EPICENTER XL Playoffs Dota 2 Betting Predictions

The Group Stage of the EPICENTER XL Major is over and the Playoffs Stage is about to begin. Only 8 of the initial 12 teams are left in the tournament and the matches they’ll play over the coming days offer a lot of excellent Dota 2 betting opportunities.

Group Stage results

Group A:

• 1^st place: Team Liquid (5 W – 0 L)
• 2^nd place: PSG.LGD (4 W – 1 L)
• 3^rd place: FlyToMoon (3 W – 2 L)
• 4^th place: Mineski (2 W – 3 L)
• 5^th place: compLexity Gaming (1 W – 4 L)
• 6^th place: Team Empire (0 W – 5 L)

Group B:

• 1^st place: Virtus.pro (4 W – 1 L)
• 2^nd place: OG (3 W – 2 L)
• 3^rd place: Team Secret (2 W – 3 L)
• 4^th place: paiN Gaming (2 W – 3 L)
• 5^th place: Newbee (2 W – 3 L)
• 6^th place: Natus Vincere (2 W – 3 L)

In Group A, compLexity Gaming and Team Empire were eliminated. In Group B, the team that didn’t make the cut were Newbee and Natus Vincere.

Team Analysis

Team Liquid

Team Liquid proved to be at the top of its game at this event, winning all 5 matches during the Group Stage. In particular, two of the opponents it defeated played in the Grand Final of the last Major, Dota 2 Asia Championships 2018. These teams are Mineski and PSG.LGD.

Overall, Team Liquid is sitting in 2nd place in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings table and is practically already qualified for The International 2018. Going into the Playoffs of EPICENTER XL, I fully expect Team Liquid to repeat its amazing run from the previous two years and win a 3^rd title at this event.

PSG.LGD

PSG.LGD is another team that obviously trained very hard for this tournament and is probably the 3^rd strongest participant left in the competition (the other two are Team Liquid and Virtus.pro). Except for Team Liquid, PSG.LGD defeated every opponent it faced in Group A and will start the Playoffs in the Upper Bracket.

Overall, PSG.LGD is sitting at number 8 in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings and is probably determined to get a top 4 finish at EPICENTER XL, in order to increase its chances of finishing the season among the top 8 teams and get a direct invite to the next TI.

Mineski

Mineski hasn’t looked great so far at this event, which is a surprise. Quite clearly, the new game patches caused a lot of problems for the DAC 2018 champion, who almost didn’t make it out of Group A. The team suffered 3 defeats, losing against Team Liquid, PSG.LGD and even FlyToMoon. Its victories came against two very weak opponents so they’re not relevant at all. If it doesn’t change something quickly, Mineski will likely be eliminated in its first Lower Bracket match of the Playoffs.

Overall, Mineski is sitting in 4th place within the Dota Pro Circuit rankings with 3150 points.

Virtus.pro

Although it somehow managed to lose another match against Natus Vincere, Virtus.pro won Group B with 4 wins and just one loss and has looked very strong overall. The team is no doubt set for success in the Playoffs but will need to get past PSG.LGD in order to remain in the Upper Bracket.

Overall, Virtus.pro is ranked the number 1 team in the world at the moment with almost 8000 points. Solo and his squad are already qualified for The International 2018, but they still need to adapt to the ever-changing meta and prove themselves at Dota Pro Circuit LAN events.

OG

In spite of struggling throughout the entire season and losing its position 1 carry player a short while ago, OG looked fairly strong during the Group Stage and took 2^nd place in Group B. The 3 teams it defeated were Natus Vincere, paiN Gaming and Team Secret. As it was expected, OG lost against Virtus.pro, but then suffered another defeat against Newbee, which was a pretty unexpected result considering Newbee’s bad form.

OG is the weakest team in the Upper Bracket and will almost surely lose its first match against Team Liquid.

FlyToMoon

FlyToMoon is one of the tournament’s dark horses and finished in 3rd place in Group A. Few people expected this unknown CIS team to advance to the Playoffs and yet here it is. We’ll have to see how far it can go into the Playoffs, but it’s likely that its run will end with its first match of the Playoffs, against paiN Gaming.

Team Secret

For a team that’s currently sitting at number 3 in the Dota Pro Circuit rankings table, Team Secret has looked surprisingly weak so far at EPICENTER XL. It’s hard to tell what the problem is, but the newer patches seem to have completely messed up Secret’s playstyle. Puppey and his squad are still trying to adapt to the new meta and the fact that they’re not there yet is obvious when the team loses against the likes of Na’Vi and OG.

paiN Gaming

PaiN Gaming barely made it out of the Group Stage with a surprise victory against Natus Vincere. Its record at the end of the Group Stage was 2 W – 3 L, but the fact that it won against Na’Vi and Newbee is still an impressive accomplishment for a South American team. No doubt, the addition of w33 to the roster has proved to be a great decision.

Betting predictions

Team Liquid (5 W – 0 L) vs. OG (3 W – 2 L)

The difference between these two teams is absolutely enormous at the moment so I don’t see how OG could possibly upset Team Liquid is this match. Regardless of what statistics you want to look at (tournament form, overall form, head to head record etc.), Team Liquid is at least one tier above OG and should quickly end this match without dropping a single map.

Virtus.pro (4 W – 1 L) vs. PSG.LGD (4 W – 1 L)

This will be undoubtedly a close match that could go either way, even though Virtus.pro is considered to be the clear favorite. VP certainly is slightly stronger than PSG.LGD, but certainly not enough to justify these odds.

FlyToMoon (3 W – 2 L) vs. paiN Gaming (2 W – 3 L)

FlyToMoon is pretty much at the same level of skill as paiN Gaming, even though the South Americans have more experience as a roster. The reason why I would bet on paiN Gaming here is the following: not only do they have a lot more experience playing together as a roster, they also defeated two strong teams at this event. They beat both Natus Vincere and Newbee, who in turn defeated a number of other strong teams. That alone suggests that paiN Gaming has some pretty good strategies and excellent synergy within its roster.

Team Secret (2 W – 3 L) vs. Mineski (2 W – 3 L)

This will be another close match with a completely unpredictable outcome. For some reason, Team Secret is seen as being stronger than Mineski, even though it got the same result (2 W – 3 L) while its group was easier than Mineski’s. It’s true that both of these teams have looked much weaker than expected at EPICENTER XL, but I believe Mineski is actually the stronger side in this encounter.