LOL LCS Lock-in 2021 Round 1 and Outright Betting Predictions
The League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) 2021 season will kick off with the LCS Lock-In tournament, which is essentially a charity event where the champions donate $50,000 (out of $200,000 purse) to a charity of their choosing. Although the motivation to win this tournament is questionable at best – especially with the regional mentality – this is still a great opportunity for the team to show off their new rosters, try out new things and get their wheels spinning before the season kicks off.
So what can we expect in the LCS Lock-In? In most part a more experimental approach from the teams, but most importantly a sneak preview of how the teams will operate with all the new signings.
Here is our free betting preview for the first round of the tournament. If you’re looking for more esports bets, check out our premium section or follow us on Betmarkets where we will cover Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and LoL matches throughout the 2021 season.
100 Thieves vs Team SoloMid
Friday, January 15 – 15:00 PST
Team SoloMid and 100 Thieves will clash in the opening fixture of the newly-introduced League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Lock-In tournament. TSM enter the match priced as favorites, which we wouldn’t have a problem with if this was 2020, but this is a much stronger version of 100T than what we were used to from last season.
100 Thieves made quite a big splash during the offseason when they have acquired four ex-Golden Guardians players and teamed them up with Kim “Ssumday” Chan-ho. This essentially makes 100T a much stronger version of 2020 Golden Guardians, who forced TSM to five maps (2-3) in the LCS Summer playoffs.
TSM’s offseason was not quiet either, and although their acquisitions arguably make them stronger, we have to consider that their four signings have never before played together, meaning synergy likely won’t be their strong suit early on. Individually, TSM are very strong but considering Heo “Huni” Seung-hoon’s inconsistent performances, Hu “SwordArt” Shuo-Chieh uncertain knowledge of the English language and Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage’s questionable ability to adapt to a new team-oriented playstyle, they might not be as solid early on as it may seem.
That is not to say 100T are much stronger, but they’re definitely underrated heading into the 2021 season. They have solid players, who all have a lot more to offer as well as strong synergy which should be enough talent to make something happen. At $2.30, they’re an excellent bet to hand TSM their first loss of the season.
Prediction: 100 Thieves to win – $2.30 at Pinnacle
Counter Logic Gaming vs Team Liquid
Friday, January 15 – 16:00 PST
According to recent news, some of the Counter Logic Gaming players have contracted COVID-19 and even though it’s unclear who exactly is ill – and highly likely unable to play – missing any of the five members will be a massive handicap in an already one-sided fixture.
CLG enter the season as one of the mid-table teams, whereas we would easily rank Liquid second-best or under some circumstances as the best team in the LCS. They have everything they need to win the LCS title, the only question remaining is how will they execute their plan.
This should be a very easy win for Team Liquid, but since this is their first game of the season, we are not ready to bet on them to cover the kill handicap. At the same time, a Moneyline bet at 1.224 is not enough for us to consider this bet.
No prediction
Cloud9 vs Evil Geniuses
Friday, January 15 – 17:00 PST
Evil Genuises are one of the most exciting teams to follow in 2021, not necessarily because they have the ability to compete for the title, but rather because they have put together an interesting lineup of experienced and talented players. At the same time, EG seem like a team that will produce more than a handful of volatile results, which could earn them an upset win here and there, but unless everything clicks, EG will sit at the line of a playoffs spot.
Much of their volatility will come for their mid laner Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro, who is also the only proper carry on the team. Betting your season success on Jiizuke might not be the best idea in our book, but when it pays off it will pay off big.
Cloud9 need no special introduction, considering they are billed as the strongest team in the LCS, which seems about right, largely due to the signing of a European superstar and arguably the greatest Western player of all time Luka “Perkz” Perković.
Putting Perkz against Jiizuke in the mid lane essentially means EG will struggle to execute their main win condition and even though there is a world where Perkz doesn’t completely stomp the Italian pro, there is close to zero chance he will lose this matchup.
