by The final two fixtures of the China Dota 2 Pro League Season 1 group stage will see Team Aster take on ViCi Gaming and Keen Gaming in a bid to avoid relegation. Here are our betting predictions for Wednesday’s matchups, with odds from BetOnline.
ViCi Gaming vs Team Aster
Wednesday, January 8 – 14:00 CST
Team Aster (+301) have been struggling throughout the first seven weeks of the Dota2 Pro League and enter the eighth and final week with a 2-4 record next to their name.
Their only two wins came against Typhoon E-Sports Club (2-1) in week one and EHOME (2-0) in week five, while they lost all the remaining four bouts against PSG.LGD, Newbee, RNG and iG Vitality. Suffice it to say Team Aster will not be finishing top four, nor are they in a position where they can expect to finish top six.
Besides their lacklustre performance in the Pro League, Aster also participated at ONE Esports World Pro Invitational Singapore, where they had their moments and managed to produce draws against Team Secret and Virtus.pro, yet their stalemate against J.Storm left a lot to be desired.
It seems like Aster have enough quality to put up solid performances against some top-tier teams, which is exactly what Pan “Fade” Yi and his squad will look to achieve here.
After winning ONE Esports World Pro Invitational Singapore in commanding fashion, ViCi (-526.32) have the right to be considered as the strongest Dota 2 esports team ahead of the second DPC Major.
ViCi are heavy favourites to defeat Aster, yet there is one small detail which might make ViCi slightly uneasy ahead of Wednesday’s bout.
Aster’s captain, Fade, is a former member of ViCi who was let go at the end of August last year and replaced by Xiong “Pyw” Jiahan. Fade was ViCi’s skipper and led the team to fifth-sixth place at The International 2019 as well as titles at DreamLeague S11 and the EPICENTER Major, so it’s safe to say he knows the team inside and out.
Expecting Aster to win here seems a bit far-fetched, simply due to the immense difference in the quality of individual players. With Fade on the team, however, they should at least be capable of chipping one map off the reigning ONE Esports champions.
Prediction: Aster +1.5 maps – +131 at BetOnline
Keen Gaming vs Team Aster
Wednesday, January 8 – 17:00 CST
Shortly after their meeting with ViCi, Team Aster (-208.33) will lock horns with Keen Gaming (+141) in what will be their third fixture of the day and the last fixture of the tournament’s group stage.
KG have had a fairly solid run so far this season and enter the last week of the competition with a 4-3 record, which puts them in a very favourable spot to secure an appearance in the upper bracket of the playoffs.
Besides their obligations in the Dota 2 Pro League, KG also participated at the Obao Elite Challenge, where they had a rather slow start in the group stage but switched into a higher gear in the later stages of the tournament and finished as runner-up. While the tournament lacked top-tier teams, KG still bested the likes of CDEC Gaming (2-1) and You Know Who (2-0).
Keen Gaming and Aster clashed several times throughout 2019, with their most recent meeting taking place in mid-December at the WESG China Finals, where KG won 1-0. In their last seven meetings dating back to February 2019, one match ended in a draw and the remaining six were split at three wins apiece.
This match could be much closer than expected. The odds show Aster as favourites mostly because of their singing of Fade; however, considering KG bested them only a month ago, we feel comfortable saying Keen are capable of at least pushing the series to three games.
Prediction: Keen Gaming +1.5 maps – -196.08 at BetOnline
