VCT 2024 EMEA Stage 1 Group Alpha ended with all five teams winning three of the six games played. But due to their solid round differential (+6), Fnatic placed second, while Team Liquid finished third, with a -1 round differential.

The two European VALORANT esports teams not only ended the group stage tied at 3-3, but they��ve also beaten the same three teams in KOI, GIANTX, and Gentle Mates and lost to FUT Esports, Natus Vincere, and Team Heretics �C all with identical scores.

Yet, despite posting identical results, Fnatic are priced as -243.9 favourites with the top Esport betting sites. Knowing what this lineup is capable of, Fnatic should be expected to win, but at the offered number, they��re overrated. Team Liquid are far from one of the leading title contenders, but they��ve hardly looked any worse than Fnatic.

We��re playing the price in this match. Liquid at $2.76 is way too generous to pass on.

Natus Vincere ended the VCT 2024 EMEA Stage 1 group stage with a 4-1 record, which was good for a second-place finish, one above Team Heretics, who have won three of the last five series.

Team Heretics have looked underwhelming at the start of Stage 1 and underdelivered relative to the expectations put on the VCT 2024 EMEA Kickoff runners-up. But they found momentum in the final two weeks when they defeated Team Liquid and Karmine Corp.

Natus Vincere have been more consistent throughout VCT 2024 EMEA Stage 1, but Team Heretics have looked far more dangerous in the final weeks. There are also differences in the map pool, which mainly favour Heretics, who have much better figures on Sunset, Lotus, and Haven.

Even though Natus Vincere are a stacked roster capable of great things, Team Heretcs�� recent resurgence makes them a more inviting bet at plus money.

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HANWHA LIFE ESPORTS vs KWANGDONG FREECS LoL BETTING & MATCH DETAIL

Kwangdong Freecs and Hanwha Life Esports will face off on Saturday, March 30, in the opening series of League of Legends Champions Korea (LCK) 2024 Spring Playoffs. Hanwha Life Esports defeated Kwangdong Freecs in both head-to-head meetings during the regular season, and based on LoL esports betting sites�� offer, they��re expected to do it again.

Unlike Hanwha Life Esports, who nearly caught up to T1, Kwangdong Freecs barely made it into the playoffs, ending the regular season with a 7-11 record. But besides their poor record, there are other things to feel concerned about.

The Kwangdong Freecs have terrible early-game metrics and consistently end up with a significant gold deficit at the 20-minute mark. Moreover, they have not looked great in their recent outings and have always struggled when faced with stronger teams. Even with side choice, Kwangdong Freecs have shown very little.

It makes sense that Hanwha Life Esports picked Kwangdong Freecs for this match since they��re arguably the worst of the remaining five teams. Hanwha Life Esports field better players in all five positions, have significantly better early games, and are more efficient with their gold.

Hanwha Life Esports have their weaknesses as well. They tend to pray on their opponents making mistakes rather than being active on the map. So, as long as teams can avoid making huge errors, they can take a bite out of Hanwha Life Esports. The problem is that Kwangdong Freecs are a sloppy team prone to making mistakes.

There are enough reasons to justify Hanwha Life Esports�� price, and even at $2.02, they��re a solid pick to sweep the unconvincing Kwangdong Freecs.

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Ninjas in Pyjamas started LPL 2024 Spring strong and picked up seven wins in their first eight series. However, NiP enters this match on a three-game losing streak, with defeats against FunPlus Phoenix, Anyone��s Legend, and Weibo Gaming.

Seeing Ninjas in Pyjamas struggle isn��t surprising, as they��ve been pretty sloppy for most of the split and finally got punished for it �C even by a weaker team in Anyone��s Legend. So, the question here is whether ThunderTalk Gaming will be able to take advantage of NiP��s weak macro.

ThunderTalk Gaming is 2-2 in their last four series; however, while they managed to defeat Royal Never Give Up and EDward Gaming last week; Ninjas in Pyjamas will be a much tougher opponent to overcome. TT Gaming��s macro isn��t that much cleaner, and their early game is significantly worse, so while it��s fair to doubt the favourites, ThunderTalk Gaming are just a weaker version of Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Invictus Gaming won their eighth series of the split on Saturday, with a 2-0 sweep of Anyone��s Legend. Still, Invictus Gaming were priced as favourites for that match, so seeing them win isn��t that shocking.

Over the last couple of weeks, Invictus Gaming have been performing better than expected, although they��ve not beaten any great teams since their 2-0 sweep of Bilibili Gaming after the Lunar New Year break. This will be a proper test for them.