Then again, Perkz will need to adapt to the new playstyle in Cloud9. Not only is he returning back to the mid lore after spending the last season as an ADC, but his new jungler Robert “Blaber” Huang is also far more aggressive than Marcin “Jankos” Jankowski, meaning there will be some sort of a transitioning phase for the Croatian pro at the start.
We also can’t know how well will Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami transition to the LCS and since he is facing Jeong “Impact” Eon-young, he likely won’t have an easy time on the top side. Adding to that, Cloud9 opted to change their coaching staff with Kim “Reignover” Yeu-jin taking over for Bok “Reapered” Han-gyu, which is not exactly bad, but Reignover is somewhat unproven.
There are far too many IFs for us to recommend a bet for this one.
Dignitas vs FlyQuest
Friday, January 15 – 18:00 PST
FlyQuest likely won’t reach the same heights they did in 2020, but they’re still a far more solid team than Dignitas, who will struggle to finish above eighth this split. What’s more, Dignitas have – like CLG- reported COVID-19 cases in their team, which further reduced their chances to cause an upset.
Even though we don’t expect great things from FlyQuest, they have put together a solid team that has the potential to surprise. ADC Johnson “Johnsun” Nguyen has established himself as one of the biggest prospects in 2020, their new jungler Brandon Joel “Josedeodo” Villegas had a phenomenal performance at 2020 Lol Worlds, David “Diamond” Bérubé and Cristian “Palafox” Palafox were easily two of the best players in the academy league whereas Eric “Licorice” Ritchie is still one of the best top laners in the league.
FlyQuest have the potential to surprise us once more, but they can also drop the ball and finish outside of top six. Regardless of that, they’re still clearly better than Dignitas – even with their full roster – which is why we can safely predict a fairly straight-forward win for them.
Prediction: FlyQuest to win – 1.386 at Pinnacle
Golden Guardians vs CLG
Friday, January 15 – 19:00 PST
Normally we would predict CLG to win this match, but due to the aforementioned issues with COVID-19 cases in addition to visa problems with Mads “Broxah” Brock-Pedersen and Finn “Finn” Wiestål it’s hard to be overly optimistic about their chances to look as dominant as perhaps they should.
Golden Guardians, on the other side, field mostly unproven players who will struggle to play at an LCS level at least for the first split. We would be far more confident in their project if GG had a couple of star players to help youngsters develop and ease some of the burdens from them, but as it stands now, GG’s players are left to their own devices.
CLG should win this match with relative ease, largely because we know what to expect from their players, but due to the roster changes and illness of some of their players, this match seems far too volatile to predict.
No prediction
LCS Lock-In Outright Betting Predictions
Out of all teams in the field, there are really only two that seem capable of winning the title and those are Cloud9 (2.19 at Pinnacle) and Team Liquid (3.68 at Pinnacle). Picking between the two is somewhat difficult due to all the roster changes these two sides have made, however, we would not price them so far apart, since Liquid field a somewhat equally strong team to Cloud9.
Unless we see any major upsets during the group stage, TL and C9 should both lock in the first seed in their group, which effectively means they won’t meet until the grand finals. On that note, we are confident C9 can win their group, whereas TL could find themselves in a tight race with TSM and 100 Thieves, who are both capable of causing them some issues.
Out of the four mentioned teams, 100T are the most underrated and a team that can potentially make it very far. Bet365 has 100T priced as high as 5.00 to reach the finals which is a very generous price, as they are the only team besides TSM from group A that can compete for the top seed and essentially a free pass to the grand finals.
Prediction: Team Liquid to win the LCS Lock-in – 3.68 at Pinnacle
Prediction: 100 Thieves to reach the finals – 5.00 at Bet365
With that, we conclude our preview for the LCS Lock-In, which should serve as a great introduction to what the 2021 LCS season has to offer. We are as excited as ever for the new LoL season to begin and we will have plenty of content for both free and premium members. You can check out our 2020 coverage over here.
