowed Bae “Bang” Jun-sik to get fed. Other than Bang, Evil Genuises as a whole looked very mediocre and for that reason, we can’t side with them over Team SoloMid here. Expect Team SoloMid to expose the overachieving Evil Genuises here and secure a comfortable win with at least five kills to spare.
Prediction: Team SoloMid -4.5 kills – 1.925 at Pinnacle – Best bet