LNG Esports are the complete opposite of Invictus Gaming, as a team that have been performing worse than expected. With a 4-7 record, LNG still have a lot of catching up to do and based on what they��ve shown recently, it��s difficult to say where they stand.

LNG have more than enough talent to do well, but they��ve not found any traction yet, and their loss against LGD Gaming on Friday doesn��t inspire much confidence either. Even though Invictus Gaming aren��t a great team, they��re playing cleaner League of Legends and are worth a shot at plus money.

Esports betting picks

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The new Copenhagen Wolves Counter-Strike division has slowly come together over the last week. But it wasn’t until Tuesday, January 2, that it got finalised with the signing of trace as a new head coach.

As one of the more experienced CS coaches, trace will be in charge of leading a lineup headlined by Hubert “szejn” ?wiat?y, and work closely with Copenhagen Wolves’ in-game leader Victor “vigg0” Bisgaard, whom trace will reunite with from his time at Astralis Talent.

Trace is a retired Counter-Strike player who started his esports career in 2007. Over the next 14 years, the Dane has played for several high-profile Counter-Strike squads, including SK Gaming and Fnatic, before transitioning to coaching with Team Singularity in 2021.

Following a short stint with Singularity, trace joined Lyngby Vikings and spent the last month of 2021 as a head coach of ECSTATIC before joining Astralis’ academy division. In March 2022, trace got promoted to the main lineup as a replacement for Alexander “ave” Holdt and, after a rough start, found some success at the top level.

With Astralis, trace claimed silver medals from BLAST Premier: Spring European Showdown 2022 and Pinnacle Cup Championship and made the semifinals of Roobet Cup 2022 and Intel Extreme Masters XVII �C Cologne. Unfortunately, internal turmoil and disappointing results in the second half of 2022 led to trace’s departure from Astralis.

The Danish coach found a new home with Into the Breach in August 2023 but left two months later by mutual agreement.

Trace joins the iconic Danish esports brand, which was revived by Jared “Outback” Habib in late December. While the team doesn’t have an official match on their schedule yet, the Copenhagen Wolves are expected to debut in the upcoming European Open Qualifiers for the Copenhagen Regional Major Rankings tournament, set to kick off on January 8.

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On Tuesday, January 2, Counter-Strike 2 players spotted another bug revolving around the interaction between smoke grenades and Molotov fire.

Besides being a useful tactical item to create openings and smoke off enemies’ vision, smoke grenades in Counter-Strike can also be used to extinguish the fire caused by Molotov grenades. This purpose is still present in the latest instalment of CS; however, it doesn’t always work as intended.

As shown by a player in a short clip posted on Reddit, a smoke grenade didn’t extinguish the flames instantly when it hit the flames �C as it should. It instead bounced off the blazing ground, leaving the helpless players to die in fire.

Others pointed out that the Molotov bug has different variations. Sometimes the smoke grenade will extinguish the fire, however, with a delay, leaving the players to take additional damage regardless of how quickly they react.

This, unfortunately, isn’t a new bug but a problem that has been in the game for quite some time. And yet, there is no fix in sight.

Counter-Strike 2 was released in September 2023 as one of the most anticipated games of the year. With success Counter-Strike: Global Offensive enjoyed over the last decade, CS2 was expected to modernise the 11-year-old game and elevate the Counter-Strike esports scene.

Four months after, this has not been the case.

Valve did a fine job transitioning the CS esports scene to Counter-Strike 2, hosting several big events on CS2 without any major game-breaking issues.
However, two months ahead of the first CS2 Major �C PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 �C the game still has a lot of problems.

Most major bugs, such as the “Michael Jackson lean,” visual and weapon problems, and wonky movement, have been addressed. But as seen by the community’s outcries, the game needs a lot more work to be up to par with its predecessor.

The numerous bugs also contributed to the steady decline in the Counter-Strike playerbase. While the average player count sits at just under 800,000, the peak player count has dropped from over 1.5 million in September to just over 1.1 million at the start of January.

Bugs are prevalent with new game releases, and even Counter-Strike: Global Offensive had its fair share of problems at launch. So, while CS2 needs more work, Valve has experience fixing games that don’t work as intended.

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Featuring Hubert “szejn” ?wiat?y, Leo “Svedjehed” Svedjehed, Sebastian “Basso” Aagaard, Nicolaj “mupzG” Djurhus, and in-game leader Victor “vigg0” Bisgaard, the Copenhagen Wolves formed a new English-speaking roster that will fight under one of the most recognisable names from the earlier days of Counter-Strike.

