LoL Worlds 2020 Group stage – Day 2 Betting Preview
The opening day of League of Legends World Championship has concluded and now it’s time for us to turn our attention to Day 2 fixtures, where we will see another set of six games between some of the strongest LoL teams in the world.
Out of five predictions we have sent out for Day 1 of LoL 2020 Worlds, we have hit three, earning our readers a nice profit to kick off the tournament. Our premium members and those who follow our BetMarkets profile also ended the day on positive.
Hoping we can continue with the profitable trend, let’s take a look at what Day 2 of LoL Worlds will bring!
Machi Esports vs Team Liquid
Even though we saw them play in the Play-In stage, Team Liquid a huge enigma heading into Worlds namely due to their lack of depth, while Machi are a relatively unknown force since we did not see them play on the international stage before. From the teams’ playstyle, it’s fair to say Liquid and Machi will match up nicely, however, we would like to believe Machi are a weaker version of Liquid, so the NA squad definitely hold an edge on paper.
The problem with predicting these opening matches is that while we do have stats from both teams’ performances this season, they played in completely different regions, so those numbers don’t mean much in the greater picture. We would like to believe Machi can win here – but we also don’t like to underestimate Liquid who look set to impress this year.
Moneyline bet on Liquid seems like the safer bet here, but considering Liquid have clear weaknesses, which Machi got a chance to see and prepare themselves for, this match can be very hard to predict. To play it safe, we will rather wait and see what machi are capable of before betting on their matches.
No prediction
G2 Esports vs Suning
The perception of G2 Esports’ strength heading into this match relies solely on their potential and the betting odds seem set accordingly to what G2 are capable of rather than what they have shown this split.
If we look back, G2 Esports did not look as good this season and while they managed to win another LEC title, G2 are not nearly as strong as they were last year when they made it to the grand finals of Worlds. Having said that, G2 have become known for not playing well up until “it matters”, which usually sees the European champions perform significantly better either in LEC playoffs or at Worlds.
Suning, on the other side are fairly consistent with that they show. To put it simply, G2 can either play at 7 or 10, whereas Suning will consistently perform at 8. Still, Suning – much like G2 – have a very high variance playstyle and if we also consider most of this roister is comprised of rookies with no previous international experience, this adds another layer of complexity to this match.
G2 Esports are the most likely victors here, but we would not bet on them before we seem them in action and figure out whether they have fixed their issues (bot side) and how quickly they adapted to the new meta. Siding with Suning is a bit too optimistic in our book, as their chances to win rely solely on whether G2 choke.
No prediction
Rogue vs DAMWON Gaming
While we like Rogue and what they bring to the table as a team, we are giving them little to no chance of defeating DAMWON Gaming, The biggest problem we have with Rogue here is their top laner Finn “Finn” Wiestål, who is objectively the weakest player on Rogue and not nearly good enough individually to compare to Jang “Nuguri” Ha-gwon.
What’s more, Rogue’s biggest strength (mid laner Emil “Larssen” Larsson) will face off against arguably the best mid laner and for some the best player at Worlds Heo “ShowMaker” Su who will win this lane matchup nine times out of ten.
The jungle matchup follows the same pattern and while we could say the bottom lane could prove to be relatively close, even here we are ranking DAMWON’s players higher than Rogue’s namely due to Jang “Ghost” Yong-jun’s and Cho “BeryL” Geon-hee’s improved performances towards the end of the season.
DAMWON are priced at 1.84 to win the game with at least 10 kills to spare (-9.5 kills), which seems a bit too high seeing how strong this team is individual. Considering how dominant DAMWON looked like against JD Gaming this game should be a complete stomp, where it should not be too shocking to see DWG end the series with a double-digit kill lead.
Prediction: DAMWON Gaming -8.5 kills – 1.884 at Pinnacle
PSG Talon vs JD Gaming
Another match that can really end only one way. Individually JD Gaming are significantly stronger than PSG Talon, who will be coming into this match following one of the most humiliating performances at this year’s World Championship. While we expected Rogue to win their opening game against PSG Talon this Saturday, the match was nothing short of a complete stomp from the European side.
PSG Talon ended the match with 0-16 kills and over 14k gold deficit, which only goes to show our biggest fear has come true – PSG Talon’s Play-In team was significantly better than their current roster. Even though we did not expect PSG Talon to contest a top-two seed in Group B, this result further solidified that Talon just might end the group stage winless.
JD Gaming got humiliated by DWG on the opening day of the competition and while there is no denying JDG looked very bad this Saturday, it’s worth considering that any team would look bad against DWG. In other words, we don’t feel like JDG’s loss to DWG proves anything besides DWG’s strength.
This match is JDG’s to lose and from what we have seen on an opening day, PSG Talon just might end another game without a single kill.
Prediction: JD Gaming – 8.5 kills 1.74
Gen.G vs Team SoloMid
Team SoloMid lost their opening game against Fnatic in what was a relatively close bout, but Fnatic’s individual quality and better decision making shone through and earned them a well-deserved W. We must give TSM some credit, however, since they held on well and at times looked like they could pull away with a win, but in the end, it was clear that they are not at the level – although Fnatic did not look exceptionally good.
Gen.G won their opening game against LGD Gaming in what was a much closer bout than what we expected to see. That is not to say Gen.G underperformed but rather that LGD Gaming put up a very strong resistance. Nevertheless, Gen.G proved they were the better team that day and are in our book still the strongest team in Group C.
Even though Gen.G did not win their match convincingly, they are an overall much better team than TSM both individually and as a unit. Im all fairness, there is nothing that would lead us to believe TSM can challenge Gen.G, especially not in the bottom and mid lane, where they are heavily outmatched by the Koreans.
Prediction: Gen.G -7.5 kills – 1.800 at Pinnacle
Fnatic vs LGD Gaming
Fnatic won their game against TSM, but they did not look as good as they perhaps should. The main issue we have with Fnatic is their (occasional) questionable macro play decisions which could be a huge problem when facing a team like LGD Gaming.
We did not have much faith in LGD Gaming and we are still a bit skeptical about LGD’s chances to lock in a spot in the knockout stage, but they held on surprisingly well against Gen.G and quite frankly looked much better than Fnatic.
The betting odds on this match make no sense in our book and should be much closer than how they are. Pinnacle is offering 2.20 on LGS Gaming to win which seems a bit too high since Fnatic did not look too sharp against TSM and unless they manage to improve before this bout, they just might end up losing.
Prediction: LGD Gaming to win – 2.20 at Pinnacle
