LOL LCS Lock-in 2021 Round 2 Betting Predictions
The first round of League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) Lock-In is behind us and what a day it was. Team Liquid emerged as the only favored team that managed to justify their shorter odds, although we would not put too much weight on most of those outcomes, for reasons we will touch below.
Today we continue our LoL LCS Lock-In coverage with free betting previews and predictions for the second day of the competition. Our premium predictions and best bets can be found on our premium section and on our BetMarkets profile.
Immortals vs Evil Geniuses
Saturday, January 16 – 13:00 PST
Immortals will make their 2021 LCS debut in the opening fixture of the day, when they will clash with Evil Geniuses, who are coming off a very inspiring win over Cloud9.
It’s hard to say just how strong Immortals will be this season, as there are both positives and negatives in this roster. Their new top laner Mohamed “Revenge” Kaddoura is undoubtedly a talented player (has reached rank 1 in NA multiple times), but he has had some questionable performances in the Academy league.
Other than that, Immortals field some solid pieces, namely their mid laner David “Insanity” Challe who has shown potential last season, as well as the newly acquired ADC Quin “Raes” Korebrits. As a whole, this teams seems like a 4-1 type, where the 1 is jungler Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir, who has had some flashes of greatness last season with OG, but was far from a star player.
Overall, we can see some potential in Immortals, however, it’s hard to say how quickly can this team reach their ceiling.
The biggest difference in this matchup will be seen in the top lane, where Revenge wil likely struggle against Jeong “Impact” Eon-young, who has proven last night he is still one of the most underrated players in the league. Much of the same holds true for the mid lane matchup and while we are still a bit concerned with Daniele “Jiizuke” di Mauro’s inconsistency, he has proven he can hold his own even against one of the best mid laners in the West while also doing a solid job helping the side lanes.
We are careful when trusting EG, namely because they come off as the most volatile team in the league, but they definitely impressed with what they have shown against C9. Unless we see a complete flop, EG should win this match with relative ease.
Prediction: Evil Geniuses -7.5 kills – 1.80 at Bet365
Golden Guardians vs Team SoloMid
Saturday, January 16 – 14:00 PST
Golden Guardians have proven everyone who doubted them wrong with a very convincing win over Counter Logic Gaming. Although a win is a win, we would not praise them too much for it.
The main reason why we are not convinced with GG is the fact that the game was more or less decided early on, when CLG made a crucial mistake which allowed GG’s ADC Trevor “Stixxay” Hayes to snowball out of control and basically win the game on his own. The opposite holds true for TSM, who allowed 100 Thieves to execute their win condition perfectly in what should be a much closer contest to what it turned out to be.
That is not to say TSM got robbed of a win since they did not look all to convincing – obvious communication issues in the bottom lane – but they’re definitely capable of much more to what they led us to believe. The only question is whether TSM can fix their mistakes in time and start showing just how strong they can be and while we are confident they will find their stride sooner or later, there are way too many question marks for us to say with confidence that will happen tonight.
We expect a stronger emphasis on the bottom lane from TSM for this bout to eliminate GG’s main win condition. This game should be decided very early, but unfortunately, we did not get a chance to see enough from Lawrence “Lost” Sze Yuy Hui to say how well will he do against Stixxay.
Although GG’s jungler Aiden “Niles” Tidwell looked somewhat uncomfortable – which won’t do them any favours when trying to put some pressure on TSM’s lanes – we have to give some praise to Ethan “Iconic” Wilkinson who is shaping up to be one of the most promising top laners in the league.
If we draw a line, TSM looked very chaotic in their recent fixture, which does not convince us they are as strong as they’re portrayed to be. Individually, TSM definitely outshine GG, but with clear communication issues, there is definitely a world where GG can upset the shaky TSM.
Prediction: Golden Guardians to win – 4.35 at Pinnacle
Cloud9 vs FlyQuest
Saturday, January 16 – 15:00 PST
Cloud9 are clearly lacking some synergy so it’s hard to expect any phenomenal performances from them, however, it’s not like they’re a weak team. They field some of the best players in the league which is something we would be hard-pressed to say about FlyQuest.
The biggest concern we have with FlyQuest is the disappointing performance from Eric “Licorice” Ritchie, who should be one of the strongest players on the team. At the same time, we were not too convinced with Johnson “Johnsun” Nguyen and his showing either.
Seeing Cloud9 lose to EG was not all that shocking, since EG have a fairly stacked roster, but we can’t say the same for FlyQuest. There could be some concerns about the top lane matchup, but to be honest, Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami did not play poorly even though his stats might suggest otherwise.
With the players C9 have, they should not be losing games like that and while there is a world where FlyQuest can keep the match tight in the early game, C9 have a far better macro play, which should secure them a comfortable win. It’s also worth noting FlyQuest are without their main jungler and instead need to field Hoangan “Xin” “Nxi” Dinh, who lacks the quality and experience to keep up with Robert “Blaber” Huang
Prediction: Cloud9 – 7.5 kills – 1.757 at Pinnacle
Immortals vs Dignitas
Saturday, January 16 – 16:00 PST
Quality-wise, these two sides seem fairly equally matched. Dignitas come off as slightly stronger, namely due to their performance last night, but it’s nearly impossible to say how will Immortals approach this game given that we have not yet seen them in action.
A few of their players can be hit-or-miss, and unfortunately, those are the players who will have the largest impact on the outcome of this match. I would like to see Immortals in action before I predict how will they do.
No Prediction
Counter Logic Gaming vs 100 Thieves
Saturday, January 16 – 17:00 PST
As mentioned above, everything fell in place for 100 Thieves in their game with TSM, which is why it’s not fair to praise them too much for that triumph. CLG, meanwhile, were very unlucky in their game with Liquid.
A couple of mistakes in the bottom lane allowed Liquid’s bottom lane to get so far ahead the game was basically over before it even properly began. It’s also important to note CLG don’t even have their main top laner and jungler, who are both stuck in Europe, waiting for a visa approval, so we can expect better showings from them in a couple of weeks.
We are a bit sceptical about CLG’s bottom lane, namely their support Andy “Smoothie” Ta, who hasn’t looked good last year and he definitely did not impress last night. Regardless, CLG are capable of much more than what they led us to believe and as long as they can avoid making more silly mistakes, they could keep this match close.
It’s hard to say whether 100T are really a much stronger team that CLG, largely because we can’t answer two important questions. What would have happened if TSM hadn’t allowed 100T to execute their win condition and would CLG manage to upset Liquid had they not given Edward “Tactical” Ra early kills?
100 Thieves seem like the most likely victors, but it remains to be seen how will they perform when pushed out of their comfort zone. At the same time, we aren’t sure whether CLG are – with their current roster – capable of putting up any meaningful resistance.
No prediction
We have no premium predictions for today’s matches, however, we are planning on increasing our coverage with the start of the new season. You can expect an increased number of premium esports bets starting next week with the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive BLAST Premier Global Final coverage, continuing up to February when both the LEC and LCS 2021 Spring begin.