Szejn is the most notable name on the new roster, having made a name for himself by winning four WePlay Academy League titles with MOUZ NXT in 2021�C22. Since then, the 21-year-old has served as a stand-in at Illuminar and was most recently seen competing with Project G.

He is surrounded by players from various backgrounds, including a Danish trio of mupzG, vigg0, basso, and ex-AGO and EYEBALLERS rifler Svedjehed.
Copenhagen’s revival started on December 20, when 23-year-old American entrepreneur Jared “Outback” Habib acquired the organisation. Along with a new owner came a different direction for assembling the roster, turning away from the Danish heritage.

Since Copenhagen Wolves’ inception in 2009, the team has fielded only Danish players. Some of the most notable ex-members include Counter-Strike superstars Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Casped “cadiaN” M?ller, Finn “karrigan” Andersen, and Nicolai “device” Reedtz.

While the new signings don’t carry as much prestige as the Copenhagen Wolves’ former members, the new international lineup holds some potential.

Vigg0 joins the Copenhagen Wolves after successful stints with Astralis Talent and Sashi Esports, while Basso made a name for himself during his stay at the Copenhagen Flames in 2019 and 2020. They will link up with MupzG, who found himself under the spotlight in September 2023 when he helped Victory Zigzag win Pelaajat.com Nordic Masters Fall 2023 and qualify for BLAST Premier: Fall European Showdown 2023.

Unfortunately, the team never made it to the $67,000 tournament after Victory Zigzag got disqualified for their members being banned. Despite never winning a big event, MupzG is a highly experienced player, having been involved in the Counter-Strike scene since 2014.

The Copenhagen Flames have no official games on the schedule and have yet to announce a head coach.

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Rare Atom topped Group C with a 3-1 record and just one defeat against Huya BUG. Losing against an amateur team in a best-of-one isn’t a good lock and while it doesn’t prove that RA are weak, they’ll have a hard time winning against LNG Esports.

With the addition of jungler Wei “Weiwei” Bo-Han and support Ling “Mark” Xu, LNG Esports enter the 2024 season as one of the most stacked teams in the LoL Pro League (LPL). And we’ll see the new-look lineup on full display on Monday.

Even though this is LNG Esports’ first official match since the LoL World Championship, it’s very tough to doubt them and their chances to sweep Rare Atom, who look like a mid-table LPL team at best.

Top Esports cruised through the Demacia Cup 2023 group stage, ending Group D with three wins against EQX, Ultra Prime, and Team WE. This success isn’t that shocking, knowing that TES sent their entire starting lineup to the Demacia Cup 2023, yet they’re expected to struggle against JD Gaming.

JD Gaming came close to completing the Golden Road last season but fell flat in the League of Legends World Championship 2023 semifinals. Still, they won the Mid-Season Invitational and both LPL splits.

For the 2024 season, JD Gaming have made a few roster changes, including the addition of top laner Li “Flandre” Xuan-Jun, and mid laner Zeng “Yagao” Qi. While not massive improvements, JDG have definitely not downgraded.

JDG’s core dominated the LPL last split, and things likely won’t change this year either. And even though Top Esports look potent, this is JDG’s game to lose.

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Rare Atom have made several roster changes ahead of the 2024 season, adding four new players to the lineup. Top laner Xu “Xiaoxu” Xing-Zu and ADC Zou “Assum” Wei who are the only carryovers from 2023 link up with jungler Yang “naiyou” Zi-Jian, mid laner Lee “VicLa” Dae-kwang, and support Liu “ShiauC” Chia-Hao, forming a fairly competitive roster.

However, while Rare Atom have made some improvements, Rare Atom won’t compete for the LPL title, and they’re not even expected to do well at the Demacia Cup 2023. Priced at $3.25 on the outright markets with the top Esport betting sites, behind Invictus Gaming and FunPlus Phoenix, RA weren’t considered serious candidates to win Group C.

FunPlus Phoenix haven’t made any significant roster changes. While the team have added four new players, most are young and unproven talent from the secondary league. The potential is there, but until FPX shows something, that’s all they have.

This looks like a 50-50 match, so we’ll gladly side with Rare Atom.

By signing junglers Cai “milkyway” Zi-Jun and Wang “moyan” Xin, support Kim “Life” Jeong-min, and ADC Seo “deokdam” Dae-gil, FunPlus Phoenix look much different than how they did last season. But this roster still lacks some pieces to be competitive at the top level.

The biggest concern is the addition of a few unproven players, who regardless of their potential, will need time to adjust to the new environment. Still, we can have the same concern about most other Chinese LoL teams, including Invictus Gaming.

Ahead of Demacia Cup 2023, Invictus Gaming have added top laner Liao “Wen” Wen-Wei, jungler Guo “Tianzhen” Qi-Fan, mid laner Yuan “Cryin” Cheng-Wei, and ADC Luo “xiaoyueji” Shi-Hao. Besides Cryin, the three new additions are all products of IG’s academy division, and they all proved their worth in the development leagues.

Both teams field a mix of experienced and unproven players, adding more volatility to the already unpredictable best-of-one format. And since there’s not much to separate them quality-wise, Invictus Gaming at -125 are an obvious choice with BetOnline.

League of Legends betting sites have Invictus Gaming and Rare Atom priced at about the same odds, suggesting this will be a close affair. Considering both teams have made several roster changes and added players from the development league, it’s fair to assume that the fixture is close to a coin flip.

But Rare Atom should have a much stabler top side, and if jungler Yang “naiyou” Zi-Jian does well, it’s tough to find a win condition for Invictus Gaming. The bot side looks slightly in favour of Invictus Gaming; however, even there, the difference isn’t significant.

Bookmakers have Rare Atom priced as -125 favourites, which is a fair offer.

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On Wednesday, EDward Gaming promoted top laner Mak “Solokill” Fu Keung and support Zhao “Vampire” Zhe-Can to the main lineup, suggesting that the two will get some play time at Demacia Cup 2023. Even though Vampire will surely get to play at the upcoming LoL esports tournament, EDG might want to field Hu “Ale” Jia-Le in the top lane to stand a chance against Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Ninjas in Pyjamas are betting favourites to win Group A (-111.11). This makes sense, as NiP have significantly strengthened their lineup ahead of the 2024 season with top laner Deng “shanji” Zi-Jian, mid laner Song “Rookie” Eui-jin, and jungler Mao “Aki” An.

On paper, Ninjas in Pyjamas look very strong, but this will mark their first match with the new roster, so it’s fair to question whether they have the needed synergy to reach their full potential. But even then, NiP won’t have an easy time beating EDG.

This should be a close game, so it’s wiser to side with EDward Gaming at the top LoL betting sites.

After a rough run through the 2023 LoL Pro League (LPL) season, Anyone’s Legend have axed their entire lineup and acquired a new roster of top laner Wang “Hery” He-Yong, jungler Kim “Croco” Dong-beom, mid laner Cui “Shanks” Xiao-Jun, ADC Wang “Hope” Jie, and support Kim “Kael” Jin-hong.

The new roster doesn’t scream LPL champions; however, Anyone’s Legend have upgraded and should look much scarier in the 2024 season. ThunderTalk Gaming have only acquired two new supports ahead of the next season in Wang “Feather” Tian-Ci-Fu and Zhang “QiuQiu” Ming, which isn’t too inspiring knowing that TT Gaming made just one LPL playoff last season.

Even with new players, Anyone’s Legend aren’t expected to do well on Tuesday, mainly because this is an unproven lineup. However, quality-wise, there isn’t much to separate the two squads, and this is a best-of-one series, so it’s tough to justify backing the favourites.

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Two powerhouse League of Legends organisations will clash in what is one of the most anticipated series of Worlds 2023. JD Gaming and T1 will meet again for the first time since JDG defeated the three-time world champions 3-2 in the upper-bracket final at the Mid-Season Invitational earlier this year.

After claiming the LPL Spring Split, LPL Summer Split and Mid-Season Invitational in 2023, JD Gaming is seeking to become the first team ever to win all four major events in a season and complete what is known as ��The Golden Road.�� JDG have only lost two maps during their Worlds campaign and are still the hot favourite to claim their maiden Summoners Cup.

JDG defeated Team BDS, Bilibili Gaming and LNG Esports in the Swiss-Stage before surviving a small scare against KT Rolster in their quarter-final clash, where they lost the opening map but steadied and won the match 3-1.

Although T1 has won 10 LCK titles, two Mid-Season Invitational titles and three World Championships, they came into Worlds 2023 as an outside chance due to finishing second in the LCK Summer Split. However, the Korean powerhouse showed that they are still one of the best teams in the world, as they qualified for the knockout stage without much worry, only recording one defeat at the hands of Gen.G.

In the quarter-finals, T1 clashed with LNG Esports, where they went into the series as slight underdogs, but the LCK second seed flexed their muscles and produced a dominant performance to claim the series 3-0.

JD Gaming is just two wins away from making history, and T1 is the only Korean team left in Worlds in their home country. This match is set to be one of the great games that we have seen in a number of years, and we expect it to go the distance.

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